Jered Weaver, a 12-year major league veteran and former Arkansas Travelers pitcher, announced his retirement from baseball yesterday.
Weaver appeared in eight games with Arkansas in 2005 and went 3-3 with a 3.98 ERA.
Despite struggling with a 5.15 ERA over his last three seasons, Weaver put together a solid career with the Los Angeles Angels. He was selected to three all-star games and led the league in 2010 with 233 strikeouts. In all, Weaver’s big league record is easily enough to rank him high on the list of all-time Arkansas Travelers pitching greats.
All-Time Travelers Pitching Greats
| Player | Year with Travelers | bWAR | fWAR | Hall Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fergie Jenkins (HOF) | 1963, 1964, 1965 | 84.9 | 80.1 | 157 |
| 2 | Jim Bunning | 1953, 1954 | 59.4 | 66.6 | 119 |
| 3 | Bobo Newsom | 1931 | 48.1 | 55.9 | 93 |
| 4 | Jered Weaver | 2005 | 34.7 | 30.3 | 68 |
| 5 | Jerry Reuss | 1968 | 35.6 | 43.0 | 64 |
| 6 | John Lackey | 2001 | 36.8 | 43.0 | 64 |
| 7 | Ray Caldwell | 1925, 1926, 1927 | 38.1 | 26.0 | 64 |
| 8 | John Denny | 1973 | 32.4 | 27.9 | 61 |
| 9 | Andy Benes | 1997 | 31.7 | 36.2 | 59 |
| 10 | Francisco Rodriguez | 2002 | 24.4 | 16.5 | 57 |
For simplicity, I chose to rank these players using Adam Darowski’s Hall Rating metric, part of his fabulous Hall of Stats project. Hall Rating is based on Baseball-Reference.com’s Wins Above Average and Wins Above Replacement and makes adjustments for things like position and schedule. The result is a handy little metric that gives us an easy way to compare the all-time greatest Arkansas Travelers pitchers.
Weaver ranks well behind Travelers legends Fergie Jenkins and Jim Bunning, but is rightfully honored among the top pitchers in Travelers history. Of course, Weaver already recieved the ultimate honor in 2013 when the Travelers immortalized him with his own bobblehead.
Related post: Mike Trout is Climbing the List of All-Time Arkansas Travelers Greats