Monday,
December 17, 2007
Best of our Generation
There is one more
ramification of the Mitchell Report that people just haven’t been talking
enough about. For so long, we have heard Roger
Clemens referred to as the best pitcher of our generation, or the best
pitcher of the last half century. Although, for the same reason that I would
call Barry Bonds the best player of
my lifetime, I would probably still call Clemens the best pitcher of our
lifetime. However, I also fully believe what I said last week- that I believe
that Roger Clemens should now be
held to the same scrutiny that so many have put Bonds through.
Barry Bonds is
the best player of the last quarter century, at least, if not the last half-century.
For the pitchers, it isn’t as cut and dry. In my mind, there are two pitchers
that I would argue could be called the best pitcher of the last 25-50 years. Roger Clemens is one of them, but who
is the other?
In my mind, the
best pitcher that I have seen in my lifetime has to be Greg Maddux. You could argue for Nolan Ryan’s strikeouts. A point could be made for the dominance of
Randy Johnson for a decade. Tom Seaver? Jim Palmer? Steve Carlton? Sure, they all fit into the hard-throwing, dominating
types. However, Greg Maddux has
numbers that are as good as any of them, all without hitting as high as 92 on
the radar gun.
Maddux was
successful because he has as good of control as anyone in baseball history. He
also has so much movement on his fastball. Maddux has a good changeup, and
occasionally will throw a curveball. He is a fastball pitcher without a blazing
fastball. And yet, when the 2008 season begins, Greg Maddux will be pitching in his 23rd big league
season. Sometime early in the season, he will win his 350th game,
and it is likely he will win his 360th game too. His best pitch, or
his signature pitch, would have to be that tailing fastball that ran over the
inside corner to a lefty.
To me, Greg Maddux is the definition of
“PITCHER.” There have been many other
pitchers who have had good years by showing great control, not walking people,
getting great movement and battling. But how many of them have lasted a decade
or longer? His former teammate Tom
Glavine has certainly made a nice career without throwing very hard. Brad Radke
was very good for a decade. Bob
Tewksbury’s control was impeccable for a half-decade.
But numbers don’t
lie. With the Mitchell Report making public what we have all suspected for a
long time about Roger Clemens, it is now obvious that Greg Maddux is the best
pitcher of our generation.
But if you need
to be sold, let’s look at some of those numbers:
·
8
All-Star games – 3 times a starter
·
4 Cy Young Awards – 1992-1995. He had five other top five
finishes.
·
Gold
Glove Awards – Maddux broke Jim Kaat’s record of 16
pitcher Gold Gloves by winning his 17th in 2007. 2003 was the only
year since 1990 that he did not win.
·
Wins
– 347 career wins. That is 9th All-Time. He
won 20 twice and 19 five other times. He won 15 or more games 17 straight years
and 18 of his last 20 seasons.
·
ERA –
Led the league in ERA four times, and he has finished in the top five ten
times.
·
WHIP
– led the league four times and finished in the top three nine times.
·
Innings
Pitched – One thought was that the Braves just let him get his six innings.
Clearly that was not the case. He has pitched 200 or more innings in 18 of the
last 20 years. In 2002, he pitched in 199 1/3 innings. In 2007, he pitched 198
innings. Five times he led the NL in
Innings Pitched. 11 times he has been in the Top 5. He is 16th on
the All-Time Innings Pitched list.
·
Strikeouts
– No, he hasn’t been a strikeout an inning guy, but did you know that Maddux is
#11 on the all-time strikeout list with 3,273? Although he never led the league
in strikeouts, he finished in the top three five times.
·
Games
Started – Led the league in starts seven times. Finished in the top five 15
times. Only five pitchers in big league history have started more games.
·
He
has 109 complete games and 35 shutouts.
·
When
he made his big league debut with the Cubs on September 3, 1986 at the age of
20, he was the youngest player in the league. He will pitch in 2008 at the age
of 42.
Baseball Reference
has the stats to show Most Similar Pitchers. The ten most similar pitchers to
Maddux are Tim Keefe, Tom Seaver, Fergie Jenkins, Don Sutton, Roger Clemens,
Pete Alexander, Kid Nichols, Warren Spahn, Charley Radbourn and Tom
Glavine. Eight Hall of Famers and two 300 game winners
who should reach the Cooperstown five years after they retire.
Maddux was the
Cubs second round pick in 1984 out of his Las Vegas high school. Names like Mark McGwire, Shane Mack, Oddibe McDowell and Terry Mulholland were some of the top first rounders
that year, but I would bet that all of the teams wish they would have taken
Maddux instead. Following the 1992 season, and his first Cy Young Award, he
signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves. There he teamed with fellow 300
game winner Tom
Glavine and John Smoltz to form
an incredible trifecta. Baseball America recently
awarded the trio with a lifetime
achievement award. He stayed with the Braves for a dozen years and in 2004
he signed with the Chicago Cubs who hoped that he would combine with Mark Prior and Kerry Wood to make a new dominating trio. The Cubs traded Maddux at
the July trade deadline in 2006 to the Dodgers for Cesar Izturis. Following the season, he
signed with the Padres where he spent the 2007. Shortly after the season he
resigned with the Padres for more more
year and $10 million.
For about the
last four or five years, I have heard an argument that he should retire. Why?
Because the greats should retire while they are at the top of their game,
right? Steve Carlton shouldn’t have
pitched for the Twins in 1987. Harmon Killebrew shouldn’t have DHd
for the Royals in 1975. Randy Johnson
should have retired years ago.
Maddux may no
longer a top of the rotation starting pitcher, but that does not mean that he
should have retired. First of all, he is 41 and still a league average pitcher.
Look at the numbers the last two years.
2006 – 15-14 with a 4.14 ERA
2007 – 14-11 with a 4.20 ERA
So, did Maddux
get worse from 2006 to 2007? No, he stayed the same. However, the league
average ERA in 2006 was 4.58. Amazingly, the league average ERA in 2007 in the
NL dropped down to 4.11. That was the first time that his ERA had been above
league average since 1988. But again, is was pretty
much league average, so why should he quit? Who are we to tell him that he
should retire? He is a contributing factor to a winning, competitive team. He
isn’t embarrassing himself. And just as importantly, teammates like Jake Peavy and Chris Young give Maddux a lot of
credit for their success. Maddux’s older brother Mike is a very well respected
pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. In a way, Greg is a pitching coach
for the Padres.
It is important
to remember that Greg Maddux is
three years younger than Roger Clemens,
so he could still have some left in the tank. Sure, Maddux’s career peaked when
it should have and has slowly declined over the past decade, but now we know a
little bit more why that is the case. Comparing the careers of Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens and they are not far apart at all. With
last week’s revelation, my contention that the best pitcher of our generation
is Greg Madduz.
What do you
think?
That is it for
today, unless anything happens with the Twins. That could certainly be the
case. Please come back tomorrow for a very interesting Q&A that you won’t
want to miss. Thanks again for stopping by this site. Have a great day! If you
have any questions, comments or ideas for future postings, please e-mail
me.