Moyer's rookie card, from 1986.
First of all, the guy is 46 years old! Many Major League players weren’t even born when Moyer had this photo taken for his rookie card.
The thing is, when Moyer started out with the Cubs, I never would have guessed he’d be around at 46. Because he was such a marginal player. In fact, in his first ten seasons, the guy was 72-79. But then at age 33 — after ten years in the bigs — he suddenly turned good. For the next eight seasons, he was 126-56, with two 20-win campaigns. His ERA matched, with most seasons in the 3.30 to 3.50 range.
So here’s the thing: Does Moyer get into the Hall of Fame?
With 249 career wins, he won’t reach the coveted 300-win mark that secures Hall status. And given his performance this year, he probably won’t be around as long as Julio Franco. So he’s looking at maybe 260 wins if he’s lucky.
But this is a guy who was 16-7, with a 3.71 ERA at the age of 45. Had he been with, say, the Yankees or the Red Sox, I’d say he’d probably be a lot closer to 300. So I say he gets in.
What do you think?
Is Jamie Moyer Hall of Fame material?(online polls)
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Moyer is an above-average journeyman picther. He’s not even in the same category as Kaat, Morris, or Blyleven.
300 wins is the milestone that essentially gurantees a spot in the hall. Don Sutton and Phil Niekro were Jamie Moyeresque picthers who simply reached 300 wins in a era which favored picthers (more appearances, weaker sluggers, bigger parks).
Had Moyer started his career in the 1970s he may well have reached the 300 win plateau.
I dont think Sutton and Niekro are worthy hall of famers either. These arbitrary numbers like 300 wins and 500 homers often overshadow otherwise average careers.
Excellence and not simply longetivity is what the hall should award. Moyer rarely appeard in the top 5 of major pitching categories, whereas a Pedro Martinez or Sandy Koufax led the league for at least 4-5 in several important categorie; this, in my opinion, is excellence.
I did compare Moyer’s Runs Allowed vs. the league average (for the AL and NL in the year he pitched) and for his career he is about .2 above average. It should be pointed out as someone else did the overall Runs Allowd is much higher then in the 70′s and 80′s. I used Runs Allowed rather then Earned Runs because the name of the game is preventing runs. Nolan Ryan was about .5 above average for his career. He got in because of strikeouts and no hitters anyway and durability. Tom Seaver was about 1 although this was more at a glance. So a little above average for a long career for Jamie Moyer I don’t know if that is enough. It is unfair to compare pitchers today to those who pitched in the 70′s and 80′s as overall Runs Allowed were significantly lower. I guess if other durable slightly above average pitcher have got in you could make some argument for Moyer which may be true of Niekro and Sutton although I didn’t run the numbers for them.