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Year		Comment
2009		Greg Maddux’s reacquisition didn’t entirely pay off for the Dodgers, as he managed just two quality starts, one coming after they’d clinched. The Smartest Pitcher Who Ever Lived takes his 355 career wins (eighth-highest) and four Cy Youngs to Cooperstown.
2008		Maddux has 347 career wins. No pitcher born since 1921 has won 360 games, and no pitcher born since 1887 has won 365. If Cal Ripken Jr. wasn't a unanimous Hall of Fame selection, perhaps no one will ever be, but you have to wonder about people who would deny themselves the honor of voting for Greg Maddux for the Hall of Fame. With 2 2/3 strategically relocated innings, Maddux would have a 20-year streak of 200-inning seasons (he threw 199 1/3 in 2002). While he's no longer a Cy Young contender, he keeps piling up league-average seasons for winning teams. Look for more of the same this year.
2007		Maddux spent much of 2006 inducing goose bumps as he displayed the artistry which will one day make him a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he spent nearly as much time reminding followers that he`s a 40-year-old legend whose best years are behind him. After a fantastic April (5-0, 1.35 ERA), he rode the down escalator as the Cubs` season collapsed, yielding a 5.77 ERA over the next three months. Nonetheless, Ned Colletti liberated Maddux from Chicago just moments before the trade deadline. Maddux tossed six no-hit innings in his first start in Dodger blue, and chased no-hitters two other times, at one point retiring 32 straight hitters for a `hidden perfect game.` His acquisition bolstered the staff, and much was made of his imparting pitching wisdom to his new teammates. Although Grady Little kept Maddux on an even shorter leash than Dusty Baker had (go figure), Maddux still tossed more innings over the entire season than any Dodger starter other than Derek Lowe; he made his bullets count, which is part of the reason why a plaque in Cooperstown awaits. Bet on him to continue doing so in San Diego, where he signed a one-year, $10-million deal.
2006		Back in the uniform he never should have had to take off in the first place, he`s now as out of place as Jimmy Buffett touring with the Sex Pistols. The pitcher formerly famous as Greg Maddux provided durable mediocrity on a staff not known for either. Parked in a more Don Sutton-like stage, he`ll give you at least 33 starts, and if you field an adequate lineup to support him with, he`ll win games for you. The Cubs aren`t very gifted on that score, making it likely that he`ll spend the last year of his deal watching the playoffs on TV. Notoriously close-mouthed about the art of pitching, Maddux might well make as good a pitching coach as his brother Mike, if he has any interest. That`s still years off; people who take their turns with Maddox`s regularity don`t grow on trees.
2005		Three factors are responsible for Maddux's 305 major league wins. The first and most important is his uncanny command, which save for a couple of rough cold-weather outings in April, is just as intact as ever. The second is his pitch efficiency, to which he owes his longevity: Maddux had just four outings last year in which he topped the 100-pitch mark, and not because his manager is prone to do his pitchers any arm-saving favors. The third factor is his capacity to induce groundballs, and that ability appears to be eroding. The movement on Maddux's fastball isn't quite as good as it once was, and the 35 home runs that he allowed in 2004 were a career high, his 1.78 groundball-to-flyball ratio a career low. Without his groundball mojo, Maddux can still be a good pitcher, but he's not going to set the aging curve on its end the way Randy and Roger have.
2004		Even chess players show their age after a while. While his control is still impeccable, and while his fastball is no slower than it's ever been, Maddux's strikeout rate declined for the third consecutive season. Hitters were also able to loft the ball against him more frequently, leading to a big jump in his home run rate. It is evident that the movement on his pitches isn't quite what it used to be. It is blasphemous to suggest, but Maddux might be more effective if he were willing to waste a few more pitches; opposing batters hit .367 and slugged .597 when they put the first ball in play against him. A reasonable risk at one year and about $6 million, especially when you consider what he might be able to teach to young pitchers, but the Braves were wise to resist the temptation to offer him more than that out of sentimentality.
2003		Apparently the projection system thinks Maddux’s minor physical ailments are going to grow less minor. It’s perfectly logical to predict that for a 38-year-old pitcher, but this is Greg Maddux. He’s the rarest of animals—the starting pitcher who misses hardly any starts, ever. There aren’t too many of those, so it’s hard to predict how long he’ll hold up. He’ll be pitching for a new contract, so the Braves might toss caution to the wind and stop handling him with kid gloves. If that happens, he could break down, or he could throw 260 great innings.
2002		We could just as easily address this issue in the Roger Clemens comment, but how could anybody, from advertisers to fans, mistake Nolan Ryan for the best right-handed starter in baseball history? Clemens and Maddux are arguably the greatest tandem anyone has ever seen, yet you’re more likely to find some whiskey-soaked New York journalist blathering about almost anybody but Clemens or Maddux. In part, that’s a matter of choice by the athletes themselves. Maddux’s historical legacy lies in his performance, not his chattiness with some writer trying to bring an athlete’s story to life for the right compensation. The crime lies in the way that journalists pretend that workaday mythmaking has nothing to do with popular perception. Trying to make a buck is all well and good, but when there’s nothing to support an argument for Ryan or Tom Seaver or anybody else who happened to be good when you were under 40, why pretend? Parochial or generational hosannas are not victimless crimes. Worse than being mere back scratching, they obfuscate genuine greatness. Maddux has 20 more wins than Tom Seaver had at the same age, and a lower career ERA to boot, despite never getting the benefit of pitching in the low-offense 1970s. Ryan, for what it's worth, wasn't even as good as Seaver. In terms of career value, if Clemens isn’t the best right-handed pitcher we’ve ever seen, Maddux is. Pedro Martinez would have to be Pedro Martinez for another six full seasons or so before he really enters the discussion. Do we have to be polite about this?
2001		Like Glavine, Greg Maddux bounced back from a subpar 1999. Like Glavine, the big difference was in his number of hits allowed, lending some credibility to the idea that that number isn't so reflective of performance or of much predictive value. Maddux is going to win 300 games; he's actually got a chance to move close to 350, mostly depending upon how long he wants to pitch.
2000		See above. Maddux’s walk rate actually dropped in 1999, which is pretty good evidence he wasn’t throwing a lot more balls because of the strike zone. He was missing up in the zone a lot, leading to more balls hit in the air and more extra-base hits. Expect him to return to his 1998 level in 2000. This was the first year since 1991 in which Maddux posted an ERA above 2.72. Think about that.
1999		Don Sutton, the Braves’ announcer, has gone on record to say there will never be another 300-game winner. Sutton is an intelligent man and he has first-hand knowledge of how difficult that feat is, but that’s an incredibly short-sighted comment. I mean, he’s an announcer for the Braves, meaning he sees Greg Maddux every day - and he thinks 300 wins is unreachable? Maddux already has 202 wins, and was 32 when last season ended. At the same age, Sutton had 190 wins. Of the nine 300-game winners in the live-ball era, you know how many had more wins at the same age? One - Tom Seaver, with 203. Of course, the pitchers who rack up wins early in their career are usually overworked and burn out, and Bob Feller and Catfish Hunter did just that. But Maddux ain’t being overworked. It’s a wild prediction, but I’ll make it anyway: before he retires, Maddux is going to pass Sutton himself with his 325th win, becoming the winningest righthander since Pete Alexander.
1998		The only unknown thing about Maddux is how much longer he’ll keep this up. His K rate and K/BB ratios are so good now that when he slips, he’s got forever to go before he’s even average. He never has high pitch counts, and Cox babies him anyway, so abuse isn’t a concern. With a little luck, he could have another 1995 in him. Remains the most enjoyable pitcher to watch in the game.
1997		I realize it’s common to acknowledge this guy as the best pitcher of our generation, but he’s not. Roger Clemens has still been more impressive. That said, Maddux could surpass Clemens, and the run he’s on now is unequalled in history. Even Koufax’s best five years aren’t particularly close. Remember: Koufax pitched in the ’60s in Dodger Stadium. Maddux is pitching in the new live ball era in a hitter’s park. I was in Las Vegas for a wedding last year, and four out of 10 Las Vegans claim to have taught Greg everything he knows. Already a lock for the Hall of Fame, and a sheer joy to watch.
1996		Maddux's 1994 or 1995 seasons are not, individually, unique; Gooden in 1985, Guidry in 1978, and Gibson in 1968 all had comparable seasons. But taken together, the past two seasons for Maddux represent a level of dominance that baseball hasn't seen in over half a century. Koufax's best two-year stretch, when adjusted for the hitters' hell of Dodger Stadium in the mid-60's, doesn't compare to Maddux. The last pitcher to come close was probably Lefty Grove in 1930-31, and Maddux probably overmatches him too. Calling Maddux the best pitcher in the game today is insulting to him; calling him the best of our generation is hardly news. It's time we start lumping him with the all-time greats - Young, Mathewson, Johnson, Grove, Seaver - and by the end of his career, Maddux could be looking down on all of them.

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PITCHf/x Pitcher Profile

A Collaboration between BrooksBaseball.net and Baseball Prospectus - Pitch classifications provided by Pitch Info LLC

Although he has not thrown an MLB pitch in 2024, Greg Maddux threw 4,399 pitches that were tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2007 and 2008, all of them occuring in Spring Training. In 2008, he relied primarily on his Sinker (84mph) and Change (79mph), also mixing in a Cutter (83mph). He also rarely threw a Curve (71mph), Slider (78mph) and Fourseam Fastball (85mph).