BY ADAM RONIS
If I told you before the season that on this date Mike Mussina would have five more wins than Johan Santana you would say that it's a tough break for the Mets that Santana was sidelined for the first four months of the season. But that's not the case. Mussina surprisingly has 13 wins and Santana has just eight.
Mussina hasn't been that much better than Santana, but as I said before the season and numerous times during the season, you can't predict wins. Too many factors are involved. The odds of Mussina attaining more wins than Santana were as good as A-Rod staying faithful to his wife. But to quote John Sterling: "That's baseball."
Mussina has made great adjustments at the age of 39 after posting a 5.15 ERA and 1.47 WHIP last season that knocked him off the fantasy radar. He threw eight scoreless innings against the Twins and allowed six hits, walked none and struck out seven. He threw 105 pitchers. He is 13-6 with a 3.26 ERA. He has an 81/16 K/BB ratio in 121 1/3 innings. He has become mainly a six-inning pitcher, but has pitched eight innings three times since the beginning of June. Would I rather own Mussina than Santana? Nope.