In Appreciation of Jamie Moyer's Overlooked Career

In the next eight to 10 years, Hall of Fame voters are going to be faced with a bumper crop of pitchers and will have to make some hard choices as to where to place the dividing line between "in" and "out" for induction.

Clearly, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux will be voted in. But how will the voters handle Roger Clemens? And which side of the line will they place Kevin Brown, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz? And how will they handle holdovers like Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris?

One contemporary lost in the shuffle is Jamie Moyer. After all, he has more wins than Whitey Ford, more innings pitched than Sandy Koufax and more strikeouts than Dizzy Dean. Now, I don't think that makes him a Hall of Famer, as those guys are in the Hall despite their lifetime accomplishments in those categories, but I've always wanted to use that hollow argument. Thanks for indulging me.

No, Jamie Moyer is not a Hall of Fame pitcher. What he is, however, is one of the most unappreciated pitchers of our lifetime. If you asked most fans to rate the top 20 pitchers that were active in the 1990s and 2000s, Moyer might not get a mention. In addition to the nine pitchers above, we also have Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay, Tim Hudson, John Lackey, Roy Oswalt, Jake Peavy, C.C. Sabathia, Johan Santana, Ben Sheets and several other talented young pitchers. And for older stars, fans might nominate Kenny Rogers or David Wells before Moyer.

And that's a shame. That is because for an eight-year period, Moyer put up a peak that matches up with the best in baseball history. Cherry picking the best years of his career (1996-2003), Moyer went 126-56 for a .692 winning percentage. Sandy Koufax went 129-47 during his peak that got him elected to the Hall of Fame

What makes that run even more remarkable is that it came during his age 33-40 seasons. Moyer struggled through the part of his career that most pitchers usually dominate. From age 23-31 Moyer won just 51 games. During that same stretch in their careers, Mike Mussina won 143 games and Pedro Martinez won 135. Even Randy Johnson, often held up as a late bloomer, won 99 games in those seasons.

If we gave Moyer those 48 wins to match Johnson, he would have 291 career wins. Yes, that's right, Jamie Moyer has 243 lifetime wins after Sunday's seven scoreless innings against the Mets. He is in the area where it is not ridiculous to consider him for the Hall of Fame. Moyer tied Hall of Famer Juan Marichal for 52nd place on the all-time list for wins. Bob Gibson, a pitcher frequently trotted out as a dominating and intimidating hurler, finished with 251 wins.

Now, it is important to remember that Marichal, Gibson and others had dominating seasons in statistics other than wins. Moyer never threw 300 innings or struck out 300 batters or posted an ERA+ of 258 in a single season. His Hall of Fame case, as uninspiring as it may be, rests solely on wins and innings pitched.

But it's remarkable that we've witnessed a guy who is in the top 50s all time in both wins and innings and not only do we not consider him a Hall of Fame candidate we don't even consider him one of the best pitchers of our lifetime.

But that's what happens when you are a junk ball pitcher. It's hard to earn admiration when you throw slop to the plate that makes the average middle-age guy want to reach for a bat and take his hacks. I haven't swung a bat in 15 years but I'm confident I could hit Moyer's fastball, which topped out Sunday at 82.7 miles per hour.

But I wouldn't come within three feet of hitting his other pitches and if I were to face him in a real game he would strike me out on three pitches, the third one a fastball that I was late on after dismal hacks at his first two offerings.

Moyer goes to the mound with a low 80s fastball yet he's fanned 2,232 batters in his career. In an age were a 90 mile per hour fastball is rarely good enough, Moyer has survived thanks to his pitching smarts. Well, he's a lefty so let's say he's thrived due to his craftiness.

Whatever you want to call it, just appreciate how remarkable Jamie Moyer's career has been. And if someone asks you to name the top pitchers of the past 20 years, be sure to mention Moyer's name.