Two exciting things happened for the Orioles during the 2018-19 offseason, with the first being the hiring Mike Elias as the team's executive vice president and general manager in November. The second, however, had no impact on the future success of the franchise but was a win for fans nonetheless: Former right-handed pitcher Mike Mussina, in his sixth year on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. It never should have taken six years ... but better late than never.
During Mussina's career (1991-2008), the list of pitchers who were better and more reliable was short. Drafted in 1990 and promoted to the Orioles in August 1991, he never pitched fewer than 152 innings in any of the following 17 seasons. He never won a Cy Young, but he did finish second in 1999 and in the top five six times.
Mussina finished with an ERA Minus above 100 just four times, and only once was his ERA Minus above 102. ERA Minus is a league- and park-adjusted version of ERA in which 100 is league average and the lower the number, the better. He also never finished with a FIP Minus above 93. FIP Minus is like ERA Minus, but it's based on FIP -- Fielding Independent Pitching -- which attempts to estimate a pitcher's ERA by focusing on strikeouts, walks, hit by pitches and home runs allowed. He also never completed a full season below 2.6 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs.
