Sodo Mojo’s Hall of Fame Ballot Series, Part 1

Vote 4 & 5: Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina

Let me be very clear about this: I think Curt Schilling is a pretty despicable human being. Sorry, but telling people to lynch anybody is where I draw the line. However; the BBWAA don’t get to be the morality police, so neither will I. Schilling’s on the field production is good enough for enshrinement.

Schilling led the league in innings pitched twice, posted 300 strike outs twice (293 in another season), finished second in the Cy Young vote 3 times, finishing Top 4 in 4 seasons. Most impressively,  Schilling lead baseball in K/BB ratio 5 times, including 4 in a row between 2001-2004.

Mike Mussina is one of the most tragically underrated pitchers of all-time. He finished Top 6 in Cy Young voting 9 times, and won 7 Gold Gloves. Mussina was a model of consistency, throwing 200 or more inning for 9 consecutive seasons. Mussina also finished 10 seasons with a bWAR over 5.0, leading to a startling 83.0 career bWAR.

Some voters don’t like “accumulators”. That is to say, they don’t vote for players who are consistently good for 15 years. They prefer an obvious peak, usually for a period of 7-8 years. Both Schilling and Mussina were rock solid for the entirety of their careers, and have both had a long enough peak to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame.