Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer doesn’t have major league stuff – just don’t bother telling him that. He already knows. At age 47 with a fastball that peaks at 82 miles per hour, Moyer looks better suited to be a tax attorney or maybe a history teacher – anything but an important piece of a championship caliber major league baseball team. But Moyer has always been beating the odds, and is doing it again in 2010, helping the Phillies sell plenty of <arel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.stubhub.com/philadelphia-phillies-tickets/”>Philadelphia Phillies tickets</a> in the process.
This isn’t to say that Moyer is a dominant pitcher, because he isn’t. As the fifth start in the Phillies rotation, though, he also doesn’t have to be. But the impressive thing about Moyer is that he’s not only still in the league, he’s still thriving. For those who doubted why the Phillies have kept Moyer in their rotation, one needs to look no further than his outing on May 7th. Against the Braves, Moyer turned in one of the most impressive starts of the young baseball season, pitching a complete game shutout and letting up just two base runners in the process. Behind Ubaldo Jimenez’s no-hitter and Dallas Braden’s perfect game, the outing stands as the third best pitching performance so far in 2009.
Still, Moyer remains one of baseball’s most underappreciated players. “Chicks dig the longball,” a popular baseball ad once said, and it remains as true today as ever before. While power pitchers and power hitters get most of the ink, guys like Greg Maddux and Jamie Moyer have always gotten side billing. Maddux was overshadowed by seven-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens, though time will probably suggest that Maddux was far and away the best pitcher of the performance enhancing drugs era. With his control pitching game, Moyer also has never had the fanfare that he deserves.
In the height of the performance enhancing drugs era, Moyer was dominating lineups with his 84 mile-per-hour fastball and impeccable control. Moyer won 20 games twice in a three-year span with the Seattle Mariners and was instrumental in turning around the franchise after Ken Griffey Jr. left for Cincinnati. While over-muscled sluggers like Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were making ballparks look like little league fields, Moyer was one of baseball’s most consistent pitchers without ever coming close to hitting 90 on the radar gun. Much like Maddux, Moyer has had to rely on his intelligence, control and discipline to remain viable at the major league level, which must have been an unbelievably difficult task before baseball was patrolling for PEDs. In many ways, it’s remarkable that Moyer ever even made it to the big leagues.
Yet here he is in 2010 as the oldest player in baseball, still taking the hill every fifth day and getting by with stuff slower than you can see at the average high school game. He also is a prime example of what a player can accomplish at the major league level without having to rely on talent alone. The big leagues have spit out countless pitchers with more talent than Moyer has yet Moyer’s consistency and work ethic have kept him in the league, providing a perfect role model for young pitchers trying to make a name for themselves by lighting up the radar gun.
As Moyer continues to get batters out in his 24th season in a big league uniform, he simply continues to produce and eat up valuable innings for the Phillies. In an era when batters can time fastballs that hit 100 on the radar gun, it’s nothing short of baffling that Moyer can not only get batters out but can be dominant on occasion. Considering the Phillies don’t have much starting pitching outside of Roy Halladay, it’s important for manager Charlie Manuel to be able to rely on his geriatric starter to take the bump every five days and give his team a quality start. Chicks may dig the longball, but managers love Jamie Moyer.
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