One of the greatest pitchers of our time will announce his retirement on Monday. Greg Maddux won 4 consecutive Cy Young awards, and was in the top 5 in the voting five other times.
Unlike Mike Mussina, who announced his retirement earlier this off-season, Maddux will be a first ballot Hall of Famer, without a doubt. He finished his career with a record of 355-227, with 3,371 strikeouts and a 3.16 ERA. He was the first pitcher ever to win 4 straight Cy Young awards, and won 13 or more games for 20 years in a row. He was an 8-time All Star, an 18-time Gold Glove winner, and is 4th on the all-time list for career games started.
He led the league multiple times in the following categories:Wins (3 times)
Shutouts (5)
ERA (4)
WHIP (4)
Innings pitched (5)
Games started (7)
Complete games (3)
He joined the Major Leagues as baseball's youngest player in 1986, and he leaves as the 4th oldest, behind only Jamie Moyer, Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine. He played for the Cubs, Braves, Cubs again, Dodgers, Padres and then the Dodgers again. He won his first Cy Young with the Cubs, and then the other 3 as an Atlanta Brave, where they won a World Series in 1995.
Maddux was never a power pitcher, but still managed to place in the top 5 in strikeouts 6 times, and is 10th all time. He will go down as one of the smartest pitchers in recent history, and a guy who made the most out of all of his pitches. He had incredible accuracy, and is arguably the best pure pitcher of our era.
Congratulations to Greg Maddux on an absolutely incredible, Hall of Fame caliber career.
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