Posts tagged GregMaddux at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Bobby Cox has seen the entire career of John Smoltz up close and personal, and he has seen very many great outings by Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Let's not discount some of the starts that Steve Avery had back in the day either, when we compute just how many amazing pitching performances he has seen over the years.

So when he throws a compliment to a young pitcher -- or any pitcher for that matter - then you would think that compliment has a lot of merit to it. If that's the case, Jair Jurrjens should be beeming after his eight inning win tonight, because Cox dropped all kinds of hyperbole on him.

"I don't think you can pitch better than that," Cox said. "That was one of the best games I've seen pitched, ever."

This success didn't exactly come as a total surprise. Since turning his ankle while leaving Wrigley Field on June 10 and missing his start the next night, Jurrjens has made three starts and worked 21 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run.

I mean, dang. Ever? That is a stout compliment to the youngster. Of course, he's in the zone right now, as evidenced by above, and he certainly has the pedigree to be a great pitcher.

Fantasy Spin: It's tough to make Jurrjens any sort of sell high/buy low right now, because he's a legit talent. Still, it's hard to see him keeping this up for the rest of the season; if I was in a single season league, I would be looking to move him assuming I got good value back. Keeper league? Hold, please.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Kansas City Royals (35-43) vs. Colorado Rockies (32-46) - 8:10PM Est.

Remember earlier this season when the Diamondbacks started out the season something ridiculous like 20-1, Chase Utley had around 14 home runs in the first week of April, and everyone was saying that the National League had finally caught up to, and passed, the American League as the class of baseball?

You aren't hearing much about that anymore now that interleague play has started are you? That's because the AL is kicking the NL's butt so far this season. Only three teams in the American League have a losing record against the senior circuit right now (Toronto, Cleveland, Cincinnati) while only four National League teams (New York, Atlanta, Colorado, Cincinnati) have a winning record against the AL.

The biggest kick in the stomach for the National League? The Royals are 11-3 against them so far this season. The same Royals team that's 24-40 against it's own league. All of which means that if the Royals haven't contacted Bud Selig and asked about switching leagues yet, they should seriously consider it.

Spot Jobs gambles by picking five spot starters for the week and five usual starters to avoid. The success rate is usually around 50%, but the risk level is always through the roof. Obviously, though, you always start Brandon Webb (when healthy) and sit Dave Bush.

Five Down

Randy Johnson, DBacks, @ Boston -- As I assumed would happen when he was going well, he's in the middle of a free-fall. He's done. I wouldn't start him again the rest of the season anyway, but getting the Red Sox in Fenway is a rough task for anyone. Do not let him destroy your ERA and WHIP just for a few Ks.

Roy Oswalt, Astros, vs. Rangers -- I don't trust him anymore, and the Rangers lead the majors in runs scored. He's already disappeared from "must-start" territory, so why would you let him go against a team that mashes like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Milton Bradley, and company?

Daisuke Matsuzaka, Red Sox, @ Houston -- That last debacle of a start was enough to scare me temporarily, and the Astros definitely have the potential to take advantage of mistakes in that park. I like him for one sit and then he's back to a must-start.

This will be only the second time in his 22 year career that Tom Glavine goes on the DL. It will also be the second time this year. At this point, I could mention "curses" and "demons" inside the Atlanta mound, but obviously, those are fictional. Besides, Tommy Glavine is old as mess.

Braves officials will meet Wednesday to discuss their options regarding who will take his spot on the roster and in the starting rotation.

Glavine, 42, lasted three innings and was charged with six hits, four runs and four walks. Glavine has won twice in his past 15 starts dating to Sept. 20, when he was with the New York Mets. He has a 4.85 ERA in 12 starts this season.

It's not "good" by any means, but it's not horrible either. If anything, it puts the pressure on Frank Wren to make a move for a starter. Assuming he can do so without giving up an integral young player (like a Greg Norton-type) or any other pitchers, then whatever he pulls off is probably a good deal.

And, that, sadly is the state of affair right now. An already too heavy reliance on the minor leagues has the Braves thinking trade early, instead of actually promoting someone. (Note they could promote someone, but making a deal for Greg Maddux makes much more sense.)

Fantasy Spin: Glavine should be DL'd (deep leagues) or dropped (most leagues) if he was owned. His K/9 is way down this season from an already low number and he represents a risky fantasy start/investment.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

San Diego Padres (23-37) vs. Chicago Cubs (38-21) - 10:05PM Est.

I know it's still way too early in the season to start talking about the World Series, seeing as how there are still two-thirds of the season left to be played, and anything can happen between now and October. Especially when the Cubs are involved, because four months is plenty of time for an asteroid to crash into Wrigley Field or for Carlos Zambrano to feel a tweek in his elbow.

Still, you look at this team right now, and it's hard to not wonder if they're a serious threat to win their first World Series in 100 years. They have the highest batting average in baseball (.288), they have the highest OBP (.368), they've scored more runs than anybody else (340), and they have the best record in baseball at 38-21.

Oh, and they've also won their last nine games.

So is there anything that can stop this team?

This is one of those weeks where the top set of two start pitchers is ideal but after you move out of the top 10 or so, well, not so much. But there are some interesting options (as always) for your abuse this week. Most prominently, the four people that I see who are particularly interesting include two old doods and two young guys.

Greg Maddux is probably owned in your league, but if it's reasonably shallow, he could have been dropped during his quest to get 350, which took a while. This week he gets St. Louis and Cincinnati at home, and while both teams can do damage, I could see Mad Dog setting the Reds up.

Mike Mussina has been pretty warm as well, winning his last five starts. Sure, the Yankees are the worst team in the AL East, technically, but Moose has been dealing.

On the other hand, if you don't like old guys, you could always gamble with Luke Hochevar or Manny Parra. Parra is more of a risk because there is a possibility the Brewers could skip him, but he's got nice matchups in Washington and Pittsburgh assuming he gets to roll. The KC youngster, on the other hand, has to go at Boston and at Toronto. So maybe I'm being a little aggressive in saying I like him, but he's got legit K potential and ... yeah. Probably only for H2H leagues.

Pitcher	Team	First Start	Second Start
Jake Peavy	SD	v. STL, Wellemeyer	v. CIN, Arroyo
Cole Hamels	PHI	at WAS, Bergmann	at HOU, Sampson
Roy Halladay	TOR	v. ANA, Lackey	v. KC, Meche
C.C. Sabathia	CLE	at CHW, Contreras	v. TEX, Mathias
John Lackey	LAA	at TOR, Halladay	at CHW, Contreras

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Chicago Cubs (24-16) vs. San Diego Padres (15-26) - 2:20PM Est.

There are thirteen games on the schedule today in baseball, and nine of them are going to be played under the sun, the way the baseball gods intended it to be. So I figure I may as well feature the team that plays more day games than anybody else in baseball, the Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs offense has been mashing the ball all season long, and now Alfonso Soriano has finally joined in on the fun, as he's homered in three straight games (leading off the last two). Soriano is hitting .487 on the current 10-game homestand for the Cubs, a homestand that Chicago is off to a 5-1 start on.

Today will also mark the debut of Jim Edmonds in a Cubs uniform, as what most Cubs fans would surely consider a sign of the apocalypse becomes reality today. Why the Cubs would need Edmonds, I don't know, but they got him.

The Braves reached into the wayback machine when they signed Tom Glavine as a free agent this winter but their craving for nostalgia may not have been totally satiated. With an opening at the back of their rotation, some are wondering if they might not make a play for Greg Maddux. It's a reasonable idea. The Padres are floundering and will have to start thinking about restocking their system soon and, from Atlanta's view, the cost for an old, expensive pitcher shouldn't be too steep.

Mark Bowman, who covers the Braves for MLB.com, discussed the possibility while answering a question from his mailbag.

When I was asking some of the team's management and players if they felt they were seeing Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz in uniform together for one last time last week, I kept getting the, "You never know what might happen" response.

Despite having the stingiest pitching staff in the NL and scoring 42 runs more than they've allowed, the Braves are 19-19. There's some bad luck going on there, perhaps acquiring Maddux would give them some kind of karmic spark that would reflect in the record.

If it's non-cosmic changes you're looking for, though, the team might want to find a left fielder that's a little more productive than Matt Diaz. If they really want to try and recapture the old glory, the Dodgers are probably looking to get out from under Andruw Jones.

For a guy who doesn't have a lot of time left playing this game, having four precious opportunities for win number 350 go down the drain creates a little more urgency ... not to mention a little more distraction. But fear not: the urgency, the distraction, and the long national nightmare is over for Greg Maddux, who finally grabbed win number 350 in his illustrious career against the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night.

"It was kind of cool," Maddux said. "I don't want to make it out to be nothing, but it is May and we haven't been playing that good, and you just really want to win for the right reason and not necessarily for the wrong reason. We need to start winning as a team and hopefully tonight is the start of things to come."

Yeah, the Pods have been awful this season so this provided a much needed bright spot not only for Maddux, but for catcher Luke Carlin, who got to catch Maddux's 350th win in his major league debut!

"He did real good - set up right, gave a very good target and it looked like he had fun," Maddux said. "It's kind of hard to tell sometimes because his mask is on all the time, but it looked like he actually enjoyed being back there. That was pretty cool.

The odd part about that was that Maddux had a personal catcher in Atlanta (Eddie Perez). So the fact that a kid can come up from the minors and catch Maddux's milestone victory ... well, that's gotta make Javy Lopez feel good. But in all seriousness, congratulations to Maddux (and to Carlin).

Greg Maddux's fourth attempt to reach 350 wins was against Andrew Miller and the Marlins on Sunday afternoon. That is what we in the biz call a freaking grapefruit. Miller has one good start all year really, and he got straight shellacked earlier this week. All the Pads had to do was touch him up a little, Maddux coasts in, picks up the win, and things go back to being not totally and completely awkward.

And then Sunday happened. Maddux got paddled for four earned runs and 11 hits in five and two-thirds. And then he waxed all philosphical and what not (which I guess is what you do when your hometown team has the worst record in baseball.)

Baseball, the 42-year-old Maddux said as he dressed after the game, isn't about where you have been or where you're going. It's about right where you are today.

'There's no big picture in baseball. Everything is right now,' Maddux said. 'You can't win tomorrow. We're not playing tomorrow. You play the hand you're dealt. The big picture is what you do now.'

That's the calm attitude I would expect out of Maddux but you gotta feel for the guy; four straight tries at 350 and he just can't nail it down? He's still pitching pretty well given his age though, and it's almost a certainty he will eventually get there this year, and probably even approach like 355 or something. Although, you have to think it might not be a guarantee it happens with the Pads.

Seriously. The Braves are desperate for starting pitching, San Diego is going nowhere fast, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz are already in the ATL, and Maddux, given his age, cares more about winning than anything else. And given the Braves' seeming problem in the rotation, Maddux could certainly give them a shot in the arm. And maybe pick up 350 while he's at it.