Good bye Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux called it a career this week. It was a rather low publicity send off when you think of the treatment Roger Clemens got as he retired (all three/four times). He deserves a lot more attention if you ask me considering he was the best pitcher since the expansion era. Yea I said it, expansion era.

I know a lot of people will think of Koufax, Carlton, Martinez, etc. I like to think that Maddux is the best because of what he did with what he had for how long he did it when he did it.

Look at his numbers and try to find someone comparable. You may or may not. I look at his stats and see someone who is 5th on the all times win list during the era of steroids, five man rotations and specialized bullpens. To have done it while topping out at maybe 92 mph is amazing. I will never forget the time he had a 76 pitch complete game against the Cubs in 1997. He only threw 13 balls!

I hate that his career took a back seat because of his low profile personality and how that douche Clemens roided his way into the spot light. Maddux will have the last laugh though when he gets that 100% vote into the hall 5 years from now.

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The Mets have traded Scott Schoeneweis to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Conor Robertson. I personally thought Scott got a raw deal here considering he was signed as a lefty specialist but was used in a different role. He in fact faced more right handed batters than lefties while here. He did have some moments of failure against lefties in key moments (Jody Gerut), but his problems were magnified by an injured knee last year, Willie Randolph, and our bullpen injuries woes this year.

Conor Robertson is nothing to be excited about. This move was about clearing salary and clearing the air of the 2008 stench. The Mets ate $1.6m of his salary and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets Delgado out in a big spot next year.

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Scott Proctor was non-tendered by the Dodgers and I hope Omar takes a look at him. He can be effective but made the worst move a reliever can make: he became one of Joe Torre’s guys and practically warmed up every single day of the season.

Daniel Cabrera is also an interesting non-tender. He has electric stuff but his erratic stuff turned off the pitching starved Oriole’s. I didn’t think that was possible. Omar struck gold in that Baltimore cave once, can he do it again?

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The Yankees have officially won the AJ Burnett sweepstakes. Uh, congratulations? Burnett has great stuff (his “stuff” got us Al Leiter). Too bad he is 32 years old and is extremely injury prone. By the contract runs he will have at least 5 trips to the DL.

I don’t get it. He’s had three 200 ip seasons and only one was not in a contract year. In his career year of 2008, he had a 4+ ERA.

This seems like another Pavano-ish contract for me (maybe even worse, Pavano isn’t surly). He can pitch but his best friends in the stadium will be the Yankees medical staff.

The smarter money would’ve been Ben Sheets who has shown his great stuff consistently and only sought a short term deal.