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Mike Mussina: As Mike Mussina continues to roll this season, there is starting to be a lot of debate on whether or not he should make the Hall of Fame. The Hardball Times takes a good look at Mike Mussina's renaissance. As far as this season goes, it appears that Mussina has been successful because he has decreased his walk rate, increased his strike out rate, and been able to get more ground ball outs than last season. This has led to Mussina having an outstanding season when most people thought he was finished after last seasons awful performance. Mussina has been one of the biggest reasons the Yankees still have a chance at the Wild Card as he has posted a 15-7 record and 96 K's with a 3.27 ERA and 128 ERA+ in 140.3 innings pitched.
Right now Mussina currently has 265 wins and has a good chance to get to 270 by the end of the season. Mussina's career has been one of near misses. He has yet to win 20games in one season but needs 5 more wins this season to get there. He has come within a few outs of pitching a no-hitter, he has come within a few outs of winning a world series, and he has come close to winning a Cy Young but he has never achieved any of these milestones. Mussina's near misses might keep him out of the Hall of Fame but his career stats are strong with 265 wins, 2,759 K's, with a 3.68 ERA and 122 ERA+ in 3,502.7 innings pitched. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at and Mussina is certainly one of the top 10 pitchers of his era, with only Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, and maybe John Smoltz able to claim better careers. If Mussina is able to pitch one or two more seasons and grab another 15-20 wins then I think he will be a shoe in for the Hall of Fame. However, if he struggles next season, it may be another situation where Mussina has a near miss and doesn't quite have a good enough career to make the Hall of Fame.
New York Yankees: In other Yankees news, we all now by know that Joba Chamberlain was put on the 15 day DL with shoulder tendinitis but it appears that he will be making a quick return for the Yankees. His return can not come quick enough for the Yankees, who just sent down Ian Kennedy after he got bombed again the other night.
Hideki Matsui is rehabbing and has been making progress by intensifying his running but if the Yankees keep struggling like they have been, then they made decide to just shut him down. Plus, with the addition of Xavier Nady, I really don't see where Matsui fits in unless they play Damon in CF and keep Matsui as the DH.
A-Rod has been struggling lately for the Yankees, hitting just .143 in August and he is looking to end his batting slump. I have noted A-Rod's struggles with runners in scoring position before and he is now down to a .234 average in those situations. Between A-Rod(18) and Jason Giambi(17), they have combined for 35 solo home runs out of their total of 49. That's a hell of a lot of home runs to hit with nobody on base and would also explain why neither one has a whole lot of RBI.
Since you got to love Manny Ramirez, I thought I would mention that he wants to play for the Yankees next season, so he can get back at the Red Sox. I know one thing for sure is that Manny would be a whole lot faster for the Yankees because he'd have to cut off all that hair. Also, Bobby Abreu would like to re-sign with the Yankees next season and I think the Yankees should do it and trade Matsui for something useful.
Tampa Bay Rays: I told you guys about 6 weeks back that the Tampa Bay Rays were a legit playoff contender, who was just a few moves away from being a possible World Series contender and they now stand 4.5 games up on the Boston Red Sox and a whopping 8.5 games up over the slumping New York Yankees. You can ignore what I said about the Angels at that point though, since I have changed my mind on them after doing an analysis on the road records of AL teams that have made the World Series since 1995.
The Rays didn't make any major deadline deals but this week they picked up reliever Chad Bradford from the Orioles and they just promoted David Price to Triple-A, which means he is now only one step away from being called up. As we've seen earlier this week, Price is a big time minor league prospect, who should make an impact immediately with the Rays either as a starter or in the bullpen.
The Rays do have a little bit of bad news though, now that Carl Crawford is on the 15-day DL with a hand injury. However, this means that the unfortunately unhealthy Rocco Baldelli was activated and will get a chance to make an impact for the Rays. Baldelli went 1-4 with an RBI in his season debut for the Rays on Sunday. I know this probably won't happen, but Barry Bonds anyone?
The Rays also set a team record with 71 victories by beating Seattle on Sunday. Yup, that's right the team record for victories is only 71. Amazing what this Rays team has been able to accomplish this year considering they have been so bad for so long.
Other MLB News:
- Bad news for the Brewers as Ryan Braun is out with a back injury and is uncertain when he will return to the lineup. The Brewers have won 5 games in a row through Sunday and are 2.5 games up on St Louis for the Wild Card and 3.5 behind the Cubs for the NL Central lead.
- Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield will be placed on the DL with right should stiffness. This is not good news for the Red Sox, who already have a struggling Clay Buchholz in the rotation and Bartolo Colon is not ready to return from his rehab in the minors yet. I would think this means that rookie Justin Masterson will get a few more starts for the Red Sox. Kevin Youkilis was also scratched from Sunday's game with a shoulder injury but no word yet on how much more time he will miss.
- Orlando Hudson is out for the season after dislocating a bone in his left wrist. Hudson was hitting .305 for the Diamondbacks this season.
- The Florida Marlins signed Catcher Paul Lo Duca and claimed Brad Ausmus off waivers. The Marlins had been rumored to be looking for a catcher, so I guess this is how they plan to handle that situation.
Right now Mussina currently has 265 wins and has a good chance to get to 270 by the end of the season. Mussina's career has been one of near misses. He has yet to win 20games in one season but needs 5 more wins this season to get there. He has come within a few outs of pitching a no-hitter, he has come within a few outs of winning a world series, and he has come close to winning a Cy Young but he has never achieved any of these milestones. Mussina's near misses might keep him out of the Hall of Fame but his career stats are strong with 265 wins, 2,759 K's, with a 3.68 ERA and 122 ERA+ in 3,502.7 innings pitched. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at and Mussina is certainly one of the top 10 pitchers of his era, with only Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, and maybe John Smoltz able to claim better careers. If Mussina is able to pitch one or two more seasons and grab another 15-20 wins then I think he will be a shoe in for the Hall of Fame. However, if he struggles next season, it may be another situation where Mussina has a near miss and doesn't quite have a good enough career to make the Hall of Fame.
New York Yankees: In other Yankees news, we all now by know that Joba Chamberlain was put on the 15 day DL with shoulder tendinitis but it appears that he will be making a quick return for the Yankees. His return can not come quick enough for the Yankees, who just sent down Ian Kennedy after he got bombed again the other night.
Hideki Matsui is rehabbing and has been making progress by intensifying his running but if the Yankees keep struggling like they have been, then they made decide to just shut him down. Plus, with the addition of Xavier Nady, I really don't see where Matsui fits in unless they play Damon in CF and keep Matsui as the DH.
A-Rod has been struggling lately for the Yankees, hitting just .143 in August and he is looking to end his batting slump. I have noted A-Rod's struggles with runners in scoring position before and he is now down to a .234 average in those situations. Between A-Rod(18) and Jason Giambi(17), they have combined for 35 solo home runs out of their total of 49. That's a hell of a lot of home runs to hit with nobody on base and would also explain why neither one has a whole lot of RBI.
Since you got to love Manny Ramirez, I thought I would mention that he wants to play for the Yankees next season, so he can get back at the Red Sox. I know one thing for sure is that Manny would be a whole lot faster for the Yankees because he'd have to cut off all that hair. Also, Bobby Abreu would like to re-sign with the Yankees next season and I think the Yankees should do it and trade Matsui for something useful.
Tampa Bay Rays: I told you guys about 6 weeks back that the Tampa Bay Rays were a legit playoff contender, who was just a few moves away from being a possible World Series contender and they now stand 4.5 games up on the Boston Red Sox and a whopping 8.5 games up over the slumping New York Yankees. You can ignore what I said about the Angels at that point though, since I have changed my mind on them after doing an analysis on the road records of AL teams that have made the World Series since 1995.
The Rays didn't make any major deadline deals but this week they picked up reliever Chad Bradford from the Orioles and they just promoted David Price to Triple-A, which means he is now only one step away from being called up. As we've seen earlier this week, Price is a big time minor league prospect, who should make an impact immediately with the Rays either as a starter or in the bullpen.
The Rays do have a little bit of bad news though, now that Carl Crawford is on the 15-day DL with a hand injury. However, this means that the unfortunately unhealthy Rocco Baldelli was activated and will get a chance to make an impact for the Rays. Baldelli went 1-4 with an RBI in his season debut for the Rays on Sunday. I know this probably won't happen, but Barry Bonds anyone?
The Rays also set a team record with 71 victories by beating Seattle on Sunday. Yup, that's right the team record for victories is only 71. Amazing what this Rays team has been able to accomplish this year considering they have been so bad for so long.
Other MLB News:
- Bad news for the Brewers as Ryan Braun is out with a back injury and is uncertain when he will return to the lineup. The Brewers have won 5 games in a row through Sunday and are 2.5 games up on St Louis for the Wild Card and 3.5 behind the Cubs for the NL Central lead.
- Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield will be placed on the DL with right should stiffness. This is not good news for the Red Sox, who already have a struggling Clay Buchholz in the rotation and Bartolo Colon is not ready to return from his rehab in the minors yet. I would think this means that rookie Justin Masterson will get a few more starts for the Red Sox. Kevin Youkilis was also scratched from Sunday's game with a shoulder injury but no word yet on how much more time he will miss.
- Orlando Hudson is out for the season after dislocating a bone in his left wrist. Hudson was hitting .305 for the Diamondbacks this season.
- The Florida Marlins signed Catcher Paul Lo Duca and claimed Brad Ausmus off waivers. The Marlins had been rumored to be looking for a catcher, so I guess this is how they plan to handle that situation.
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