Mussina A Hall Of Famer With Or Without A 20-Win Season

• Yankees 7-Rays 2:

There's a movement afoot to declare Mike Mussina's candidacy for the Hall of Fame as

assured if and only if he reaches 20 wins this season; but what if he wins 19? Is his candidacy then going to be somehow compromised if he doesn't have that gaudy stat of a 20-win season on his resume?
The argument against Mussina as a Hall of Famer was always weak to begin with. A pitcher who, as of right now, has 267 wins and is a staggering 116 games over .500; has 23 career shutouts in an era where such a stat is a rarity; a career ERA of 3.69 during the steroids era and pitching the first ten years of his career in the bandbox of Camden Yards; will have 3000 strikeouts before he retires; has been durable; and after this season will have been voted in the top six of the Cy Young Award balloting nine times, what does a 20th win have to do with anything?
The same context that Goose Gossage accurately and astutely uses to compare what it

was he and his closing brethren did in the 70s and 80s and what guys like Dennis Eckersley and Mariano Rivera have done applies to starting pitchers as well. Gossage says there's no way to accurately compare the closers like himself, Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter to what the one-inning closers like Eckersley and Rivera because the job and the edicts were totally different. Back then closers were brought into the game as early as the sixth inning; there was no "one-inning and out" stuff. Today there's an uproar if Rivera has to record five outs; how would he have functioned in 1978? This isn't to diminish the greatness of Rivera, but the game is totally different from what it was back then for relievers and it's the same for starters.
In the 70s and 80s, 36 or 37 starts for a top pitcher were the norm; how many more wins would those four or five extra opportunities have given Mussina? The bullpens were used much differently back then as well. With most teams carrying thirteen pitchers nowadays, it's easy to forget the days where there were nine or ten pitchers on a staff and the starters had to pitch into the seventh inning no matter the situation. The specialists for the sixth, seventh and eighth innings that are prevalent nowadays didn't exist back then. It's logical to say that a pitcher who starts 32 games and wins 17-19 would likely have won at least 21-23 if he were given five more starts and allowed to stay in the game until the eighth inning. By that logic, Mussina, having won at least 17 games eight times would be a no-doubt Hall of Famer.
The argument that Mussina is a "stat-compiler" who was more of a workhorse than a great

pitcher is disputed by the numbers, but it's also disputed by observation of the pitchers themselves. If the Hall of Fame is a haven for pure greatness on the field and in by the numbers; if a pitcher's hardware----Cy Young Awards, MVPs, World Series championships, etc.----is the mitigating factor, then a lot of pitchers would have to be ejected from the place. Don Sutton was, by the accounts of hitters like Keith Hernandez, a great pitcher whose determination, competitiveness and creativity made him one of the toughest assignments in baseball in the 70s and 80s; is Sutton, who won 20 games once, but 17 or more six times and was a top-five Cy Young finisher in a league with Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton as his contemporaries, a great pitcher? If not, then there's an argument for Mussina to be excluded; but if Sutton's in then Mussina belongs as well with or without a 20-win season on his stat sheet. If put into context, Mussina is every bit the pitcher that Sutton or Don Drysdale were and because of that, there shouldn't even be a debate. Mike Mussina is a Hall of Famer.

• Atlanta 16-Miami 14:
  

Morten Andersen kicked a 37-yard field goal to win the game for the Falcons. (I never get tired of this lame joke when there's a baseball game with a football score.)

• Mets 6-Brewers 5:

For those that are scoffing at the idea that the Mets are going to move forward with Luis Ayala as their closer for the rest of the season (or as long as he's effective and Billy Wagner is out, whichever comes first), they should look at the record of the aforementioned Eckersley, who was faced with the prospect of becoming a closer (which he did reluctantly); trying to continue as a mediocre starter somewhere other than with the Athletics; or having to retire. Ayala has

two attributes to close that have nothing to do with his stuff (even though his stuff is quite good): he throws strikes and he's not bothered mentally by the prospect of closing.
The job description seems so simple; just pitch the ninth inning with a lead of three runs or less and get three outs; but the failures of the other pitchers the Mets have tried to use in the absence of Wagner have proven that there's something different about getting those three outs without self-immolating. Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano and Scott Schoeneweis have all fallen somewhere between shaky and terrible at doing the job while Ayala showed up from the netherworld of the Washington Nationals and has compiled four saves in five chances; most have been relatively clean as well. As for the process of throwing strikes, I'd rather have Ayala go out there, throw the ball over the plate and get hit

around to blow the game than to see Heilman do what he did on Saturday and give up the winning run without allowing a hit by walking everyone.
Yes, it's a mental thing; and yes, a major league pitcher should be able to throw strikes, but the ninth inning is a different animal in every aspect of the game and, for right now, Ayala is doing the job. Teams have gotten by with closers whose guts and mentality was better than their stuff and there's no reason that the Mets can't do the same thing; and Ayala's stuff, as said before, is actually quite good.

• Astros 9-Cubs 7; the Cubs are in big trouble without Carlos Zambrano:

Carlos Zambrano left the game after five innings with arm pain----ESPN Story----and if he's out for any substantial amount of time or is compromised in any way if he does come back this year, the Cubs are in big trouble. Add in that the expected problems with the injury-prone

Rich Harden are possibly occurring since he's having his start skipped for "precautionary reasons" (whatever that means), and the Cubs have to be very concerned for the playoffs.
If the season ended today, the Cubs would be playing the Diamondbacks in the first round and, even though they're both struggling lately, I'd rather have Brandon Webb and Dan Haren starting for me than Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly. With Zambrano heading to the doctor and Harden always on the precipice of a long stint on the disabled list, the Cubs have to be worried heading into the final month with or without their big lead; big bats; and deep, hard-throwing bullpen.
While I'm on the subject of this game, credit has to go to the Astros for fighting back the way they have since the end of July when everyone (and I mean everyone) was calling Drayton McLane a fool for trading for veterans rather than cleaning house. They're still unlikely to climb back into playoff position, but the numbers that said they were completely out of

contention and it was stupid to even bother trying to fight back are being proven to be what they are----an aspect of running an organization to be taken into account with other circumstances.
While the numbers say that a good mid-season acquisition only accounts for a win or three in the grand scheme of the season, no one takes into account what it does for the existing players in a clubhouse. If the season looks lost, players may inadvertently or not take their foot off the gas pedal and coast to the end of the season; if the ownership still believes in the club and is making trades to try and get better, that can serve as a wake-up call to the existing players to give that extra effort and not give up. That and the sudden health of Roy Oswalt have contributed to the Astros comeback more than any of the veteran journeymen----Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins----have.

The Master Of All He Surveys

• Athletics trade Joe Blanton to the Phillies for three minor leaguers:

I honestly believe that Athletics baseball czar Billy Beane is treating the baseball world as

his scientific la-bor-a-tory (as pronounced from the horror flicks of the 30s and 40s), his club as a petri dish and he's doing different things for his own entertainment and to see if they work. After Moneyball was presented as a "blueprint" for running a franchise, Beane turned around and started doing almost the exact opposite of what was detailed in the book. After a few years of drafting predominately college-age players, the Athletics started drafting a bunch of high school players including the dreaded and decried high...school...PITCHERS!!!!!

After eschewing the practice of paying large salaries to his managers, he gave a load of money to Ken Macha and then fired him while still owing a chunk of that contract. Previously reluctant to adopt the practice of huge signing bonuses on unproven, international players based on talent alone, the Athletics won the bidding war for 6'7", 16-year-old Dominican pitcher Michael Inoa. Now, with his team a surprise contender, Beane is still clearing out the veteran pitchers like Joe Blanton and Rich Harden to acquire prospects for the future. With the trading deadline approaching, it's a safe bet to say that if he receives lucrative offers for just about anyone on his roster (especially the highly-paid veterans like Huston Street), they'll go as well.
Trading Rich Harden was a no-brainer given his injury history and salary; trading Blanton to the Phillies for the prospects Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman (Beane might have traded for him based on his name alone), and Matt Spencer is a smart move given the Phillies desperation for pitching. The minor league numbers indicate that the acquired players have bright futures ahead of them. Beane also used the Phillies situation to his advantage. Their GM Pat Gillick is retiring and wants to win now no matter the cost and Blanton is struggling

and highly paid, but has a reputation as a gutty and durable innings-eater.
Beane has received criticism for his willingness to appear to throw the towel in on the season for reasons other than the standings; he's also received criticism for how his team has failed in the post-season and that he's never won a championship. The argument that he's not a genius because of such flawed reasons is nonsensical. He's a genius because he's fearless and is willing to do the unconventional to benefit his organization and he's a genius because part of him may be doing these things for reasons other than the manual that has been attributed to him; he may be doing them in part for his own amusement, just to see if they work.

• And the trade from the Phillies point-of-view:

Blanton is either going to take Adam Eaton's spot in the rotation as Rob Neyer suggests

on ESPN.com, or he might just take the spot that was being held for Brett Myers to facilitate Myers's permanent move to the bullpen, which Myers seems to prefer. Blanton's numbers are bad this season, but he's been serviceable enough in half of his twenty starts and the change to the

National League should help his results. The move to Philadelphia will probably increase the number of homers that Blanton allows since he gives up a fair amount anyway, but since he throws strikes and gobbles innings, he should hang around in games and keep things close enough so that the Phillies offense will pick him up by outscoring their opponents. His bulldog attitude and personality will also fit right into the Phillies clubhouse. In a few years, they may regret trading those minor leaguers, but it looks like GM Pat Gillick's attitude is that he won't be with the Phillies to see that day regardless, so what's the difference?

The Mets Miss The Lincecum Memo And Other Stories

• Mets 7-Giants 0:

While they said all the right things about being impressed with Tim Lincecum's stuff and how bright the

diminutive righty's future is, the Mets apparently missed last week's issue of Sports Illustrated because they knocked him around pretty good on the field. Carlos Delgado sending one of Lincecum's fastballs deep into the Flushing Meadows night was impressive in and of itself considering how Delgado's had such trouble catching up to power fastballs this year; I would hesitate to think this is a renaissance for Delgado because the pitch was up and out over the plate; he still can't get around on a power inside fastball at all which indicates a location mistake on the part of Lincecum. Mike Pelfrey and his reliance on his power sinker is starting to make him look like a young Kevin Brown.

• Yankees 5-Rays 0:

Andy Pettitte was masterful against a hot hitting and tough lineup in the Rays. In looking at Pettitte's numbers----stats----if he hangs around for two or three more years and can win between 13-15 games each year in addition to this

year's likely 16 wins, he's going to make the Hall of Fame. A winner; a gutty innings-eater; honest about his brief PED usage; and a post-season record of 18-7 (as of now) plus around 240 wins will make Pettitte more of a no-brainer for the Hall than Curt Schilling. Another thing about Pettitte that many people may not know is that he wasn't even drafted; the Yankees signed him as an undrafted free agent in 1991. That's some pretty good scouting, luck or both.

• Did the Dodgers owner nix a deal for C.C. Sabathia?

The Pasadena Star-News reported on Monday that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt nixed a deal that would have brought C.C. Sabathia, Casey Blake and Jamey Carroll to the Dodgers for a package of youngsters----Story----the main reason is implied to be financial. McCourt may receive criticism for this after the fact especially if Sabathia pitches the Brewers into the

playoffs, but McCourt has every right to do what I see as the right thing for his franchise by stopping his GM from mortgaging a big chunk of his team's loaded farm system to win right now.
Dodgers GM Ned Colletti is already under fire for the team's underachieving and the huge money contracts he doled out to Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt with literally no return. If the Indians, a smart organization that knows how to scout prospects, were trading three players with expiring contracts who are in demand, there would probably have been at least five prospects going to Cleveland including the likes of Matt Kemp, Andy

LaRoche and lots of young pitching. The Dodgers are getting their injured players back and with manager Joe Torre's history of hot second half finishes, along with the way the NL West is looking like it might only take 85 wins to take the division, why make such a desperation move? Add in that McCourt may be keeping an eye on the Brian Cashman/Yankees situation with the possibility that Torre and Cashman will be reunited on the West Coast after the season and there was no reason to allow Colletti to make this move.
Despite McCourt's attempts to win within a budget and create a clone of the Oakland Athletics when he hired Paul DePodesta to disastrous results, he's spent a load of money and allowed Colletti to be very aggressive in trying to win immediately over the past three years; he shouldn't receive criticism when he finally says enough's enough.

• Is there an agenda in place here?

I don't know the circumstances with Keith Law's departure from the Blue Jays in 2006, but reading between the lines in the comment about Chad Gaudin in the Rich Harden trade, and

you have to wonder if there's a bit of sniping going on underneath what masks itself as an opinion:

Chad Gaudin is an outstanding second player -- hate to call him a "throw-in" here -- for the Cubs, as a short reliever who could be dominant in that role in the NL. His fastball/slider combo has produced over 300 innings of above-average pitching since Toronto discarded him after a grand total of two big league starts, and his career-long vulnerability against left-handed batters has vanished this year, in large part because of his improved control.

If Law's letting personal biases enter into his judgments (intentionally or not), he should try and put them aside if he intends to be a credible media voice. For the record, I wouldn't have touched Rich Harden unless I was getting him for nothing because he's completely unreliable health-wise from one day to the next.

Cubs Roll The Dice With Rich Harden

In what can be seen as both a rapid-fire retaliation to the Brewers getting C.C. Sabathia,

the Cubs acquired RHPs Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the Athletics for RHP Sean Gallagher; OF Matt Murton; INF Eric Patterson and C Josh Donaldson. In addition to it being a retaliatory strike to a divisional competitor upgrading themselves substantially, the acquisition of a pitcher the with the talent and fragility of Harden is a testament to the Cubs intention to use the fact that the team is for sale to go for it right now without any regard to the future.
Rich Harden is the ultimate high risk/high reward pitcher. He's quite possibly got the best stuff in baseball when he's healthy----a fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s and a wicked slider----but he's never been able to stay healthy. The perfect scenario for A's baseball czar

Billy Beane was if Harden stayed healthy this entire season; the next best scenario was for Harden to show enough to convince another team that he was worth the price that Beane was going to demand to get him and, after spending a chunk of the first half of the season on the disabled list, Harden managed to do that.
The Cubs are pushing everything they have into the pot to try and win right now for manager Lou Piniella and it's either going to be a stroke of

genius or be seen as a desperation maneuver that exploded in their faces (or the faces of whoever the next owner is because they'll be the ones who have to clean up the mess). Harden's the ultimate risk because he's going to be counted on to be a major part of a historic season for the Cubs and he hasn't been able to stay healthy since 2004; and even then he only pitched 189 innings. This is a pitcher who has been predominately injured in both 2006 and 2007 and has provided 13 starts this season only being one tweak, strain or pull from being on the disabled list for the rest of the season. I have no prediction of what's going to happen with Harden because his career history indicates that he's due to get hurt again soon, but the adrenaline of the pennant race and possibility of a long-term contract may keep him out on the mound and performing. If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to get hurt, but the Cubs decided he was worth the risk to counter the move the Brewers made and as far as ability, Harden was probably the best available pitcher.
Chad Gaudin was also acquired by the Cubs. Gaudin was a solid starter last season,

began this year in the Athletics starting rotation and moved to the bullpen. He'll augment an already solid Cubs bullpen and could move back into the rotation if necessary. I get the impression that Gaudin was added to the deal to account for Harden's frailty.
The Athletics and Billy Beane played their hands as well as they could with a pitcher like Harden and they had him healthy at the exact right time. If he were to have had the injuries he had early in the season now, it's unlikely that they would have gotten as much as they did for him. There was much speculation in the media that Beane had to consider keeping Harden if the Athletics stayed in contention, but I knew better. Beane never had any intention of keeping Rich Harden and if he received what he felt was fair value for the pitcher, he was going to move him sooner rather than later, and he did.
As for the players the Athletics got from the Cubs, Sean Gallagher, 22, has been a serviceable pitcher for the Cubs this year in ten starts and his minor league numbers indicate

that he's a strikeout pitcher who has good control and doesn't allow many homers; he has a similar motion and look to Josh

Beckett. Outfielder Matt Murton was caught in a numbers game with the Cubs even though he proved in 2006 and 2007 that he belonged in the big leagues and the Cubs did him a favor by dealing him to a venue in which he's going to play. Eric Patterson is a 25-year-old infielder who has put up big numbers at Triple A with a high average and some speed. Josh Donaldson is a catcher who was a first round pick of the Cubs in 2007; he's struggled with the bat in high A in 2008 after tearing up low A in 2007. He's a few years from the majors.
It's safe to say that Beane knows what he wanted and got it by trading Harden three weeks before it was absolutely necessary; it also couldn't have escaped Beane's eye that there's no way to know whether Harden's next pitch is going to be his last until 2009 or beyond. The Athletics got what they wanted in the young, talented players and the Cubs may have just gotten themselves a trip to the World Series or a long-term disaster. Considering the circumstances for both sides, this was a deal that made sense for everyone.

Nicholson's Words Fit Better Than Mine

• I don't want money, and I don't want medals:

Quoting Jack Nicholson when he's bullying Tom Cruise's character from A Few Good Men

is appropriate in this instance:

I don't want money, and I don't want medals. What I do want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform and with your Harvard mouth extend me some fucking courtesy.

Yesterday while reading Buster Olney's blog, I saw that Olney had made a mistake in saying that when Kyle Lohse wins his next game for the Cardinals, he will win 10 games in a season for the first time in his career; I wrote a comment that corrected the

mistake saying that Lohse won 13 games in 2002 and 14 games in 2003. When I checked later to see if the mistake was corrected, it was----by erasing it altogether. So basically, my comment looks like some random statement uttered into the wind for no reason at all like something Joe Morgan would say.
There's nothing wrong with saying the words, "I made a mistake", but apparently those that make a living writing and talking about baseball haven't yet made that discovery and if that's one of the prerequisites, I'm relegated to my devoted readers who can see through the crud of the "mainstream" media and are aware that it takes more competence to admit that one is wrong than it does to simply try and erase a mistake hoping no one noticed.

• Shaun Chacon's job prospects:

I seem to be in the minority thinking that someone is going to take a chance on Shaun Chacon, but I still believe that he'll get picked up after he apologizes and displays a facade of contrition (real or fake). He has three things going for him: everyone's desperate for pitching and Chacon has experience as a starter and reliever; he's breathing; and he has a functioning

right arm. Add them up and he'll get a job once everything settles down; it'll probably be a minor league contract at first and a quick promotion after the smoke clears.
What I don't understand is how guys like Darryl Strawberry and John Rocker got chance after chance after careers full of controversy and missteps and Chacon's career is said to be over for one incident in an eight-year career that has (as far as we know) been clear of off-field problems. If Chacon apologizes to Wade and Wade accepts the apology, why shouldn't he get another chance with another organization. My one piece of advice for Chacon would be not to ask Wade for a recommendation. (A satirical resolution to this story would be if the Phillies sign Chacon; the not-fully-evolved Phillies fans would probably worship Chacon regardless of how he pitched because the majority of them probably wanted to choke Ed Wade numerous times while he was the Phillies GM and they'd have a player who'd actually done it.)

• Athletics 5-Phillies 0:

Athletics GM Billy Beane is probably doing pirouettes in his office with every dominating

start that Rich Harden provides because he's going to trade him. Mark my words. Other GMs would be teetering back and forth on whether or not the deal the oft-injured righty, but not Beane. The risk/reward factor doesn't enter into his mind. He's got a guy in Harden who is dominant when he's healthy, but is rarely healthy. Other GMs are going to be hypnotized by

Harden's brilliance and Beane's going to use their lovestruck gaze and dearth of available pitching to get some desperate team to empty their vault to get Harden; with every healthy and excellent start, the price is only going to go up with Beane's getting exactly what he wants and the team that gets Harden eventually rueing the day they made the deal with the devil.

• Twins 4-Padres 3; call in the National Guard for the Padres train wreck:

The San Diego Padres are an utter disaster and an organization in shambles. Why is it that no one seems to be taking the Padres to task with the same enthusiasm as they are with other teams like the Mariners or even the Mets. The Padres are one of the teams in the

staggering NL West that is saying they're reluctant to start clearing the decks because their division is so bad and they'd like to give it more time. They shouldn't. The other teams in the NL West have something called hope.
The Giants have that young starting rotation to fall back on; the Dodgers are bursting with talent and have a manager whose teams are known for second half surges; the Diamondbacks are playing badly, but they too are packed with prospects and have too much talent to continue playing like this; the Rockies are fresh off a World Series appearance and many of the young players who carried them there are experiencing a sophomore slump and should level off with some experience; but the Padres?
Other than Jake Peavy (if his arm stays attached to his shoulder) and Adrian Gonzalez, what do they have that bodes well for the future? Chase Headley and Kevin Kouzmanoff could

become All Stars, serviceable big leaguers or underachievers; there's no way to know. As for the rest of the roster, they're a bunch of veterans nearing retirement; journeyman who should be bench players and waiver wire pickups; their farm system is said to be barren. Bud Black and Kevin Towers might get the blame for what's happened, but they're not really at fault. If a baseball wanted poster for incompetence is going to be distributed, it should have one face and one name on it: Sandy Alderson. I expected the Padres fall under .500 this year, but no one could have expected them to descend into this, and what this is is an utter train wreck.