Guest Post on MASNSports.com: Ranking the Pitchers in the Orioles Hall of Fame

The latest guest post on MASNSports.com can be found here. Enjoy.

WAR Graph of Greatest Oriole Pitchers

(just click on the graph to get an image you can actually read...)

These are the top four Oriole pitching careers in terms of WAR. The seasons are arranged from greatest to least, not in chronological order.

As you can see, (and it's no surprise) Jim Palmer stands alone. Mussina is in the next tier although if he had remained an Oriole he probably would have bene the career WAR leader for Baltimore even though he never reached the heights that Palmer did.

Next is Dave McNally who suffered from a sharp decline. People remember Milt Pappas, almost like a punchline, as the player the Orioles sent to the Reds to acquire Frank Robinson. Pappas was a hell of a pitcher.

Mike Mussina...He Was There for The Ripken Years

Mike Mussina has retired. As long as he stays retired, Dempsey's Army forgives all. The Warehouse mismanaged the whole situation with Moose and although I wish he wouldn't have signed with the Yankees...it's all water under the bridge.

He was the best Oriole pitcher since Jim Palmer retired and he was homegrown. He was one of ours and his best seasons came with Baltimore, not the Yankees.

So, a couple of items to look at from Mussina's long career. Is he a Hall of Famer? Hmmmm....

            ERA+
Clemens     145
R. Johnson  137
Maddux      132
Schilling   127
Smoltz      127
K. Brown    127
Mussina     122
Glavine     118
Finley      115
 

Compared to his peers, Mussina's ERA+ pales a bit against the elite. Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux are head and shoulders above the rest. (So is Pedro Martinez but he fell just short of my 3000 IP criteria.)

The next level give Schilling, Smoltz and Kevin Brown. Schilling and Smoltz will get a lot of consideration from their stellar postseason accomplishments and if there was question about their credentials form the regular season. Kevin Brown is not a Hall of Famer.

Then there's Mussina, Tom Glavine and Chuck Finley. Glavine has 300 wins and like it or not, he's in with nothing else considered. Chuck Finley is not a Hall of Famer. Is Mussina? In that company?

Strikeouts among his peers:

              SO
R. Johnson   4789
Clemens      4472
Maddux       3371
Martinez     3117
Schilling    3116
Smoltz       3011
Mussina      2813
Cone         2668
Finley       2610
Glavine      2607
 

Again, there's the first tier of Johnson and Clemens, the second tier of Maddux, Martinez, Schilling and Smoltz, then there's Mussina. He's on top of the third tier but stil third tier.

Wins:

            Wins
Maddux       355
Clemens      338
Glavine      305
Johnson      295
Mussina      270
Moyer        246
 

The wins will help Mussina's case more than anything.

Other points in Mussina's favor that will not be considered by the BBWA: 1.98 BB/9, 1.192 WHIP, 3.58 K/BB ratio, 7.11 K/9.

My gut feeling is that now that he has added a 20 win season and he played for many years in the top media market he will get in eventually.

Now, in my estimation, the top five pitching performances by Michael Cole Mussina for the Baltimore Orioles:

#5 - July 17th, 1992 - Texas Rangers

In his first full season, Mussina mowed down a lineup of fearsome sluggers, striking out 10 and allowing but one hit during a complete game shutout. Kevin Brown took the loss. There is no story here, just pure, methodical domination

          IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR
Mussina  9.0  1  0   0   1  10  0

 

#4 - September 13th, 1997 - New York Yankees

The second place Yanks were making a charge at AL East leading Baltimore and had won the first two games of a four game set. Enter Mike Mussina. He struck out 9 and only gave up 1 unearned run over 9 strong innings. He beat Kenny Rogers and gave the Orioles a bit more of a cushion over a team would only finish two games behind them as they went wire-to-wire and won the AL East.

          IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR
Mussina  9.0  3  1   0   1   9   0

 

#3 - August 1st, 2000 - Minnesota Twins

Two bad teams faced off this day but Mussina was hardly mailing it in. He struck out a career high 15, including punching out David Ortiz three times. The starter for the Twins was not Kenny Rogers.

          IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR
Mussina  9.0  1  0   0   2  15   0


 

#2 - May 30th, 1997 - Cleveland Indians

In a sign of things to come...sort of, Mussina would outduel Charles Nagy as the O's won a faceoff of division leaders, 3-0. Moose one-hit a team whose lineup featured at least two future Hall of Famers (Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez) and multiple All-Star caliber hitters (Matt Williams, David Justice, Omar Vizquel, Julio Franco).

          IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR
Mussina  9.0  1  0   0   0  10   0


 

#1 - October 15th, 1997 - Cleveland Indians

In Game 6 of the ALCS, Moose gave his all on the mound and he and Charles Nagy both left zeros on the scoreboard when they exited the game. Mussina struck out 10 again and surrendered a lone hit but the bullpen gave up the go ahead run in the 11th and the dreams of an Oriole World Series were dashed. But it sure wasn't Mike's fault.

          IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR
Mussina  8.0  1  0   0   2  10   0


 

Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Sun

Our Enormous Bullpen

You know, there's nothing like beating up on the Yankees in New York to lift your spirits. you even get cool headlines on ESPN.com:

O's drill Yanks

I'm going to leave double entendre out of this one...

Mussina get's rocked, Guthrie pitches great and The Truth delivers his message of hope for the Orange and Black.

But that's not what I have come here to talk about today. It's our pitching staff.

We have only two starters in my estimation. Well, one and a half.

The one is Jeremy Guthrie. He is without a doubt our best starting pitcher. The half is Garrett Olson. He may be a good starter in time but he is far from a guarantee at this point.

The rest?

Daniel Cabrera - Only his ability to eat a few innings keeps him in the rotation. I have been fooled for the last time. He should be tried out in relief to salvage him but he is now through as a starter - Potential Setup Man

Brian Burres - I have harped on this before but Burres' future in the majors is in the bullpen. As a starter, he's been a failure. Only injuries to others has kept him in the rotation. - Swingman

Radhames Liz - He is young and was a bit rushed to the majors but even before he got here there were whispers among scouts that he may be better suited for relief. Now those whispers have grown to open conversation. Liz would be a crazy setup guy or maybe a closer but starter may not be where he projects. - Future Closer

You've got to love our bullpen this year and the prospects for next year. Randor Bierd, Jim Johnson, Chad Bradford, Jamie Walker, Dennis Sarfate, a healthy Chris Ray, Brian Burres, Rocky Cherry, Jim Miller, Bob McCrory...there's lots of options. It's deep and dynamic.

But who's going to start in 2009?

Matt Albers - I was really hoping Albers would get his shot but his season ending injury ended that thought. Look for him to compete for a spot in 2009.

Chris Tillman - Tillman is doing very well as a 20 year old in AA Bowie, much more than holding his own. He may not start the season in the rotation but he will be a quick callup in 2009.

Brad Bergesen - The 22 year-old Bergesen has been under the radar but has improved every year he has pitched in the organization. An extreme groundball pitcher, Bergesen is having a better season than Tillman in Bowie and demonstrates fabulous control. He is the type of pitcher who could make a leap to Baltimore next season but they may take it easy on him. ETA mid-2009.

Unfortunately, that's about all I could come up with. Anybody else with any ideas?

(edit: I guess the Orioles see Dennis Sarfate as an option..at least in the short term.)

Base Hits: 10/25/2007

First a question: Would any O's fans be interested in bringing back Mike Mussina next season? Would he be able to fill in as a 4th starter so that some of the young guys could continue to develop in the minors? Just asking.

*****

Andy Etchebarren, manager of the Aberdeen Ironbirds, was dismissed yesterday. He joins Bowie manager Bien Figueroa, minor league pitching coordinator Doc Watson and roving infield instructor Tom Lawless on the scrapheap. I'm all for this, the problems within the organization are multifold and you need to purge the minor leagues and start building from the bottom up.

I can't neglect to give Etchebarren his proper send-off from the organization. He was an old-time Oriole catcher from the mid-60's to mid-70's. He wasn't a great offensive threat but he was a Yankee killer, hitting .270 and hit 10 of his 58 career homers against New York. He also single handedly beat the Tigers once in 1970 by launching a homer and driving in 6 in a 10-2 win.

So maybe he wasn't much of a coach but he was a heck of a player in his day.

*****

Hayden Penn pitched three innings last night for the Phoenix Devil Dogs gave up two runs but only walked 1 and struck out 6. Only one ball was sharply hit so most of the damage came on bunts and bloop singles. It was an encouraging start for Penn who has been rocked thus far in the AFL. Over 6 innings in relief, the Dogs pen could only strike out 2 more batters so it wasn't like this was a free swinging bunch. The 6 K's were very impressive against what was essentially a minor league all-star team.

*****

Note to Dave Trembley: Given the inability of the Orioles to attract free agents and the lack of talent in the minors, consider looking back to Earl Weaver and finding some players to platoon in some positions. LF, CF, 1B and maybe 3B would all be candidates. I'll be thinking of some options...

Yankees Series Preview

I can't wait to play the Yanks. Why? Just look at the positives:

Everyone seems upset that Baltimore now has to face former favorite son Mike Mussina due to this weeks rainout in the Bronx. O's fans should be happy. While he has been 9-5 with a 4.21 ERA against Baltimore since he left, he is only 3-2 with a 5.09 ERA against Baltimore in the last three years. New Oriole Aubrey Huff has hit .293 against Moose for his career. It looks like a very favorable matchup for Baltimore especially with Adam Loewen bringing his 2.63 ERA in 24 innings against the Yankees to the mound.

The next two games we get Igawa and Rasner. Igawa is the only one to be slightly concerned about since he's a lefty. Baltimore has a good chance to win two out of three this weekend.

The O's scored 4.66 runs per game at Yankee Stadium last season. Over 9 games they slugged 11 homers.

Johnny Damon will likely miss the series. Derek Jeter made 3 errors over the course of his first two games. I wonder if the Bronx faithful booed him?

First divisional matchup tonight people. Let's go O's!