Jaime Moyer to Philadelphia

It seems fitting to have the inaugural post at Leather, Runs and Repeat should be about the Jaime Moyer trade. Moyer has been a favorite pitcher of mine for a long time. Partly because I came to love the game as a Mariners fan back when he was compiling more wins for that team than any other pitcher. He's a classic finesse pitcher who gets tagged with the "crafty lefty" moniker because he doesn't really have a blistering fastball in his pitch selection. A Jaime Moyer strikeout is practically the very definition of "pulling the string" as each strike in the sequence comes in slower than the last. It's satisfying to see someone succeed just by changing speeds and location.

Now Moyer and I have both left Seattle. (As much as I'd love to see that franchise do well I think they're a long way from recording another winning season.) Part of me wonders if this is part of Pat Gillick's secret plan to funnel the 2003 Mariner starting rotation over to Philadelphia. After the complete disaster of bringing Ryan Franklin over it's hard to understand why they let Gillick tie his own shoes let alone make deals for pitchers who give up a lot of home runs at pitching friendly ballparks. Ryan Franklin in particular is an extreme fly-ball pitcher who lets a lot of balls sail right out of the yard. Moving him over to that shoebox of a stadium they play in in Philadelphia led to some sadly predictable results.

Seattle's 2003 Starting Rotation (courtesy of www.fangraphs.com):

Starter	W	L	ERA	GS	CG	ShO	IP	H	HR	R	ER	BB	SO	WHIP	pLI	WPA
Total	75	58	3.92	162	8	3	1,026.1	973	133	476	447	337	653	1.28	0.94	8.66
Jamie Moyer	21	7	3.27	33	1	0	215.0	199	19	83	78	66	129	1.23	0.92	3.69
Ryan Franklin	11	13	3.57	32	2	1	212.0	199	34	93	84	61	99	1.23	0.98	1.90
Gil Meche	15	13	4.59	32	1	0	186.1	187	30	97	95	63	130	1.34	0.98	1.35
Joel Pineiro	16	11	3.78	32	3	2	211.2	192	19	94	89	76	151	1.27	0.90	1.32
Freddy Garcia	12	14	4.51	33	1	0	201.1	196	31	109	101	71	144	1.33	0.90	0.40

Moyer has struggled with the home runs allowed in recent seasons (44 of 'em in 2004. Ouch!). And his win record isn't what it used to be. But that's a product of terrible run support from a lackluster lineup. I hope Philadelphia's bats will do better for this "thinking man's pitcher." I hope he befuddles many National League hitters with that change-up.

Philadelphia stands to benefit from this trade as the 43-year old veteran brings a lot of intelligence to the game that tends to rub off on the rest of the starting rotation. As good as Cole Hamels has been lately he could be devastating if he picks up some tricks from old man Moyer. And this is a return of sorts for the Sellersville, PA native. Conversely, his absence from the Mariners pitching staff places that rotation squarely in rebuilding mode as they're giving up a substantial player for a couple of minor league arms.