100 Greatest Phillies: 41 – Jack Taylor

Jack Taylor
Starting Pitcher
1892-1897

Career w/Phillies: 1505.1 IP / 96-77 / 4.34 ERA / 402 K

Early in Phillies history, Jack Taylor was one of the game’s best pitchers. A 26-game winner in 1895, the workhorse threw 300 innings three times as a Phillie, and almost eclipsed it once more. His ERAs hovered in the 4s, which was actually a good thing back in the late 1890s. But he did surrender a lot of hits, reaching the top 10 of that category throughout his career. And as a strikeout pitcher, he came close to hitting 100 a few times, which for the period was quite an accomplishment. His nickname was “Brewery Jack,” obviously, for his drinking habits. Sadly, he died of a kidney disease at age 26.

Comment: Taylor threw a lot for those Phillies teams, and was one of the franchise’s first ace pitchers. Always with pretty good numbers for his time, Taylor isn’t quite good enough to crack the top 40, but was pretty darn close.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.