Tuesday Tidbits

Checking off the various and sundry items from my virtual notebook.

• I’ve got a longer post on Jack Morris to come soon, but if you, like me, like the lively debate about whether The Cat is a Hall of Famer, check out Rob Neyer‘s post.



• Former Tiger Brian Moehler continues to hang around. Today he signed a minor-league pact with the Astros. The 36-year-old righty somehow managed to hover around .500 with some dismal Tigers teams.
  
  In his 11-year career — which has featured stops in Cincinnati, Houston, Florida and Houston again — Moehler has cobbled together a 64-83 record with a 4.75 ERA.
  
  And how’s this for making a living? BaseballReference.com estimates he’s earned $10,390,000 through 2007.
• This tidbit is a tad stale, but you might have missed it last week in Peter Gammons‘ piece on ESPN.com (subscription required):
  

  [O]ther than Verlander, there are questions about Detroit’s starting pitching. Jeremy Bonderson still doesn’t have a changeup, has a 4.78 career ERA and never been as low as 4.00. Rogers will be 44 in November. Nate Robertson is a career 42-65, 4.60. Willis has gone from 22 to 12 to 10 in wins, 2.63 to 3.87 to 5.17 in ERA in a pitchers’ park in the National League.

  What do you think of that assessment?

Finally, Happy Birthday, Jair Jurrjens. The Braves’ new starter turns 22 today.