Klapisch Investigates Mussina

Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record talked to Mike Mussina about his most difficult year in the major leagues. . . 2007. Klapisch explained Mussina is smart enough to realize that he was "killing [the Yankees]" during his Summer swoon and also revealed that he was pitching through pain for the majority of the year. From the article:

The Yankee right-hander says there are two reasons why he'll rise from the ash heap.

The first is the state of his arm: Mussina is pain-free for the first time since 2006. The second is the rebound factor that goes hand in hand with a catastrophic collapse: Mussina reasons he'll improve because he certainly couldn't pitch any worse.

"Oh, it was bad. I admit that," Mussina was saying Tuesday morning at Legends Field. "There were times when I was on the mound thinking, 'Why can't I get anyone out anymore? Why can't I win a game?' It got to the point where no matter what I threw, it would get hit. It's a helpless feeling, like you can't believe you're the same pitcher who used to be able to go seven innings [a start]."

At 38, his numbers suggest this was no crisis, just an aging pitcher reaching the end of his career. But the Yankees say the dropoff was too steep to be solely age-related. Go figure: In '06, Mussina was fourth in the American League in ERA, third in WHIP (walks plus hits per nine innings), and among the top 10 in winning percentage and strikeouts.

A year later, Mussina had crashed and burned beyond recognition, with the worst ERA (5.15), worst batting average against (.311) and worst WHIP of his career. The very asset that once separated Mussina from other pitchers -- the ability to think through a crisis -- stopped serving him. The right-hander remembers returning to the dugout after being knocked out by the Devil Rays on July 20, having allowed six earned runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings, unable to find an explanation.

At 38, his numbers suggest this was no crisis, just an aging pitcher reaching the end of his career. But the Yankees say the dropoff was too steep to be solely age-related. Go figure: In '06, Mussina was fourth in the American League in ERA, third in WHIP (walks plus hits per nine innings), and among the top 10 in winning percentage and strikeouts.

A year later, Mussina had crashed and burned beyond recognition, with the worst ERA (5.15), worst batting average against (.311) and worst WHIP of his career. The very asset that once separated Mussina from other pitchers -- the ability to think through a crisis -- stopped serving him. The right-hander remembers returning to the dugout after being knocked out by the Devil Rays on July 20, having allowed six earned runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings, unable to find an explanation.

Crazy, isn't it, that Mussina is the pitching staff's de facto leader. Pettitte intends to keep his mouth shut for the time being. Wang never speaks anyway, and the kids are just learning. So Mussina's pride is at stake, not to mention his legacy as a Yankee. If he ends his career in pinstripes with back-to-back failures, all his successes, even the one in 2006, will become invisible to Yankee historians.

Mussina knows he will never again be able to call upon his 93 mph fastball of yesteryear, but he also believes he can succeed with an 88 mph heater. Klapisch contends, just like Pedro Martinez, Mussina possesses the deep pitching repertoire necessary to get outs. Unfortunately, Pedro's decline is taking place at a pitcher's park in the forgiving National League and Moose is looking to come back in the offense-dominated AL East.