I never really liked the Braves or the Cubs much, but I always respected Maddux. He was the ultimate athlete who 's best muscle was his brain. He wasn’t huge, or overpowering, he just knew the game, knew himself, and knew the batters. and worked his ass off.
But now I am watching him ofnsportcenter getting shelled for the third start in a row, his ERA is over 11. It struck me as really sad, cause at his age, and with his personal drive to win it’s possible he will decide to give-up rather than fade away in patheticness. It’s premature obviously, it is just three games. But it is also Maddux, and he doesn’t suck for any three games in a row.
On the otherhand he may figure it out and finish the season with 20 wins again. I hope so, I always love the hard-working smart guys much more than the physically gifted freaks, and it would suck to lose another one.
Well, if he keeps getting shelled like this, he won’t have a choice. I don’t think he’ll win 20 this season, but he’ll figure it out. At the most his ERA will be right above 4. The man’s getting old.
The real question is why did Schuerholz keep this guy and get rid of Millwood?
I think a better question is, why did Schuerholz keep this guy and get rid of Glavine and Millwood? Sure, Glavine got shelled Opening Day, but he’s more likely to win 20 than Greg Maddux.
Looks like the '80s crappy Braves may be back for a new century.
Personally, I blame the Braves and all the other big money teams in baseball for everything that’s wrong in the game. But that’s a different thread.
While it does my heart good to see any Brave fail, especially one so connected to the team’s recent success, I have every confidence that Maddux will settle in and win 15, as usual. Seems to me he’s been a little slow out of the gate the last couple years, has he not? He’ll be fine (dammit).
I thought Glavine was the weaker between he and Maddux. I understand why they let him go. I could never feel totally confident of a win with him on the mound, especially during the postseason. (It’s still weird seeing him in a Mets uniform, though.)
But with all that “young guys, future of the team” talk, it’s odd that they let Millwood go. You can’t build for the future around one guy, but damn… it wouldn’t hurt to keep him around.
I’m a fan, so I’m hoping they can pull off a decent season despite Maddux’s underwhelming start. I also hope Mike Hampton will prove to me that he’s not just some money-sponge good only at stinking up the field.
He won’t. Maybe in a season or two Hampton will get his stuff back. Prolly not this season.
And Byrd’s hurt. What a surprise.
Of course, I’m an Angels fan. Salmon, Glaus, Kennedy are all out with injuries. Erstad’s hand is still bothering him. Appier’s about to fall apart. Bah. Not good times.
This is also the place to point out that the Braves, who have tended to have a pretty solid defense behind their pitchers, have now committed 15 errors in 9 games.
They currently rank 30th in MLB in errors, fielding percentage, and 28th in Zone Rating. Some of the pitching issues should be put at the defense’s feet.
As for Maddux specifically, he is a 37 year old pitcher who relies on guile and intelligence as much as physical ability so it is likely he can weather the ravages of age better than a power pitcher that loses serious arm strength. One thing not often discussed is the possibility of an injury affecting his game. Perhaps he is less likely to acknowledge a problem considering the injury bug already hitting the pitching staff.
As for why the Braves ended up with Maddux instead of Millwood and Glavine:
In December of 2002, the Braves offered Maddux arbitration. When he failed to sign with another team and accepted the arbitration offer, the Braves were then stuck with what would be a $13 million+ contract on their books that common wisdom around here thinks they weren’t expecting to have to account for. When the two parties agreed on a deal, the desire of team parent AOL-TimeWarner to cut the overall team salary structure took a big hit.
As the Braves signed cheaper alternatives for the pitching staff (Byrd, various relievers, trading for Hampton whose salary is mostly covered by others), they realized that an easy alternative to cut costs was to trade a young, soon to be really highly paid player at a log-jam position for youth/cheap salaries. Hence the Millwood to the Phillies deal for a backup catcher with little growth potential.
Maddux says he’s fine physically he’s just a little off on his location which is the difference between the Greg Maddux we all know and love and batting practice. I think Maddux could pitch well for a few more seasons. He notorious for starting slow and turning things around. Almost like he has to test the waters and make adjustments down to a fine tune. Very interesting and technical sort of pitcher. I don’t think he’s done BUT he’s definitely not getting any younger.
Well, this Royals fan is surprised. I really thought losing him would be devastating to KC, that the young up-and-comers would need a vet to help anchor them.
Lucky us, the kids are doing just fine without a vet in the rotation (granted, it’s early, but boy, do Runelvys Hernandez and Mike Macdougal look dominating!), and Byrd would have been wasted spring training time as well as wasted salary money on a team whose owner is looking to trim like crazy. Now, I just have to wonder…did Baird suspect that something like this could happen to Byrd, or did he just get lucky that his too-low offer didn’t cost him a great pitcher for 2003?
Maybe. The key to hitting Maddux has always been to make him throw strikes, since he’s not going to overpower you, and his change up is not much to talk about. The problem with that strategy is that Maddux’s control allowed him to throw pitches just outside the strike zone, too far for a good swing to get, but close enough that a hitter could not let pass. And some, ok many, of those pitches were called for strikes even when the batter did not swing.
IMO a combination of things are getting to him now. It really looks like he’s not hitting the spots like he used to, and I think umpires are squeezing him more than other years. Also Maddux is a rythm kind of pitcher, which is one reason he just does not like to pitch with Javy Lopez catching. Reportedly Maddux hates the pace and calling of Lopez. Maybe after Blanco and Maddux spend some more time discussing pitches he’ll start to improve.
After saying all that I recall that even when he was having a good year you could typically get to Maddux if you hit him early in a game, but after he got into a rythm he was unhittable. So maybe he’s just not in as good a shape as other years.
In conclusion, he sure looks done right now, but all it takes is him feeling like he has his rythm back. He’s still throwing in the high 70’s-mid 80’s, which is normal for him. Maddux’s worst enemy will be his own confidence, if he gets it in his head that he can’t pitch anymore, he’ll really be done for.
The data below represents his previous March/April numbers:
Year Win Loss ERA OAvg
2003 0 3 11.05 .427
2002 2 2 4.37 .294
2001 2 2 2.48 .208
2000 4 0 2.49 .245
1999 4 0 2.73 .305
And, his career taken as a whole:
Year Win Loss ERA OAvg
All 42 24 2.91 .248
Say what you will about the Maddux related failures of this year, but to say he has a history of starting slowly is a fallacy. His Winning %, OAvg, and ERA are essentially the same as his career averages. And, those March/April numbers would be the envy of most other pitchers in the game.
Really? Well, Byrd’s got an injury history, and we all know shoulder problems never come back to haunt pitchers. And he didn’t have a good strikeout rate. And he’s the wrong side of 30 No, I was pretty sure last year was a fluke for Byrd.
Yay for the KC starters though. I hope they do well.
Byrd pitched 7 CGs in 30 starts last season in KC. Of course he’s injured.
Regarding Maddux… I dunno. It’s hard to imagine a player as cerebral as he is suddenly getting blown up, he has looked badly out of place this year. From what I’ve seen, his control is just off. I hadn’t heard that about Lopez, that’s interesting.
I didn’t see yesterday’s game so I can’t comment on how Maddux looked, but on paper at least he seems to have found his groove. 6 innings, 2 hits, no walks, 1 run. And managed to lower his era 3 points.