McDonald and Mussina – the early 90’s O’s Bundy and Gausman

On Tuesday night it was announced that the Orioles’ number one pick from the 2012 draft would be making his major league debut on Thursday. Former LSU pitcher and Bowie Baysox standout Kevin Gausman has made his way to the big club less than a year after the Orioles made him the fourth overall pick in the amateur draft.

Kevin Gausman certainly has earned this promotion, going 2-4 with a 3.11 ERA in eight starts with the Baysox this season. What’s more impressive is over his last five starts, he has allowed one earned run or fewer four times, and just two runs in the other start, pitching to a 1.78 ERA over that span.

With Gausman’s meteoric rise to the majors, and his constant pairing with another Orioles first-round pick in Dylan Bundy, it is hard not to reminisce back to 1990 when the Orioles had another young duo destined for stardom.

In 1988, the Baltimore Orioles were historically bad. They started the season 0-21 on their way to 107 losses. Having the worst record in baseball afforded the ball club the luxury of having the first overall pick in the 1989 June draft. With that pick the Birds took LSU phenom Ben McDonald and signed him to a $950,000 contract with a then-record $350,000 signing bonus.

McDonald was supposed to be the next Roger Clemens, touted as a can’t-miss prospect who would be a perennial 20-game winner. He was a two-time All-American who had led the US Olympic baseball team to a gold medal in the 1988 Summer Games and made his major league debut out of the bullpen less than three weeks after signing. In his first major league start he tossed a complete game shutout against the Chicago White Sox on July 21, 1990.

In that 1990 season, the Orioles drafted a young kid out of Stanford by the name of Mike Mussina with the 20^th overall pick in the June Draft. Mussina had just finished his senior season at Stanford with a 14-5 record and a miniscule ERA of just 0.99, earning All-American honors.

Mussina made his major league debut on August 4^th, 1991. “The Moose,” a nickname he picked up over the course of his career, would pitch 7.2 innings in a 1-0 loss, and would finish 1991 with 12 starts, a 4-5 record, and just a 2.87 ERA.

In his first full season in 1992, Mussina would go 18-5 with a 2.54 ERA, earning an All-Star nod and finishing fourth in Cy Young voting.

With Mussina and McDonald anchoring the rotation, the Orioles were supposed to be formidable for years to come. Unfortunately, only one pitcher lived up to the lofty expectations, and neither finished their careers in Baltimore.

McDonald would go on to have to have a less-than-stellar career in Baltimore. He made more than 30 starts in a season just twice, and while he had three straight seasons of 13 or more wins, he never won more than 14 games in any season and left in free agency for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1996.

According to an article posted in USA Today in June 2009, McDonald had six stints on the disabled list in his career to go along with three rotator cuff surgeries. He finished his career in 1997 with a record of 78-70 and an ERA of 3.91. Respectable numbers for a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher, but definitely not what you would expect from the number one overall pick who was supposed to be the next big thing.

The Moose had the type of career you would expect from a number one pick. He won 270 games in his 18-year career split between the Orioles and Yankees with an ERA of 3.68. Mussina set an American League record with 17 straight seasons with 11 or more wins, winning 20 games for the first time in his career in his final season.

He had eight seasons of 17 or more wins and 11 seasons of 15 or more. He also made 22 postseason starts and appeared in two World Series with the Yankees in 2001 and 2003. Mussina finished in the top six in Cy Young voting nine times, won seven gold gloves and made five All-Star teams.

So how does the Orioles past compare to the Orioles present? Well, it really is too soon to tell. Kevin Gausman and Ben McDonald both will have made their first major league starts first and both pitched for LSU. But that’s where the comparisons stop.

Dylan Bundy is to Ben McDonald what Kevin Gausman is to Mike Mussina. All the hype surrounds Bundy like it did McDonald as Bundy has been rated the top prospect in baseball by a number of outlets. Much like McDonald, Bundy made his major league debut in his first pro season, and he too made it out of the bullpen.

Bundy was the Orioles’ minor league pitcher of the year in his first pro season, going 9-3 with a 2.08 ERA between Delmarva, Frederick and Bowie. But also much like McDonald, Bundy has yet to pitch this season due to an injury in his throwing arm.

Meanwhile, like The Moose, Gausman has taken a workman’s-like approach, walking just five batters in his first eight starts and just six total in his professional career. His upper-90s fastball is complemented beautifully by his low-80s change-up and developing slider. And all the hard work has paid off with Gausman debuting Thursday.

One day in the near future, the Orioles rotation will include Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman. And most people won’t make the comparisons that have been made today. But rest assured, the hype is the same. Let’s just hope the career paths for these two look more like Mussina’s than McDonald’s.