By the time Jamie Moyer negotiates his next contract, he'll be 48 years old. He's older than Ruben Amaro Jr. and a number of other general managers around the majors, but those executives may be calling Moyer up in a few months. Sure, the lefty made his major league debut before players like Pablo Sandoval and Andrew McCutchen were born, but age hasn't been an obstacle for Moyer before. He signed a Julio Franco-esque multi-year deal back when he was 46.
Nobody would be interested in Moyer if he were no longer useful, but he can still pitch. His 81 mph fastball doesn't intimidate anyone, but he relies primarily on off-speed pitches. Plus, Moyer's fastball has been just as slow for most of the last decade. He doesn't walk anybody (1.8 BB/9) or strike anybody out (4.5 K/9) and thanks to some good luck on balls in play, he is allowing less than a hit per inning this year. All told, the lefty is averaging more than six innings per start and has a 4.26 ERA.
That kind of production led to one-year deals worth about $5MM for veteran starters like Doug Davis, Jon Garland and Vicente Padilla last winter. For Moyer to command a similar deal next year, he has to keep pitching well and he has to want to play. He said before the season that he's open to playing in 2011 and if he keeps pitching like this, major league teams will probably be more than willing to accommodate.
I bet he’ll sign with the Orioles.
I can just see it know, ” Know pitching for your Pittsburg AARP’s, Jamie “white beard the Pirate” Moooyerrrr!”. just has second to last place finish written all over it.
In my MLB: The Show franchise, he finally hung up the cleats at age 52. Maybe that could be accurate at this point…
I think he’ll do one more tour of duty with Seattle before calling it a career. He’s produced some wonderful results this year.
The way I figure it, he needs 3-5 seasons to make 300 wins… I say do it!
“His 81 mph fastball doesn’t intimidate anyone, but he relies primarily on off-speed pitches.”
Wow! With that kind of velocity, his change-up must be an eephus pitch!
I think an 81 mph fastball IS an off-speed pitch!
he must have some great stories about the 70’s and 80’s, i’d sign him just for the long flights.
Why he got two years from the Phils in the first place is beyond me.
Agree, he should pitch for free for the next two years for the Phillies so it evens out, lol.
He can’t beat the Marlins anymore, so time to leave the NL huh? His 8 in a row feat of “dead fish” mastery ended and he is 0-4 now vs them, so send him to the AL? Not sure that is such a good idea. Best he stay in the NL. As much as admire him and all he stands for as a wiley veteran and veteran of 2 generations of ballplayers.. His time is getting short. Moving him to a league with a DH and more teams with patient hitters is probably not in his best interest.
He can’t beat the Marlins anymore? Yesterday he gave up one run and the Phillies got shut out again, it wasn’t exactly his fault.
Was said as a joke with regards to his mastery of the marlins. Moyer was indeed excellent vs them and deserved to win that game and always seems to get the impatient Fish to “bite” on his assortment of junk, just don’t think it will work so well in the AL with more patient teams for the most part.
Seattle.
“It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.”
Although, now that I think about it, a .333 fielding perentage kind of sucks.
I don’t know how much longer he’ll be playing, but this guy is a future pitching coach. I’d love to see him as the Phillies pitching coach instead of Rich Dubee. Lol
At 47, Moyer is the same age as Chelcie Ross (“Eddie Harris”) was when Major League came out in ’89. Whenever I think about Moyer it’s Harris I see in my mind.