Biggest Claim to Fame for Moyer Has Been Flirting With No-Hitters

If things had gone a little differently, Jamie Moyer’s face might have been on the cover of most baseball magazines by now.

Three times in less than a year, Moyer has flirted with instant fame; he has come close to pitching no-hitters, only to lose them in the late innings.

The Cubs’ left-hander hasn’t attracted the attention others on the heavily-exposed club have received. But that is not as surprising as the fact that Moyer is succeeding the way he is.

“You look at the way he throws and you don’t figure he’s going to be that effective, but he is one heck of a pitcher,” says San Francisco Giants Manager Roger Craig, considered one of the best judges of pitching talent in the league.

Unlike some recent young phenoms, Moyer doesn’t possess a blistering fastball or a split-finger fastball. In fact, his repertoire looks rather simple compared to most.

“What he has done at a young age is master an off-speed pitch and change-up,” says Cubs’ Manager Gene Michael. “It’s rare for someone so young and relatively inexperienced to have this type of maturity on the mound.”

Moyer was called up by the Cubs on June 14 of last season. Two days later, he was making his major league debut against the Philadelphia Phillies and potential Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. He won 7-5. The 23-year old was 1-0.

“I was going on shear nerves then,” Moyer said. “It was all coming so quickly.”

Moyer was rocked in a game in which the Cubs surrendered 19 runs. He shook off the disappointment and on Aug. 16, he had his first brush with a no-hitter. He retired the first 19 batters against Montreal, settling for a two-hit shutout.

It was easy to think of Moyer’s game as a fluke, something to pass off for rookie luck.

But on April 13 of this year, Moyer again took a no-hitter into the ninth before Juan Samuel of the Phillies broke it up. The Cubs won the ballgame.

“I guess I was thinking more about that one,” Moyer said. “But believe me, my intention out on the mound is just to keep the club in the ballgame.”

Moyer got off to an 8-4 start before the All-Star break when he faced the San Francisco Giants on July 3. He held the Giants hitless until the sixth and at one point, struck out seven straight San Francisco batters, a Cubs’ record.

“Again, I don’t worry about stats and no-hitters. I wasn’t even thinking about that one,” Moyer said. “My job, as I see it, is to not get a lot of strikeouts but to keep the batters off base.”

Moyer has been able to do that with some degree of regularity. When he is on and his change-up is working, he has been nearly unhittable.

Moyer’s problem -- the same most players with less than one year’s experience would have in the major leagues -- is consistency.

“That’s the thing I have to work on. It’s no good for this club if I have a great outing and almost pitch a no-hitter one night and then get bombed the next time out,” Moyer said.

While Moyer is seemingly capable of throwing a no-hitter at any time, he also seems to be capable of being shelled in the early innings.

Despite his outstanding performances this year, his earned run average went above the 4.00 mark at the All-Star break. By the first week of August, the roller coaster performance had him with a 9-7 record and a 4.31 ERA.

“Jamie and (Greg) Maddux have to learn to get consistency. That’s what most young pitchers face,” Michael said. “But look at the talent there. Jamie Moyer is an outstanding example that you don’t have to throw the ball 95 miles per hour in this league to be effective.”

Moyer’s fastball has been clocked at around 86 mph. He realizes his limitations and has tried to learn to work around them.

“You have to blend the fastball with the off-speed stuff if it is to be effective. I still go to the well too often with the change,” he said. “But if I can keep the batters off stride then the fastball, no matter how fast it is, can be effective.”

Moyer, whose boyish appearance makes him look more like a batboy than a major league starting pitcher, was taken by the Cubs in the sixth round of the 1984 draft.

He was 9-3 in his first season of professional baseball and in 1985, won 15 of 23 decisions in the minors.

Last year, he climbed two classifications in two months to win a spot on the varsity. He started the year in Class AA Pittsfield before going to Iowa and ending up with the Cubs. He was 7-4 with a 5.05 ERA.