A new set of baseball cards

Bryce Harper, Card No. 661
in the 2012 Topps set.

Long-time readers of this corner of the web are aware that some time ago my mother-in-law gave me a complete set of 1987 Topps cards. Some of those cards have appeared here — Jamie Moyer, Barry Larkin, Graig Nettles, Ted Simmons, Gary Carter ... that gift has been a useful resource.

But 1987 is an increasingly long time ago, and I have for a couple of years considered investing in a new set. This year my wife ordered a set for my birthday, and that set finally arrived. I picked it up Tuesday and spent some time going through it.

I was disappointed that Jamie Moyer didn't get a card; he was included in the 1987 set, and I had hoped to have him in both. True, he didn't pitch at all last season, and was only signed to a minor league contract, but he's spent more time in the majors than (to pick on a couple of Twins represented in the set) Joe Benson and Tsuyoshi Nishioka.

Desmond Jennings has two cards. So does Ben Revere. But Moyer didn't get one. (Neither, I believe, did Andy Pettitte, who also didn't pitch in 2011 and returned this year.)

But I did have a little chuckle out of this. The last "checklist card" ends with No. 660. But there is a No. 661— Bryce Harper.

Topps, I surmise, didn't expect Harper to play in the majors, and when he did, hurried him into the set.

It sure won't be the last time he's in a set. And if I get another set 25 years from now, he just might be in that one too.

Contemplating Jamie Moyer

Jamie Moyer has 36 strikeouts. That
would rank second on the Twins staff.

Jamie Moyer had a 2-5 record and a 5.70 ERA when the Colorado Rockies decided that they could find more profitable ways to invest the roster spot, rotation berth and innings.

Denver is not a hospitable home for any pitcher, much less a 49-year-old who had difficulty breaking 80 mph with his best fastball. Moyer allowed 11 homers in 53.2 innings for the Rockies, which is a lot. Too many, even in the thin air.

Still, Moyer struck out 36 men — 6.0 per nine innings, a rate consistent with what he's done over the course of his long career. He might still be, in the right environment, a useful back-of-the-rotation arm.

The news Wednesday that Moyer had been designated for assignment by the Rockies led to immediate Twitter speculation by some Twins bloggers about whether he and Minnesota would be a fit.

I can't see it. Yes, Target Field is more forgiving than Coors Field, but Moyer would also be returning to the DH league, with its deeper lineups. More to the point, who would he displace from the rotation? The Twins have, at the moment, two pricey veterans (Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano) and three minimum wage guys (Scott Diamond, P.J. Walters and Cole DeVries), with another veteran (Nick Blackburn) nearly ready to return from the disabled list.

Pavano, Liriano and Blackburn aren't going anywhere, and Diamond and Walters shouldn't.

If Moyer gets to extend his career, it should be for a team in the National League that needs to win now and needs to fill a gap at the end of the rotation. The Twins are in the American League, rebuilding, with gaps at the front of the rotation.

That said, I must admit that I would be far more likely to make the trip to Minnesapolis to watch Moyer work than to see Blackburn.

The old records

Portrait of the pitcher as
a young man —
How can I pass up the chance
to use Jamie Moyer's
1987 card?

The Monday print column this week celebrates the return to a major-league rotation of Jamie Moyer, the last of the baby boom generation still playing in the bigs.

Moyer made the Colorado Rockies' rotation as a nonroster invitee this spring; the 49-year-old lefty is to start the second game of the season for the Rox.

When (if) Moyer gets his first win of the year, he will become the oldest winning pitcher ever, beating out Jack Quinn, one of the last legal practitioners of the spitball.

Moyer won’t be the oldest man to start a major league game; that will still be Satchel Paige, who was given a start on Sept. 25, 1965, by the Kansas City Athletics in a move that was part stunt and part humanitarian (it made Paige eligible for a pension).

Ol’ Satch “demeaned the standards of major league baseball” — the term used by The Sporting News in a 1948 editorial blasting the Cleveland Indians for signing the Negro League legend — to the tune of one hit allowed in three innings.

Paige was 58 when he made that final start, give or take a few years. (The mystery of Paige’s age was and remains integral to his legend.)

But if Moyer is effective enough to stick in the Rockies rotation, that will be at least as impressive as a 58-year-old carving up a lineup with Carl Yastrzemski and Tony Conigilaro on a one-game stand.

The end of the road for Jamie Moyer?

Jamie Moyer may not be the worst regular starting pitcher in the National League -- five other qualifiers have worse ERAs -- but he's in the running.

Plus he's 47. And now his elbow hurts.

Even if he can avoid ligament replacement surgery -- and I suspect that would be in the offing for a 27-year-old pitcher with this injury, as incomplete as the diagnosis may be -- it's bound to be difficult for him to continue pitching.

His has been an odd, even unique, career. I wrote a column earlier this year marveling at his longevity.

As he said in the piece linked to above, if this is it, he's had a great career.

---

Nice job tonight by Brian Duensing, not so nice from Anthony Slama. I know I'm more skeptical about Slama than a lot of people, but the notion espoused earlier this week by Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press that Slama will soon be closing is just silly.

Notes, quotes and comments

Akinori Iwamura (pictured) has been designated for assignment by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are going to use the roster space for primo prospect Pedro Alvarez.

Iwamura is the Pirates' highest paid player, but he's lost his second base job to Neil Walker and is blocked at third base by Alvarez.

Theoretically, Iwamura would be a good option for the Twins at third base. But I'm wary of him right now:

• As poorly as Nick Punto has hit this year (.241/.314/.307), his numbers are better than Iwamura has (.182/.292/.262).
• Iwamura had significant knee surgery last season, and his defensive range is said to have been lacking this year.

This probably isn't the time to grab him. (But if the Pirates will swap him for Brendan Harris, that's fine by me.)

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Let's see ... noon game after a night game, both teams jetting out of town after the game, and a power pitcher matchup of Ubaldo Jimenez (1.19 ERA, 57 hits in 93.1 innings) versus Francisco Liriano.

Runs should be really scarce today at Target Field. (Now watch; it'll be a 9-7 final with neither starter making it out of the fourth inning.)

--

I don't know what's gone haywire with the poll. I do know I'm not unique.

--

Jamie Moyer, age 47, after beating the Yankees on Wednesday:

I don't think that I'm old. So I don't believe it. Regardless of what people think or say, I still feel like I can go out and compete, and that's my ultimate job.

Poll stuff: Pitchers and catchers

On the previous poll: Twenty-three people participated in the Hall of Fame question.

Sixteen (69 percent) think Jack Morris should be in; eight (39 percent) voted for Jim Bunning; five (21 percent) for Jamie Moyer; one each (4 percent) for Rube Marquard and Jesse Haines; zero for Ted Lyons.

Personally, I rank them Bunning, Morris, Lyons, Moyer, Haines and Marquard, and probably draw the line after Morris, but perhaps after Lyons.

The new poll, on Wilson Ramos, is up.

The young and the old

On Friday, Starlin Castro of the Cubs became the first major league player born in the 1990s. The shortstop merely hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat and followed that with a three-run triple, and yes, six RBIs is a record for a major league debut.

My sense of it is that calling up Castro was a panic move by the Cubs. He's had all of 57 games in Double-A, and despite the big debut has not displayed much power in the minors. Still, the really great talents don't have to spend much time in the bushes. We'll see if Castro is a really great talent.

Also on Friday, the venerable Jamie Moyer, famed in song and print columns, threw a two-hit shutout at the Atlanta Braves. Granted, the Braves lineup is rather depleted by injury these days, but a 28-batter complete game is impressive on any level, much less by somebody 27 years older than Starlin Castro.

Poll stuff: Pitchers and catchers

Before I record the results of last week's poll, a few words about the new one:

It follows a tangent from the Monday print column, in which I suggest that Jamie Moyer's career is as worthy of Hall of Fame induction as that of some guys who are in the Hall.

So there are six names up there, four of them in and two out. I could easily have expanded this list in either direction — Billy Pierce, Bucky Walters, Lon Warneke among those left out, Burleigh Grimes, Vic Willis, Jack Chesbro and Catfish Hunter among those in. Among others.

In case you want to take this question seriously enough to look at the records of the six I selected, here they are:

Jim Bunning, 224-184, 3.27. Pitched 1955-71, mostly for Detroit and Philadelphia (NL). Now U.S. senator from Kentucky.

Jesse Haines, 210-158, 3.64. Pitched 1920-37 for St. Louis (NL). Threw a "knuckleball" that was probably more the knuckle curve of today.

Ted Lyons, 260-230, 3.67. Pitched 1923-42, 46 for Chicago (AL), the late interruption being for World War II. Famous "Sunday pitcher" the last six years or so of his career, starting once a week in the Sunday doubleheader.

Rube Marquard, 201-177, 3.08. Pitched 1908-25, mostly for New York (NL), Brooklyn and Boston (NL). Almost everything he told Lawrence Ritter for the book "Glory of Their Times" proved to be a lie.

Jack Morris, 254-186, 3.90. Pitched 1977-94, mostly for Detroit but with one memorable season with the Twins. Game Seven of 1991, baby.

Jamie Moyer, 261-197, 4.22 . Pitched 1986-present. Moved ahead of Lyons on the all-time wins list Sunday.

How old is Jamie Moyer? When he broke in with the Cubs, he was a teammate of Gary Matthews. Last night, he pitched against Gary Matthews Jr.— and Junior is 35 himself.

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OK, back to the past. The question was who is the second-best catcher in Twins history. Earl Battey won a solid majority of the 41 votes (23, or 56 percent), as he should have.

Brian Harper had eight votes (19 percent), A.J. Pierzynski six (14 percent), Butch Wynegar two (4 percent) and None of the Above also had two votes.