Mussina was a very GOOD pitcher but not a GREAT pitcher.

Lefty Grove was a great pitcher. Bob Gibson was a great pitcher. Jim Palmer was a great pitcher. Cy Young was a great pitcher.

Maddux, Glavine, Johnson, and even (pre-steroid) Clemens were great pitchers.

The Hall of Fame is for great pitchers, not merely good ones.

The "Hall of Pretty Good" has a starting rotation of Mike Mussina, Burt Blyleven, Tommy John, Jim Kaat, and Jack Morris

Yes, and Smokey Joe Wood deserves mention as well.

Dwight Gooden was on his way to the Hall but substance abuse problems derailed what would have been a fine career.

Agreed, Mussina was very good but not Hall worthy.

Smokey Joe Wood was one of the dominant pitchers of his era despite the injuries that plagued his career. I have read that games where he and Big Train Walter Johnson would lock horns generated excitement around the country like no other pitching matchup could. Those games were built up and advertised no differently than a great heavyweight prizefight might have been. In a career that was effectively cut short before his 25th birthday, he won about two-thirds of his starts, had better than a 2:1 SO to BB ratio, and routinely had a sub-2.00 ERA. I have no problem with him being in the Hall of Fame.

Just to be Devil's Advocate:

..............Wins.....Losses.......SO......BB.....ERA
Palmer....268.......152..........2212....1311..2.86
Mussina...270.......153..........2813.....785..3.68

Palmer got to face a lot more pitchers at the plate than Mussina did.

Plamer however, has more Cy Young awards, more 20 game win seasons, and more World Series rings than Mussina. Eat your heart out Mussina.

Good post. The division between Palmer and Mussina is in the personal accolades and the championships.

The Cy Youngs are an indication that Palmer was at the top of his profession when compared to his contemporaries. To me, that's really what getting into the Hall of Fame is all about.

Championships will probably always be the measure of every athlete's achievement in every sport.

Mussina lived through the steroid era. He also had more teams to play against thus having more batters with possibly less talent. It is very difficult to compare eras.

All I know is that I have never had someone enthusiastically show me a Mike Mussina rookie card, nor do I here Yankees fans or Orioles fans reminiscing over the first time they saw him pitch.

No one would assert that Mussina was the best right handed American League pitcher of the 1990s. Palmer was clearly the best of the 1970s. Mussina's defense-independent-pitching-statistics are better than Palmer's. And yet, Cakes wins.


I wish he'd held the glove a bit lower in his set position....

Between Rin-Tin-Tin and Lassie, there may be a debate.
Mussina & Palmer...get real.

Unlike many fans, I have never held a grudge against Mussina for leaving the O's or going to New York. That was the O's fault.
Had Mussina been a career Oriole, I believe I would feel the same. Mussina was good, at times really good. Palmer was better than that.

I agree Milt. Business is business.

I think Birdland forgets that Mussina gave the O's the hometown discount on the contract that expired before he signed with New York. He performed well during his discounted contract and expected his comeuppance. He didn't get it so he went to the employer who would give him his payday. The O's got close at the 11th hour but by then they had already burned their bridge with Mussina.

Stanhouse, thanks for branding that picture of Palmer in his jockeys into my retina...

Now I'm off to go find a picture of Jessica Alba to cleanse the visual palate.