April 13, 2008
Greg Maddux, Super Genius
Tim Keown writes the greatest article ever on Greg Maddux. There's the story of the blind-folded catcher. There's this great bit on Brad Penny:
Right. But when Brad Penny and Maddux were teammates on the Dodgers, during the last two months of 2006, they had a conversation one day that led Penny to reach a stunning conclusion: This guy knows my stuff better than I do. It was eerie, really, how easily Maddux dissected Penny's repertoire and suggested ways to maximize it. Penny, figuring he'd take advantage of the situation, asked Maddux to call a game for him against the Cubs. And so, on the night of Sept. 13, Penny glanced into the dugout before every delivery and found Maddux, who signaled the next pitch by looking toward different parts of the ballpark. Penny threw seven scoreless innings with no walks and beat the Cubs 6-0. "Maddux probably won't tell you that story," Penny says. He's right.
And don't miss the update, 17%. That tells you what the great pitchers have always known, the steal is useless if you get the batter out.
Posted by David Pinto at
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Another reason why--in spite of the atrocity that was the five year, $45 million contract given to Juan Pierre--the single most infuriating moment of the 2006-2007 offseason as a Dodger fan was watching their management let Maddux go to San Diego for a trivial amount of money. With all of the things that having Maddux on a team does (as noted in the article in jaw-dropping detail), he could be as bad as Odalis Perez and still be worth over $10 million for one season. Since he's still clearly at the very least a durable major league average quality pitcher (and better than that at the end of the 2006 season), the decision to let him go remains baffling to me
So, can we now start making the argument that Maddux is actually the better pitcher than Roger Clemens. I've been making that argument for years actually, but everyone was wowed by Rocket's steroid-fueled strikeout totals.
I thought Maddux was the best pitcher of the 1990s, bascially because he pitched so much more than anyone else. Bill James made the argument for Clemens due to Rogers' strikeouts. I still lean toward Maddux myself.
I am always amazed watching Maddux run that two-seamer back over the plate against lefties. I've seen right-handed hitters swing at pitches that end up BEHIND their knees, seemingly out of frustration, knowing there's nothing they can do with that.
And, you've gotta love Maddux' assertion that the 0-2 waste pitch is the dumbest thing he's ever heard of. He attacks on 0-2, with an 85 mph fastball on the black or a quality breaking pitch for a strike. A joy to behold.
