Baseball Prospectus

MLB Statistics

Statistics for All Levels

Plate Discipline

Comparable Players (Similarity Index )

BP Annual Player Comments

Year		Comment
2011		Having returned from the outskirts of oblivion in 2009, Weaver picked up where he left off as the Dodgers' utility pitcher in 2010, and carried a 3.09 ERA through the end of June despite a DL stint due to lower-back tightness. Alas, he was lit up for a 9.43 ERA the rest of the way while battling knee tendinitis; he did three more weeks on the DL and had three other stretches of at least 10 days without pitching. His slider, which had been his best swing-and-miss offering, turned into a piñata, and he was knocked for a .366 BABIP and 1.9 home runs per nine innings over his final nine appearances. If healthy, Weaver can be useful in a minor role.
2010		After pitching his way out of the majors in 2007 and putting up ugly numbers in Triple-A in 2008, Weaver reunited with Torre and the Dodgers for what looked like a last stop before Atlantic League oblivion. Injuries opened up work for him as a utility pitcher—spot starting, long relief, mop-up duty, extra-inning cannon fodder—and he turned out to be as handy as a roll of duct tape, finishing seventh on the club in combined win expectancy (SNLVAR + WXRL). Despite averaging just 4.5 innings per start, he put up a 3.13 ERA and a .519 Support-Neutral Winning Percentage as a starter, and a 4.02 Fair Run Average with 7.8 strikeouts per nine as a reliever. Though still fairly helpless against lefties, he'll survive to pitch another year so long as he can miss righty bats.
2009		Speaking of guys who are finished, Jeff Weaver hasn't put up an ERA below 5.70 or WHIP below 1.50 since 2005.
2008		Trolling the off-season pitching market is often like last-minute Christmas shopping. You talk yourself into things. Fifteen minutes before the mall closes, you find yourself in the DVD section of one of the big stores, and Navy Seals finds its way into your hands. It's not that you know someone who wants Navy Seals, it's not even that you like the movie yourself, it's just there, and it's on sale, and it's got Charlie Sheen. Jeff Weaver is the Navy Seals of pitchers. Weaver always seems to put it together for a month or so each season, a stretch of starts that will later result in some GM talking himself into signing him. In 2006, to the Cardinals' great delight, that month was October. Last year, it was June. Just remember that if you give them Weaver, your fan base might fake some enthusiasm, but they'll be looking for a gift receipt, hoping that he can be returned.
2007		Not only was F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong about there not being second acts in life in American lives, there are often more than the Shakespearean standard of five. Weaver is living proof of that, having journeyed through a season that moved him from the rocky shores of humiliation to the beaches of redemption. The displacement-by-sibling in Anaheim and October heroics in St. Louis aside, there is still the matter of his pitching. Prior to 2006, Weaver had only allowed more than a hit per inning once, but safeties were falling much more frequently in both stops last year. He`s become a lot more susceptible to the long ball over the past two seasons as well. Still, something seemed to click once Dave Duncan got a hold of him--Weaver sported a 6.71 ERA on the season after his fourth Cardinal start, then dropped it a run by posting a 4.18 mark over his final eleven. That was followed by his 2.43 ERA in five postseason starts, capped by his gem in the World Series clincher. Weaver was 29 last year, the same age as Dave Stewart and Chris Carpenter when they first came under Duncan`s tutelage. We`re not saying that Weaver will win 20 games if he comes back to St. Louis, but he might want to give it some serious thought. Otherwise, he`s at least guaranteed to eat innings, and when teams are casting about for back-of-the-rotation guys, that sometimes counts as much as results.
2006		Weaver ate innings like Mr. Creosote, even when going badly. Through his first ten starts he sported a 5.97 ERA and averaged six innings per start.. But after May 29, he settled down to post a 3.60 ERA and almost seven per. In comparing his two seasons as a Dodger, note that while his strikeout rate remained virtually constant, he cut his walks by more than a third. Meanwhile, his home run rate nearly doubled. The lesson seems to be, `Don`t throw too many strikes, kid, or you`ll spend a lot of time yelling into your glove.` He won`t live up to the hype that surrounded him in his early years, but the free agent market should make him a very wealthy LAIM nonetheless.
2005		One of the least popular pitchers ever to call Yankee Stadium home moved to Chavez Ravine and was pretty much rotation filler. An ERA of 4.00 while playing half your games in Dodger Stadium is nothing to really write home about, but most clubs could use someone to just take the ball every fifth day and give the club a good chance to win the game, especially one with as many question marks as the Dodgers. They'll need more of the same—or slightly better—as he enters the final year of his contract in 2005.
2004		Probably the most unpopular Yankee since Ed Whitson, Weaver ends his pinstriped career with a 5.35 ERA, one unfortunate World Series appearance, and, you'd imagine, one heck of a smile on his face. After Whitson was sent away fruen New York in 1986, he went on to have a number of good seasons with the Padres. Weaver has been dropped into a great situation in L.A., with a good infield defense in a pitcher's park. His ERA could drop under 4.00 just based on that alone. He's a great fantasy pick in '04.
2003		Barring a trade, Weaver is almost certain to wind up in the pen from among the seven starting pitchers on the roster after Clemens re-signed and Contreras was brought in. Weaver is also one of the guys that if the Yankees do deal a starter, they should hold onto. Jumbo Wells is ancient, Andy Pettitte is a risk, and El Duque’s age and health record aren’t exactly inspiring. Weaver won’t grow up to be the next David Cone, but he should be an outstanding third starter for your 2004 Yankees. Hopefully; between his animated mound presence and his sweet slider, he can settle in and become a star.
2002		With TV play-by-play man Josh Lewin fleeing Detroit to work for the Rangers, Weaver remains the only compelling reason to tune in to Tiger broadcasts. His stuff remains as untameable as ever; unfortunately, so does his temper. His end-of-season outburst after Garner left him in to absorb a beating in his final start was only the culmination of the heaviest workload Garner had placed on a starting pitcher since Cal Eldred’s shoulder broke down in the mid-1990s. The combination of Weaver’s consistent mechanics and a pair of relatively light workloads in 1999 and 2000 should keep him healthy. If the Tigers get a real fly-chaser to man center field, Weaver’s ERA could drop by a full run.
2001		The most exciting player on the Tigers (and not just because he led the league in hit batsmen), Jeff Weaver has absolutely electric stuff. Pitchers are constantly tinkering with things, but Weaver is in the early stages of his career, when such adjustments can pay off handsomely. Weaver’s biggest physical change was the addition of a cut fastball that resulted in a 137-point drop in the OPS left-handed hitters posted against him. Maybe even more important was his increased maturity on the mound. Pay no attention to the 11-15 record; according to Michael Wolverton’s Support-Neutral work, Weaver was the sixth-unluckiest pitcher in the majors last year.
2000		Weaver looked like the superstar the Tigers needed, reaching the majors less than a year out of college and giving up two runs or fewer in 10 of his first 14 starts. He was hitting 94 mph on the gun with an effortless three-quarters motion, and it seemed like every pitch he threw was on the corner at the knees. In short, he looked every bit like the once-in-a-decade pitcher who arrives from a college campus with nothing to learn about getting major-league hitters out--a Mike Mussina for the ’00s. In the gutsiest and wisest decision made by an organization all year, the Tigers refused to let his success obscure the fact that 1999 was his first full year of professional baseball, and put him on a strict pitch limit: 100 pitches for his first six weeks and 110 after that. And they lived stuck by that rule, bending it for a total of one pitch all season. And yet, a funny thing happened:   W L ERA IP H W K HR Through June 22 6 3 2.93 86 65 25 51 9 After June 22 3 9 8.46 77.2 111 31 63 18 Weaver’s descent into hell was quick and complete: he gave up six runs or more eight times in his last 14 starts as his overall numbers went from outstanding to just barely standing at all. He wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t missing the life on his pitches. And he wasn’t able to turn things around, exasperating the team that had such high hopes for him. The only chink in Weaver’s armor early in the year was that his delivery, coming as close to sidearm as it did, appeared to make him vulnerable to left-handed hitters. And indeed, he did have a significant platoon split. Was it possible that his troubles in the second half of the year were the result of managers stacking their lineup with eight or nine left-handed hitters, leaving Weaver with no easy outs in the lineup? Take a look. Weaver’s June 27 start was filed under "July", in order to give a clearer picture of his decline and fall:
1999		The Tigers’ first-round selection last June, he didn’t break a sweat while ringing up hitters at two levels, and was even better in the Midwest League playoffs, going 16 innings without an earned run. In fairness, first-round college pitchers - especially a senior like Weaver was - should dominate the low minors right from the get-go. But he was the only pitcher from the 1998 draft to be assigned to the Arizona Fall League, where he more than held his own. On the very fast track, could be in Detroit by September.

BP Articles

BP Chats

BP Roundtables

PITCHf/x Pitcher Profile

A Collaboration between BrooksBaseball.net and Baseball Prospectus - Pitch classifications provided by Pitch Info LLC

Although he has not thrown an MLB pitch in 2024, Jeff Weaver threw 4,001 pitches that were tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2007 and 2010, all of them occuring in Spring Training. In 2010, he relied primarily on his Sinker (90mph) and Slider (80mph), also mixing in a Curve (75mph) and Change (82mph). He also rarely threw a Fourseam Fastball (90mph).