Old Man Pitcher

How about the old man? Jamie Moyer, age 47, shuts the Braves out on two hits. Why yes, the Hall of Fame will be demanding some souvenirs!

The previous oldest pitcher to ever throw a complete-game shutout was Phil Niekro, who was 46 years, 188 days old with the Yankees when he shut out the Blue Jays in 1985.

Moyer passed him by nearly a full year.

He is the first pitcher in baseball history to throw shutouts in four different decades. The first one he threw was 24 years ago on Aug. 16, 1986. ("Hmm. That's a few years ago," Moyer said.)

On Friday, Moyer faced one batter over the minimum. He allowed just two singles - both to Troy Glaus. "That's impressive regardless of how old you are," righthander Roy Halladay said. For the record, Halladay said he will be fishing when he is 47 years old.

Moyer began the ninth with 96 pitches thrown. Nate McLouth popped out to third. Pinch-hitter Eric Hinske grounded out to first.

The sellout crowd rose and began chanting, "Jamie! Jamie! Jamie!"

Omar Infante grounded out to shortstop to end the game on Moyer's 105th pitch of the night. Ruiz raised his fist in the air, but Moyer barely flinched. He hugged Ruiz and patted the catcher on the head.

At one point, Moyer retired 17 straight Atlanta batters.

Frank Helps You Think It All Out is an unapologetic Moyer fan. Moyer has not been in Philadelphia for four complete seasons yet- but he has 51 wins, a very respectable 18 games over .500. I bet there aren’t a dozen National League pitchers with more wins over that span. He keeps the Phillies in games and takes the ball a lot – he has made thirty or more starts each full season he has been here and won double digit games. Bottom line: he is a quality starting pitcher.

Plus, you hear complaints about teams that don’t try or give 100%. But Moyer pitches, his teammates are the hardest “trying” team in baseball. The Phillies give 300% on Moyer's turns. They play up-on-their-toes defense, hit a ton, work hard to get him back in games. Moyer does throw some stinkers out there- but no one ever complains, they dig in to get him off the hook. The Phillies good culture stems more from Moyer’s presence than is acknowledged. They rally around the old man- and he is one of the personalities that makes this organization fun to root for. The Phillies and Moyer are easy to pull for.

So extra doughnuts to celebrate this morning.

Save Jamie Moyer Part 2

First and foremost, I would not fret too much over the Phillies seemingly surplus rotation options. Yes, trying to sort between Happ, Moyer and Pedro for the two back end spots is currently trying. Yet, we also collectively agonized over how to get Happ into the rotation back in April (see Save Jamie Moyer Part 1). Almost immediately, Park became an untenable option and Myers got hurt- and the surplus became guys like Lopez and Carpenter pitching every fifth day.

It’ll work itself out. Surplus starting pitching never lasts. Hamels looks ouchy to me- maybe the Phillies shut him down for a pair of turns. Moyer is close to pitching himself out of the rotation. Is Pedro not going to get hurt once the every fifth day grind gets going?

Even then, the Phillies have a pair of double headers in September- which means that is two weeks (half the month) where they are going to need a sixth starter. Plus, as the schedule contracts, a rainout means another double-header instead of searching for an appropriate off day to erase. Philadelphia features a stretch from August 18th through September 13th without a single day off. That is four weeks- and perhaps they can create a few artificial days off by going with a six man rotation. That might not be tenable if the Phillies needed every game- but if this lead over the Marlins stretches out another three games or so...

Since they have no obvious candidates to drop, this is what I would do.

First, postpone Pedro until August 18th. The Pedro experiment isn’t about a fifth starter in September- but to catch lightening in a bottle in October pitching in a potential Game 4 three times. The Phillies can make that assessment off seven starts starting toward the end of August, rather than nine starting now.

Go with a six-man rotation the first three weeks of the month long stretch beginning August 18th- create a few faux days off for the rotation.

Last, restore the five-man rotation for the pair of double headers in mid-September- and use your sixth option as a spot starter.

And that gets you through September 22nd. Everyone gives up one measely start (which again might help some guys) to get Pedro five-six looks.

Save Jamie Moyer

Frank Helps You Think It All Out is an unapologetic Jamie Moyer fan. Watching the old man get cuffed around recently is painful. He has been plenty bad.

The cries for Jamie to be replaced are certain to grow. Part and parcel of this is the Phillies have a replacement on hand, ready to go in J.A. Happ- who has pitched well in his opportunities this season. However, I’m inclined to keep Moyer in the rotation for now.

Haste makes waste, right? Replacing Moyer at this point is a pure panic move. The same people hollering the loudest now for his ouster were the same sort of people who wanted Chan Ho Park removed just a week-and-a-half ago. Had Charlie done that, you’d have no J.A. Happ move left now.

This isn’t like when Brett Myers went to the ‘pen two years ago. There the Phillies were faced with a similar bad situation- a lack of late inning relief pitching. But unlike here, they exhausted every option first. Myers wasn’t helping the rotation- so maybe he could help the ‘pen. It was an obvious move due to a lack of options- thus sane.

Moyer isn’t the same thing.

First, the Phillies are still over .500 in the games he’s started- which is all you expect on a 92 win team from the back of the rotation guys. Other than blowing out the ‘pen a bit, he hasn’t exactly hurt them yet.

Two, until Moyer actually does hurt the club tangibly, why weaken the bullpen? Happ has a role there- quality long relief on a team that has the firepower to take advantage of quality long relief. Fact: as long as the Phillies are .500 in Moyers’ starts, he is not hurting the team. Fact: moving Happ out of the bullpen right now hurts the relief corps. Let’s wait to move that quality arm out until JC Romero gets back or Moyer is a few games under even-steven at least.

Three- back to the Park decision. You have one in-house pitching move- and you want to use it now? The Phillies got 120 games left- games where another starter could get hurt or is ineffective. Moyer did win sixteen games last year, and fourteen the year before that. You got serious dollars guaranteed to this lefty through next year. Again- look at him as a fifth starter- you can’t give up on this experiment and his dollars and his potential twelve, thirteen win upside before you absolutely have to.

Fourth, there is no credible bullpen role for him. The Phillies carry twelve pitchers and use twelve pitchers.

That is not to say they should overthink this either. The Phillies have an open date next week, skip Moyer's turn. Push the decision ten to fifteen games down the road- knock another ten percent off the schedule before burning your hole card.

Surplus starting pitching never lasts. So don't be profligate in throwing away a credible story in Moyer. I would hold open that option on Happ as long as I could. I can almost guarantee the Phillies will face a bigger rotation crisis between now and Labor Day than a pair of shaky starts from a guy coming off sixteen wins. Moyer has kept them in enough games for the club to be over .500 in his starts. So let's let him stay there until he is a real problem- rather than an inconvenient one.

Talking About Quality

As I sit here observing both the Mets and the S&P lose big, today’s thoughts run to the Phillies veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer. Last night Jamie won his 226th big league game. You can’t even attribute that quality number to longevity- considering Jamie only had 34 wins at 30. Anyway, you can see Jamie’s numbers here.

Talk about quality. He’s been with the Phillies for about a year now: 31 starts- and he’s won a whopping 15 of them. I’m not sure the whole Flyers team beat that number? With apologies to Cole Hamels, he’s probably been their best starting pitcher, results-wise, over that span. And Moyer has gone a long way, along with dumping Abreu’s outrageous contract, to keeping Gillick’s record of player moves from being real questionable.

He’s easy to root for- and he has been a big plus around here- without getting a lot of credit.

More good news! With a win over Florida tonight- and a little luck in St. Louis- there might be a little magic here tomorrow! Be sure to check and see.