Mussina – It’s a tough call on the Hall of Fame in my opinion.  Mussina has been consistently “very good” over a long career.  Does that make him a Hall of Famer?  Possibly.  Was there ever a time in his career when an opposing team said – “Oh Crap.  Moose is pitching today, it’s going to be tough to win today.”?  I don’t think so.  According to baseball-reference, he never, in any year, led the league in ERA or Strikeouts, and only once led the league in wins (1992), and once lead in shutouts (4 in 1995).  He never won a Cy Young award, but has placed in the top five in the voting 6 times, top six - 9 times.  He has seven gold gloves. Mussina’s strength has been his consistency and control.  From 1992-2008, his strikeout to walk ratio has consistently been in the top 5 in baseball (except 1994, 2005, and 2007).  Because of the low walk totals, his career WHIP is 1.192.  That type of consistency is why Mussina has a lot of ”Gray ink” on his resume – i.e. lots of listings on leaderboards – but his lack of true overwhelming dominance results in very little “Black ink” – i.e. getting your name in bold as the leader.  He is 33rd all time in wins with 270, and has a 270-153 career record.  He also has had 3 near perfect games (23 batters vs Tigers in 1998, 25 batters vs. Indians in 1997, and most memorably 26 batters vs. Red Sox in 2001).

His resume is, however, incomplete.  I would hae liked to see a Cy Young award somewhere in there, and he never won a World Series.

His postseason history with the Yankees is up and down.  In 2001,  it was his pitching performance in Game 3 that saved the Yankees when they were down 0-2 to Oakland (the Jeter Game), but his game 1 performance in the World Series put the Yankees in a hole vs. Arizona, then turned it around in Game 5.  In 2002 he had a stinker vs. Anaheim.   In 2003, he was a tough luck loser to Santana in Game 1 of the ALDS, Lost game 1 to Boston giving up 3 home runs (4 runs) to Ortiz, Walker and Manny in 5 innings, Lost game 4 in Boston by again giving up home runs to Walker and Nixon (3 Runs 6 2/3 innings); but did pitch excellent relief of a shaky Clemens in Game 7; In 2004, Mussina pitched like an ace.  Only Torre’s managing led to the defeat.  Lets not discuss that year any further.  2005 – Great in game 1, Terrible in game 5 vs. Anaheim (Randy Johnson relieved him in the 3rd inning); 2006  - decent start but lost to Detroit; 2007 – only pitched in relief and was good.

So overall, I say Moose is just outside looking in.

A-Rod – According to the NY Post, A-Rod is ditching his kids on Thanksgiving to host Thanksgiving at his apartment for Madonna and her kids.  The interesting part of the story was this quote from an insider “Alex likes a woman with a strong hand.  He likes to be told what to do.  He is a bit of a cipher.”  In other words Alex is a zero, one that has no weight, worth or influence.  Tough words there, but definitely some insight as to his mental make up.  Goes hand in hand with the therapy sessions and his apparent lack of self worth at times.  Maybe Kim Jones can tell him to man up every game day.

However, according to the Huffington Post, A-Rod is, in fact, spening turkey day with the kids.  Regardless, the cipher comment is the interesting part of the story.  

Sabathia - According to radio reports, Sabathia is expected to get an offer from the Dodgers ”in the neighborhood” of the offer made by the Yankees.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  Remember the Dodgers offered Manny a deal that was supposedly close to A-Rod money - Only it wasn’t.  At first the LA Times reported that Manny was offered either a two years $50M or three years $75M deal.  Except it ended up being $15 million in 2009, $22.5M in 2010 and a team option for $22.5 in 2011.  Far less than what was originally reported.  In my opinion, this is just smoke.  The Yankees have their chips on the table and unless someone comes within $5-10M of it, Sabathia comes to NY.  (By the way I think the Yankees have another $5-10 in reserve to trump any competitors).

Pettitte - The other report was that Pettitte is considering joining old Joe Torre out in LA.   Again, I don’t believe it.  Pettitte wants to pitch in the New Yankee  Stadium, and will have to take a pay cut to do so.  The Yankees are not going to fork over $16M to Pettitte, and I doubt anyone else will either.  This jibber-jabber about Pettitte wanting to be wanted is a bunch of BS.  He wants to get paid.  But guess what Andy, your are not getting paid till the Yankees figure out their big budget items.