#250

Last night Jaime Moyer joined an elite group of pitchers in baseball history. He won his 250th career game, at the tender age of 46.

Moyer won't get the acclaim of a lot of hall of fame pitchers who are also on that list, mainly because he's in his 23rd season of play, has a career ERA of 4.22 and only 2200+ career strike outs.

What makes Moyer a great pitcher is his work ethic and his command of the skill of pitching. He never had a lights out fastball, in fact, his fastball never really hit over 80 miles per hour. He never really had a strong curve ball. He just knew how to throw the ball over the plate, hit his location and get people out.

He's played for 7 different teams, and looks like he'll finish out his career in Philadelphia. He's also under contract for 1 more year, so it's likely he'll play the 2010 season as well.

What makes this accomplishment noteworthy is that Moyer could be the last guy to reach 250 wins for a very long time. The only 2 guys with over 200 wins pitching right now are John Smoltz and Andy Pettite. Both are waining and would need 2-3 more full seasons to really get close to 250, and with injuries, it doesn't look likely. No one else with 180-190 wins looks like they'll reach it, so it could be up to some younger guys like Johan Santana (116 wins so far at age 30 or Roy Halladay 139 wins at 32. Both of them have the pitching abilities to reach it, but it would take a combination of winning teams and injury free baseball for roughly the next 5-7 years for them to even come close.

Something to keep an eye on over the next few years. For now, Moyer gets to be the latest in a group of historical pitchers.