An All-Time Arkansas Travelers Great has Retired


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.

Embed from Getty Images

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

 PlayerYear with TravelersbWARfWARHall Rating
1Fergie Jenkins (HOF)1963, 1964, 196584.980.1157
2Jim Bunning1953, 195459.466.6119
3Bobo Newsom193148.155.993
4Jered Weaver200534.730.368
5Jerry Reuss196835.643.064
6John Lackey200136.843.064
7Ray Caldwell1925, 1926, 192738.126.064
8John Denny197332.427.961
9Andy Benes199731.736.259
10Francisco Rodriguez200224.416.557

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


About Caleb Hardwick

Caleb is the creator and administrator of the both Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia and Yakker. He's a lifelong baseball fan and native Arkansan currently marooned in Boston, Mass.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *