Moose Tracking

Mike Mussina has been one of the most reliable, consistent pitchers in baseball for the last 17 years. He’s tossed over 3,400 innings in his career, racked up 256 wins, and is putting together an argument for Hall of Fame induction. And, at 39 years old, he’s still ticking, helping to keep the Yankees rotation stable despite the injuries and struggles of the young hurlers on the staff.

However, Mussina clearly doesn’t have the same arsenal he had in his prime. Take a look at his velocity of each pitch type for the last three years:

Fastball: 88.6 MPH, 87.1 MPH, 84.9 MPH
Slider: 82.8 MPH, 82.1 MPH, 80.5 MPH
Curveball: 77.2 MPH, 75.3 MPH, 72.,4 MPH
Change: 72.0 MPH, 72.1 MPH, 69.8 MPH

In the last year, he’s lost about two miles per hour off each pitch in his arsenal, and he’s down almost four miles per hour on his fastball from two years ago and five miles per hour on his curveball in that same time frame. As he’s aged, his velocity has deserted him, and his average fastball is now the fifth slowest in baseball (among non-knuckleballers), behind only Jamie Moyer, Livan Hernandez, Greg Maddux, and Paul Byrd. His change-up is the slowest in baseball, four miles per hour slower than Moyer’s, who comes in at #2 on the list. He just doesn’t have the stuff he used to have, and with this velocity, he’s had to reinvent himself in order to stay successful.

So that’s exactly what he’s done. Through the first 50 innings of 2008, he’s issued just six bases on balls, a 1.09 BB/9 that ranks #3 among major league starters. He’s also posting a 48.2% ground ball rate, the highest mark he’s posted since it began being tracked by BIS in 2002. With his stuff deteriorating, he’s no longer able to rack up the strikeouts like he used to, so Mussina has essentially turned himself into a strike-throwing ground ball guy who lets hitters get themselves out by attacking the strike zone. It’s a diversion from the path he took to greatness, but considering his current skills, it’s an adjustment he had to make, and one that has worked well so far.

His FIP stands at a respectable 4.50, making him a solid middle of the rotation starter and an asset to the Yankees rotation. Considering that many New Yorkers were willing to write Mussina off after his struggles last season, it’s a testament to his understanding of his own limitations that he’s been able to find a new way to succeed even after his physical talents have eroded. Mussina is one of the best pitchers of our lifetime, and he’s continuing to find ways to get hitters out, no matter what kind of stuff he takes to the hill each day.