This past weekend Greg Maddux hit a personal milestone winning his 350th Game. It's a milestone that not many have reached and leaves him just 4 games behind Roger Clemens who has 354 career wins. With these two side by side on career wins the thought crossed my mind if you were given one vote for the Hall of Fame who you vote for Clemens or Maddux?Now there is no question that there is a cloud hanging over Roger Clemens head with the steroids and there is no doubt Greg Maddux has never been linked to steroids. So does that make Maddux the better pitcher?When I dug into the numbers of these two it was amazing how similar they really are in career numbers.Career WinsClemens 354Maddux 350Number of Games StartedMaddux 715Clemens 707Complete GamesClemens 118Maddux 108ShutoutsClemens 46Maddux 35Innings PitchedClemens 4916Maddux 4864Hits AllowedMaddux 4572Clemens 4185Runs AllowedMaddux 1899Clemens 1885Home Runs AllowedClemens 363Maddux 337Walks AllowedClemens 1580Maddux 977
Strike OutsClemens 4672Maddux 3299 Career ERA Maddux 3.12Clemens 3.12So there are the Career numbers you get one vote is Clemens or Maddux. Let's hear your vote and one or two reasons why. Let's try not to make the steroid issue be the deciding factor.My vote is for Greg Maddux. My reason for Maddux is simple he has put up almost identical numbers except in strike outs and he has done it as a finesse pitcher. This means as a pure pitcher Maddux has the better stuff where as Clemens would just bring the heat and overpower you. That's my vote let's hear yours?
Clemens More Cy Youngs and the era was based in American League were he didn't get the luxury of facing pitchers. He faced all the great DH's over the years which would have added at least 1/2 run more to Maddox era. Clemens had more shutouts in a hitters league. Remember Clemens lead the NL in era at 40+ do you think Maddox would have a era under 5 in AL today. Clemens Hands Down!!
I would have to say Maddux is officially done after today's loss. The Cubbies were teeing off on him, and I just don't think he has it anymore.
And Maddux was always a for sure win everytime my home team D Backs went up against him.
That is 3 reasons why I like him!
Also, Maddux is a great hitting pitcher! Maybe not now, but he has been in the past.
Maddux plus his hitting plus he stayed in the game longer than Clemens and NOT ON ROIDS is why I choose him.
Clemens using steroids to achieve alot of those stats, PRICELESS
I liked watching Maddux the best in both their primes.
Great replies guys Thanks! I will say even though I am clearly on the Maddux side I didn't think it would be as one sided as this is turning out. Is this a preview of what's to come once players from the steroid era become eligible for the Hall of Fame? One of my other factors for Maddux that I'm surprised no one else mentioned was the fact that Clemens cherry picked his teams the last few years. Pimping himself out to the highest bidder like a hooker on the Las Vegas Blvd. Hand picking which team to play for always put him on a loaded team. It's much easier to pitch when your team puts up 4 or 5 runs in the first few innings. Many of the Braves teams that Maddux pitched on would score 2 or 3 runs a game. Which as a pitcher gives you even less margin for error!
They will always be competitive but never win a World Series. That's the problem with the Moneyball approach. I lived up there for 3 years and saw an awesome team with Giambi, Tejada, Mulder, Hudson and Zito get broken up year by year. But he still gets people to go to games, so he's a winner.
Matty,
Are you questioning Billy Beane and Moneyball? Didn't you know he was a genius? Just ask him. lol Funny, you don't hear much about Moneyball anymore, huh?
Yup, that's why I never understood why they broke up Mulder, Hudson and Zito in Oakland either. Look at them now...
Yeah the offense was always the problem, they had probably the greatest pitching staff of all time (well in my lifetime anyway). Being from Texas i have never understood why they didn't look at the Braves teams and see that pitching wins. Instead the Rangers do things like give A-Rod 250million. How many good pitchers can you get for that? The Rangers have never been good because they have never had quality pitching (sorry, im way off topic, just let me vent a little)
Braves usually sucked when they got to the World Series during that run or you could assume his #s would look better.
Yeah Maddux actually had a 3.34 ERA but I couldn't edit the post. Those Braves teams definitely lacked offense, otherwise they would have won more than one World Series.
So that's pretty close then. I guess being a big Yankees hater, I remember Clemens being a big pain in the ass during the playoffs. Didn't one of the big three Braves pitchers suck in the postseason? I know it wasn't Smoltz? Was it Glavine? Oh well, thanks for the info Matty. Their postseason numbers are as close as their regular season numbers.
whoops looks like you beat me to it Matty, Our numbers are a little different but pretty close
Well Maddux has a career 3.38 ERA in the playoffs while Clemens owns a 3.79ERA for his playoff career