Pat Gillick, Where Are You?

It's been a strange, strange few days for your World Champion Philiadelphia Phillies.  First, they replace Pat Burrell with Raul Ibanez in one of the first head scratchers of the winter.  Then today they announce they've resigned Jamie Moyer... for two years.The deets:

Moyer went 16-7 with a 3.71 ERA in 33 starts last season and pitched six strong innings as the Phillies won Game 3 of the World Series. He is 35-21 with a 4.33 ERA in 74 starts since the Phillies acquired him from Seattle in August 2006, and the Souderton, Pa., native has 246 career wins. "I'm sure if you ask Jamie, he'll say that he will play out a few more contracts," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Monday. "I know on paper it probably says this is his last contract, but it will be fun to see how it plays out."Amaro is confident Moyer will find a way to win at an age when some players are in their second decade of retirement. Moyer depends on pinpoint control and offspeed pitches. Terms of Moyer's contract were not disclosed. "If his stuff does go backward, he'll try to figure it out and how to pitch through it," Amaro said. "That's the beauty of Jamie Moyer."

The Phillies (and Moyer for that matter) are really in uncharted territory here.  Only three pitchers have thrown in the majors past the age of 45: Hoyt Wilhelm, Jack Quinn, and Phil Niekro. Wilhelm pitched pretty well as a reliever until the age of 49 despite a high walk total, retiring in 1972. Jack Quinn pitched until he was 49 in 1933.  His last four years were mostly in relief where he was effective the first three years, then fell off the last year. Phil Niekro is the only starter of the group, which almost doesn't count because he was a knuckleballer.  Despite that fact, Phil was a below average pitcher until finally cashing it in at age 48 in 1987. What does all this mean for Jamie Moyer?  There's no precedent, which means Moyer is in uncharted territory.  The good news is, there's no record of failure at this age.  The bad news is, no one has ever done this before, which makes Moyer's chances on continuing much longer are rather grim. Moyer rebounded from a subpar 2007 to pitch pretty well in 2008, so well that he got a 2 year contract.  Ruben Amaro Jr's flippant comments towards Moyer are cute, but they really don't explain why a pitcher his age, with his declining K/BB ratio, needed a two year deal.  The fact that they didn't disclose the terms means someone is saving face and I assume it's the Phillies. I hope Moyer keeps pitching well.  It's a fun story and there's nothing better than a player defying the odds.  But I wouldn't have bet my money that he'd do it for two years and I'm not sure why the Phillies are, either.