August 7th @ The Rangers
Another bad night, if you ask me, by the Yankees offense. Scott Feldman held them in check? Scott Feldman?
Three runs for the Yanks in this one – with the last one being a gift from Ian Kinsler breaking the wrong way on Jeter’s grounder. The Yankees have to start scoring more runs.
A-Rod is now oh’fer his last fifteen. That’s part of the problem.
On the flip-side, there’s Mike Mussina. Hey, Texas can hit. In fact, they hit very well. Moose holding them to goose-eggs in this one…well…shoot, I’ve run out of words to describe how good Mike Mussina has been…in this game…and on this season.
Without Mike Mussina, the Yankees would be in a heap of trouble this season. Yes, I know that the Yankees are only 15-9 in the games that Moose has started. But, within those nine losses are games that the Yankees dropped by the scores of 4-3, 3-2, and 2-1. (And, there’s two more by the scores of 4-2.)
Only five more wins, now, needed for Mussina to get twenty on the season. Moose should have about 8 or 9 more starts this year. It’s going to be close…but…I hope he gets that 20th win. He deserves it.
If the Moose wins 20 does he get in the Hall? That would give him exactly 270 wins and then whatever he does next year.
If the Moose wins 20….
That would put him in the “Blyleven Bracket,” I think—a pitcher that you can make a compelling argument either for or against. My gut feeling is that he would need a Cy Young Award and about 15 more career wins to nudge the odds toward his favor.
If Moose wins 20 this year at age 39 he is a lock for the the HOF, IMHO. I think there is a good chance he makes it regardless of what happens from here on.
He is Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmiero in reverse: a very good pitcher who could have been a star on a normal palying field. And the sportswriters and players know this.
We all can only guess how many more games (and 20-win seasons) Moose would have had pitching in a non-PED era–let alone outside of the AL East and cozy Camden Yards and lefty-friendly Stadium.
Steve–FWIW, I enjoyed the “comment preview” function on the old website. My typos have gone way up since then!
I thought I would share this piece on Mussina, that shows why he is having success this year compared to last year. It’s pretty damn good.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-mussina-renaissance/
FWIW, that feature from THT backs up what I wrote a while back:
http://waswatching.com/2008/07/19/the-magic-moose/
Sorry Steve, I was away for work that weekend, so I kind of skipped over a lot of stuff on the internet when I came back and must have missed that one.