FanGraphs presents a nice discussion of Jamie Moyer’s use of his fastball, which is way up this season.

Ump Bump noted the trend back in May and suggested that maybe he lost the zone with his cutter, curve and changeup, and needed to go heavy with the fastball to keep his walks down. His in zone rate is way down and early in the season his walk numbers were up before they settled back to near his career average recently, so this might be the case.

Moyer’s fastball isn’t very fast, so it’s not surprising that hitters are bombing home runs off Jamie since they can key on the pitch. Usually a pitcher’s decline comes with the loss of his fastball, especially if he doesn’t adjust (see Mike Mussina). Moyer’s career seems to be coming to an end with a loss of his breaking pitches.