Happy 50th Birthday to a Future Hall-of-Famer:

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Yastrzemski Sports

Let me throw some numbers out there.
Mussina 270-153 .638%. 2813 k, 3.68 era, 123 era+.
Glavine 305-203 .600%. 2607 k, 3.54 era, 118 era+.
Smoltz 213-155 .579%. 3084 k, 3.33 era, 125 era+. And 154 saves.

Era+ shows a truer measure of how the player performs in relation to their league. Yes, the Braves have a ws the cy. Mussina has 7 gold gloves - not as important but a nice plus. But you can’t convince me of any reason why the Braves would go in first ballot and Mussinas first year he got 20% and had to climb over 6 years to get close. I would argue that he’s way more deserving than Smoltz - who had good years as a starter and reliever but didn’t do enough as either to get in. And Mussina, in some ways, is better than Glavine. Glavine has the magic 300 number and the 2 cy but over the course of their career Mussina is right there.

We will just have to disagree. ERA+ is heavily biased when there is a talent discrepancy between leagues like there was in Mussina's career. Changing careers wouldn't have effected his career ERA, which is bad by HOF standards, like you claim. He was never one of the top pitchers in his league despite a void of talent (only 1 top 3 Cy Young finish). He was an accumulator and that is the only reason his is getting HOF support.

Tom Glavine on the other hand was one of the best pitchers in baseball for a decade, 2 Cy Youngs, 6 top 3 finishes, led NL in wins 5 times and 9 division titles with the 10th year being the strike. He also hit the magic 300 win mark. He is a no brainer as a 1st ballot HOFer.

Smoltz is a little bit behind Glavine as he only had the 1 Cy Young season as a starter. His case is more a combination of that along with 3 seasons as an elite closer (144 saves and FotY) and a 15-4 postseason record. That is #2 in wins all time. For starters with 100+ innings only Curt Schilling had a better win percentage and Smoltz pitched 209 postseason innings. I wouldn't have put him in on the 1st ballot, but he is definitely ahead of Mussina. He is basically Mussina with 3+ years as an elite closer plus one of the greatest post season pitchers of all time.