Mike Mussina has a Hall of Fame resume, plus other notes

With the Hall of Fame announcing election results today, I will throw in my two cents that former Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina should be a Hall of Famer.

To put Mussina's case into perspective, if Jim Palmer is a Hall of Famer (he is and, of course, should be), then a strong case can be made for Mussina.

Here are their career numbers:

Palmer: 268-152 with 2.86 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 5.0 strikeouts/nine innings pitched, 125 ERA+
Mussina: 270-153 with 3.68 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 7.1 strikeouts/nine innings pitched, 123 ERA+

While Palmer has three Cy Young Awards and eight 20-win seasons on his resume to none and one for Mussina, he also pitched mostly in four-man, not five-man, rotations and got more chances at wins each season.

Mussina was remarkably consistent and very good over many years, and faced some juiced-up hitters during the so-called "Steriod Era." He won 20 one time, but had 18 or more wins five other times. He finished in the top six of the Cy Young voting nine times. Palmer did that eight times.

I don't see Mussina as a better pitcher than Palmer, the greatest O's hurler ever. But his career resume stacks up. He should be voted into the Hall in my opinion, but I don't have a vote.

In his first year of eligibility in 2014, Mussina was named on 20.3 percent of the ballots with 14 players getting a higher percentage. Last year, Mussina was named on 24.6 percent of the ballots with 13 players getting more votes. A player needs to be named on 75 percent to make the Hall. He will clearly get a higher percentage this year, but also seems likely to fall well short of election again.

In August 2012, Mussina was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame. Read here to take a look back for what he said that night. If Mussina does go into the Hall, will it be as an Oriole or Yankee? When it comes to that, the Hall makes the call as I wrote here in March 2012.

And one other thing: After the Hall results come out, the inevitable debates about the voting process are sure to follow. At some point, I hope someone suggests that broadcasters one day soon get involved in the Hall of Fame voting. Why don't people like Vin Scully, Bob Costas and Jon Miller vote? It is past time to make this happen. Let some of the game's top broadcasters in the club.

Another lefty?: Are the Orioles going to add another left-hander to their bullpen with reports of their interest in free agent Antonio Bastardo? The club already has Brian Matusz, Zach Britton and possibly T.J. McFarland as 'pen lefties. Three other left-handers are on the 40-man roster.

Bastardo is coming off a very good season with Pittsburgh. He went 4-1 with a 2.98 ERA and 1.134 WHIP. He fanned 10.0 batters per nine innings, walking 4.1. Left-handed batters hit just .138 against Bastardo and right-handed batters hit .210. For his career, those splits remain impressive at .178 and .211. While that walk number is too high, his career rate of allowing 6.5 hits per nine innings is better than Darren O'Day at 6.8. So Bastardo is a quality reliever.

But the O's bullpen is already pretty crowded. Perhaps the Orioles want to load up on bullpen left-handers to support what could be an all right-handed rotation. Or this move could be the precursor to a trade. Or it could mean that Matusz is going to be a candidate to make the starting rotation. There could be more at work here than just adding another quality arm.