Greg Maddux may not be the Cy Young Award winning pitcher that he was in the mid 90's. Still the guy comes up with gems, like Tuesday night, that make you appreciate the brilliance that is Greg Maddux. At 39 years of age the future Hall of Famer no longer hits 90 on the radar gun and his ERA creaped up into the mid 4's. Still in his last two starts Maddux has proved that he can still deal. (another 15 win season is not out of the question)
If you remember back to the day before the start of Spring Training in 2004-the day the Cubs signed Maddux-he was added to be the teams 5th starter. Injuries and lack of progression by the other starters have turned Maddux into a very important cog in the Cub rotation. Check out where Maddux stands compared to the other Cubs starting pitchers since he came back at the start of '04:
Pitcher -- GS-W-IP-CG-SHO
Maddux -- 59 - 26 - 376.1 - 3 - 1
Zambrano -- 55 - 25 - 365.2 - 2 - 1
Prior -- 40 - 14 - 238 - 1 - 0
Wood -- 32 - 11 - 201.1 - 0 - 0
(where's the great Angel Guzman?)
So when Dusty Baker decides to chime in his 3 cents that Maddux may retire after the season. As a Cub fan I cringe. What the hell is Dusty doing? His best Larry Himes imitation? Maddux has already left this franchise once because he was treated like shit. In the sunset of his Hall of Fame you would think Dusty and the rest of Cub management would have the class not to speculate on Maddux's future. You would think they'd look at their starting staff and realize they'll need a 40 year old Greg Maddux to eat up innings in 2006.
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