Fan favorite Jamie Moyer is feeling good about his chances of returning to Major League Baseball this season. Training with the Colorado Rockies, along with a number of younger pitchers (but everyone is younger compared to Moyer), the 49-year old is hoping to successfully come back from Tommy John Surgery.
We remember what kind of impact Moyer can have ona pitching staff. At his age he is not going to throw a blazing fastball on any batter, but his mix of well-blended off-speed pitches and precise location makes him a difficult pitcher for a number of batters to figure out after seeing faster pitches on a routine basis. Moyer gets batters out by out-smarting them, rather than winning a battle of skill. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with that.
Moyer exhibits the very best in class when it comes to baseball, never shy of answering tough questions with genuine honesty and never afraid to criticize his own performance when needed. Moyer was a fine addition to the Phillies in 2007 and I feel his influence on the young pitching staff was one of the big changes that needed to be made in order to get the Phillies over the hump. Safe to see it was one move that helped pay off.
On Thursday Moyer was a guest on The Dan Patrick Show, where he was asked about bounties in baseball, what it takes to be a pitcher in Major League Baseball and more. you can listen to the interview here (interview begins at 30:30 mark).
The following transcript was provided by Sports Radio Interviews.
Do you have bounties in baseball?
“No there is nothing in baseball as far as a bounty goes. Hits are very taboo in the game, but you play so many games. You play and compete with so many people and in today’s game players move so much in the game that if you were to have a bounty at some point in time you’d be playing as a teammate with that guy you may have had the bounty for, so you gotta be careful what you wish for.”
When was the last time you hit a guy on purpose?
“Wow I don’t even know. Maybe in the minor leagues. [Dan Patrick: Never in the major leagues?] I can’t recall hitting…again with my velocity? Hitting somebody? They would kind of pick it up and say: ‘Hey you dropped something?’ They would give the ball back to me.”
How fast do you need to pitch to be able to be competitive?
“To me it’s not necessarily the velocity it’s the change of speed and getting results, so of course if you look at the game today it’s all based on velocity and that’s where the game has gone, but if you get results I don’t think velocity matters. The ball goes just as far when a hitters squares it up at 95 [mph] as it does at 80 or 81 [mph].”
At age 49 why would you stop if you could still compete?
“I agree. I still believe I can compete. I look back again to 2010 the last time I pitched and I had a pretty decent first half until certainly after the second half started my elbow started to bother me and I ended up having elbow problems and the rest of the season was a quagmire for me.”
What are your chances of making the roster with the Rockies?
“I think I have a good chance just like anybody else in this camp has a really good chance of making this team. It really depends on how I am going to fit in this organization, what they are looking for in this organization and I enjoy that competition.”
Photo: Getty Images
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