Players · M · Pitcher · 2008 regular season

Mike Mussina

Age: 40
B/T: L/R
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 190 lb
Number: #35

Born: December 8, 1968 in Williamsport, PA, United States
MLB debut: August 4, 1991

dbWAR: 14.4
IP: 200.1
ERA: 3.37
FIP: 3.32
K/9: 6.7
FIP−: 77

Mike Mussina was a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees. In 2008 he struck out 150 batters over 200.1 innings across 34 appearances, 34 of them starts, going 20-9. His ERA of 3.37 was 22.1% lower than the league average of 4.32 — 5th of 20 on his team, and 110th of 482 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 3.32 FIP suggests the ERA was no fluke. He missed bats on 12.7% of swings (5.3% of every pitch he threw), walked 3.8% of the batters he faced and struck out 18.3%. His 4.7 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2008 regular season.

FIP3.32

K/96.7

WHIP1.22

WAR4.7

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below. Seasons on file run 2005–2008; his career began in 1991, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2008	NYY	34	34	200.1	20	9	214	75	150	31	3.37	3.32	1.22	6.7	1.4	78	77	4.7
2007	NYY	28	27	152.0	11	10	188	87	91	35	5.15	4.01	1.47	5.4	2.1	115	90	2.6
2006	NYY	32	32	197.1	15	7	184	77	172	35	3.51	3.46	1.11	7.8	1.6	78	76	4.5
2005	NYY	30	30	179.2	13	8	199	88	142	47	4.41	4.01	1.37	7.1	2.4	103	93	2.7

Batting Regular season


2008	NYY	2	5	1	0	0	.200	.200	.200	.000	.200	0.0%	0.0%	.179	-0.6	-5	0.0
2007	NYY	2	3	0	1	0	.000	.333	.000	.000	.000	33.3%	0.0%	.242	-0.2	36	0.0
2006	NYY	2	4	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	25.0%	.000	-1.1	-129	-0.1
2005	NYY	1	3	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	66.7%	.000	-0.8	-124	-0.0

Separate from the regular season

Postseason Postseason

Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.

Postseason pitching

Postseason Mike Mussina's postseason pitching, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	GS	IP	W	L	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	WHIP	K/9
2007 Post	NYY	ALDS	1	0	4.2	0	0	4	2	0	4	3	3.86	1.71	5.8
2006 Post	NYY	ALDS	1	1	7.0	0	1	8	4	1	0	5	5.14	1.14	6.4
2005 Post	NYY	ALDS	2	2	8.1	1	1	11	5	1	1	7	5.40	1.44	7.6
2005–2008		Postseason total · 3 Octobers	4	3	20.0	1	2	23	11	2	5	15	4.95	1.40	6.8

Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2008. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	401	368	87	2	23	84	.236	.284	.299	.263	20.9%
vs RHB	418	401	127	15	8	66	.317	.336	.514	.370	15.8%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2008.

Loading 3 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2008.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .263.

Pitch sequencing

What Mike Mussina throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

SinkerCutterSliderFour-seamKnuckle curveChangeupUnknownINPO

Select a count to see exactly what Mike Mussina throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Sinker	36.4%	1,141	86.6	2,537	47.2%	7.9%	272	.309	.799
Cutter	19.9%	624	81.4	872	42.6%	20.0%	148	.250	.638
Slider	15.3%	480	76.2	1,186	43.5%	14.6%	140	.229	.547
Four-Seam Fastball	12.4%	389	85.8	2,202	49.6%	11.3%	84	.250	.647
Knuckle Curve	8.1%	253	68.5	1,233	58.1%	7.4%	46	.413	1.121
Changeup	4.9%	155	69.3	1,428	45.2%	21.8%	64	.219	.627
Unknown	2.7%	86	—	—	37.2%	3.3%	20	.350	.981

Mike Mussina's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Compare Mike Mussina with…

Side by side with up to three others.

Compare with… add up to 3 more players

Mike Mussina

Similar players

Nearest 2008 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Derek LoweLAD

ERA: 3.24
FIP: 3.26
SO: 147
WAR: 4.8

Very close

Ben SheetsMIL

ERA: 3.09
FIP: 3.38
SO: 158
WAR: 4.4

Very close

James ShieldsTB

ERA: 3.56
FIP: 3.82
SO: 160
WAR: 3.7

Very close

Scott RichmondTOR

ERA: 4.00
FIP: 3.06
SO: 20
WAR: 0.7

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.