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Maddux’s 350th win is more then just a number
By john | May 11, 2008
The number 350 may just be a number to Greg Maddux but it’s a pretty huge number in the history of baseball.Each morning when I check on the status of my blog I look to see if there are any new incoming links and I check on just how many people are visiting. Sure it may be dumb and often the number can change one day to the next with little reason but it gives me some sense of where I am.
This morning I noticed I had an incoming link from Babes Love Baseball, now I’ve seen this blog a few times but never had left a comment or anything. They were mentioning Greg Maddux’s recent 350th career win and how amazing the number was.
I felt I had to leave a comment, after all these girls had link dropped and the numbers struck me.
Maddux who became just the ninth pitcher ever to record 350 wins and just the third since the end of World War II was in unchartered territory. Without performance enhancers like Roger Clemens before him Maddux had done it all by himself and armed with just a mid 80’s fastball, pinpoint control and a glove on his left hand.
He’s never been one to put too much into a single game out there on the mound and perhaps it’s his competitiveness that he always feels he can always rinse, repeat and reuse his performance for his next outing. Maddux has insisted throughout his career that one game does not make a season and that at the end of each year his goal was to always have those 15 wins. Reaching that number according to Maddux is a sure sign to know you had a good year.
Maddux reached 15 or more wins 17 years in a row from 1988-2004 and again in 2006. If we were basing his career on that then I think it’s safe to say Maddux has had a pretty good one.
Pitching numbers aren’t glorified like home runs. Hitters are superstars, the guys who get posters made of them and the guys who make the mega contracts.
Think about this though. On baseball tonight we have heard much of this season that Chipper Jones is on the threshold of 400 home runs. When Chipper Jones reaches 400 homers he will become the 43rd player ever to reach that number. There are seven active players with more then 400 home runs and that’s not even couting sluggers Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds who have not played this year.
Manny Ramirez is a constant MVP threat and an RBI machine and with three home runs he will join the 500 home run club. Ramirez will be the 24th player to reach that number and will rank fourth among active players. (again not counting Sosa or Bonds)
Ken Griffey Jr. has had quite a career and with three home runs he will reach 600, making the sixth time in history that number has been reached. It will also mark the third time since 2002 that number has been toppled.
Sure these numbers may not be achieved daily but they all have happened a lot more then a pitcher reaching 350 wins.
Take for example 300 wins. Roger Clemens reached 300 wins in 2003 since then Maddux and Tom Glavine have reached that number. When Glavine reached 300 wins he became the 23rd player to reach that milestone.
Home runs are expected to continue to increase with more and more players reaching 600. After all Alex Rodriguez is just 32 and already has 522, Jim Thome is 37 an with 514 should be considered a legit canadate to reach 600.
Manny Ramirez who is one year younger then Thome would need rouhgly 25 homers for the next four season to reach 600. Before last seasons dissapointing home run numbers Ramirez had topped 25 home runs 12 years in a row or every season since he became a regular in the lineup. That’s before we even count Garry Sheffield who is just 18 away for 500 for his career.
Big numbers but hardly something that never happens. Throw in Vladimir Guerrero, Albert Pujols and if Andruw Jones ever gets his stroke back and you could easily add three more players to the list of those over 500.
Paul Konerko, Todd Helton, Miguel Tejada, Adam Dunn, Alfonso Soriano and even Carlos Beltran all seem like sure bets to at least reach 400 home runs.
If you add those eight names listed above the list of players to reach 51 counting Chipper Jones. An increase of nearly 16%.
The closest player to 300 career wins is Randy Johnson who is 14 shy. Now many feel and probably rightfully so that Johnson will reach that number if nothing else by being stubborn. After Johnson the active pitcher with the most wins is Mike Mussina with 255 but he is 39. Jamie Moyer has 232 wins but he is 45. The first active pitcher under the age of 40 is Pedro Marinez with 209 at the age of 36. Martinez would seriously need to pick up the pace if he is ever to sniff 300 wins as he won just 12 games the last two seasons.
To put in perspective how much harder it is to reach even 300 wins Tim Hudson a pitcher who has won an average of 16 games though out his 10 year career would need to pick up 160 wins. Hudson would have to continue at that pace until he was 42 to reach 300 wins.
Johan Santana was the big name we kept hearing about all off season. Santana while a very good pitcher is 203 wins short of the 300 threshold. At the age of 29 he is in his ninth big league season. If Santana pitched until he was 45 he would need to win 13-14 games a season just to reach 300.
You may have noticed I kept saying just to reach 300 after all of the above stats. That’s because Greg Maddux didn’t just reach 300 he reached 350 career wins. You don’t think 50 wins means much? Tell that to the 20 guys who retired who won between 251-297 career games a list that includes Bob Gibson, Jim Palmer, Bob Feller. What about Tommy John (288), Bert Blyleven (287), Jim Kaat (283), who have all been kept out of the Hall of Fame since they did not win 300 games.
Warren Spahn appeared in just four games prior to World War II he didn’t even pick up a win. Four years later Spahn who was the only baseball player who fought in the war to receive a commission was back in baseball at the age of 25. He went on to win 363 games a number that still stands as the most for a pitcher who pitched exclusievly following the 1920’s.
We’ll never know how many games Spahn could have won if he had of those four years we were at war but I think it’s almost a given that he would have picked up at least 10 wins which would have have placed him third on the all time wins list. It’s not even a stretch to suggest Spahn would have amassed more then 54 wins during that four year span.
We do know that Spahn won 363 games following the second World War. The most of any player. Spahn, a left handed pitcher who never had more then 191 strike outs in any season stands alone.
Greg Maddux now stands just 13 wins away from Spahn. Will Maddux pitch next season to give himself the opportunity? We don’t know the answer to that. We just know that Greg Maddux is just the third pitcher who pitched after 1920 to reach 350 wins. In a time where 300 wins seems like an impossible task Greg Maddux has went even further, 350 wins.
Topics: thoughts |
May 11th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
At this rate, Maddux will reach Spahn in roughly 65 starts. Juuuuuuust kidding! It would seriously be awesome if he continued to pitch after this season.