Monday, July 20, 2009

Jamie Moyer's Milestone

Jamie Moyer is slated to take the mound for the Phillies on Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs. It will be the 603rd start of his career, moving him into a tie with Randy Johnson for 20th all-time. Moyer is also knocking on the door of the top ten in career earned runs allowed, 24 behind #10 Bert Blyleven (1830). He's also getting close to 2000 career runs allowed.

However, neither run record will occur in the immediate future. He will, however, soon reach a milestone that may not be reached for a very long time, if ever. The seventh hit he allows Wednesday night (or from this point forward) will be the 4000th hit allowed of his career. He'll be the 39th pitcher in baseball history to reach that mark and the first since Tom Glavine in 2006. Behind Moyer, there's no one even close to 4000.

Randy Johnson is currently at 3339 hits allowed. John Smoltz just passed 3000, 37-year-old Andy Pettitte is at 2990. Always hittable Livan Hernandez is still five seasons of 200+ hits away from the mark. The top pitchers 30 and younger are Mark Buehrle (30) at 2043, Jon Garland (29) at 1850, and CC Sabathia (28) at 1656. It's hard to stay around long enough to give up 4000 hits, especially with the increase in strikeouts these days compared to the past.

Here are the last ten pitchers to reach the 4000 hit plateau:

NameDateHitter (hit)
Tom GlavineSeptember 19, 2006Josh Willingham (single)
Roger ClemensJune 22, 2006Jason Kubel (double)
Greg MadduxJuly 31, 2005Chad Tracy (double)
Frank TananaAugust 8, 1993Carlos Garcia (single)
Bert BlylevenJuly 14, 1988Ken Gerhart (single)
Don SuttonApril 22, 1985
Bobby Grich (single)
Tommy JohnJuly 21, 1984Jackie Gutierrez (single)
Steve CarltonApril 8, 1984
Nick Esasky (double)
Fergie Jenkins
May 1, 1983
Mike Scioscia (single)
Phil NiekroSeptember 22, 1982
Alan Ashby (single)

Even if someone does reach 4000 hits after Moyer, I have to believe Phil Niekro will be the last pitcher to give up 5000 hits in his career.

2 comments:

Ted Simmons Speed Camp said...

Keep it coming, theJay. I'm a freshly minted BCB refugee (though I popped by today just in time to see jacob act like an ass, a preachy "lurker" write 300 irony-free words complaining about BCB becoming moralistic, and Jeff Sackmann, who abandoned the site, complain about the way KL was running it). Now I'm relying on a handful of blogs I'm hitting every day to get my baseball fix at work, and this is one of them.

Don't leave me hanging! :)

Theron Schultz said...

Aw man, now I guess I have to post something. I've got some ideas but haven't had the gumption lately to bring them to fruition.