A Look Back: The Cubs & Jamie Moyer

Fun lead on a New York Times story today:

LOS ANGELES — This is the offer the Chicago Cubs made to Jamie Moyer after cutting him from their minor league camp in March 1992: batting-practice pitcher and bullpen coach for the Class A team in Peoria, Ill.

Moyer was 29 and had not won a major league game in 18 months. He did not win another for 15 more. The Cubs did not think he could help them as a pitcher, but they valued his intellect.

“He would have done a great job,” said Steve Roadcap, the Peoria manager that year. “I’m sure he would have helped me out tremendously, because of the way he studies the game.”

Moyer has won 212 games since then. Oh, and a few months later (after a 78-84 season), the Cubs let 26-year-old Greg Maddux walk, too.

Good work, guys.

Phil Rogers, Feeling Watery

I think Phil Rogers is trying to get some sort of point across, but I just can't put my finger on it:

Watching the great Greg Maddux pitch Thursday against the Cubs was like listening to rain bounce off a tin roof. It was pouring base hits. Maddux was on the mound without his raincoat. Somehow he stayed dry for four rapid-fire innings, walking between the raindrops.

Whatever it is, I have to pee.

Around The Blogs: San Diego Padres

As I peruse Padres blogs in advance of Greg Maddux's return to Wrigley, it seems this would be a good time to provide some numbers for Cubs and Padres fans alike to ponder:

103, 93, 95, 124, 119, 107, 100, 111, 101, 97, 113, 110, 115, 135, 86, 105, 105, 106, 98, 105, 112, 95, 112, 116, 97, 105, 124, 107, 111, 123, 124, 107, 119, 107, 127, 115, 114, 95, 79, 114, 118, 100, 116, 131, 129, 109, 124, 131, 133.

These, of course (!), are the pitch counts for each game of Mark Prior's first two seasons. Whether that contributed at all to his ongoing woes, we will never know. I'm guessing not. But who doesn't like to look at a list of numbers first thing on a Monday morning and get angry about what could have been all over again?

Meanwhile, Ducksnorts seems to be the place to be to keep track of comings and goings of Padres, as well as game blogs. And you can get a Ducksnorts T-shirt, if you're in to that kind of thing.

Left Coast Bias is concerned about the apathy that apparently is about to overtake Padres fans.

The Sacrifice Bunt bravely takes the blame for the Jim Edmonds debacle.

And, finally, Paul DePodesta has a brand new blog (just two posts so far) named It Might Be Dangerous ... You Go First.

Math Class: Greg Maddux > Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez

Bad Kermit over at Hire Jim Essian! has a great post on our old friend Greg Maddux. Though, reading through all the filth that are those statistics, what really jumps out at me was the last sentence of his first paragraph:

"If Clemens is guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs, that makes Greg Maddux the greatest pitcher of the modern era."

I couldn't agree more, good sir. I don't dabble in fancy book-learned statistics. I don't find them...what's the phrase..."fun to read." So, I don't really have any stats to prove how great he was...and I don't need to, because Kerm did so in his post. However, Kerm's post just got me thinking...I remember the Atlanta Braves version of Greg Maddux most vividly. The guy who would throw that 83 MPH two-seamer at a lefty's hindside and tail it a good six-to-ten inches back over the inside corner for the backwards "K."

He was unhittable. Baffling, even. Maddening in most cases. In my little experience with live pitching that actually changed speeds, it was fairly tough. Just imagine being at the plate against a guy who looked like Mr. Magoo, who threw effortlessly and absolutely made you look like you'd never seen a live changeup in your entire career. He was baffling...he has pitched for ages...and, he's continued to make even the best hitters look like Neifi Perez swinging a toothpick at a pinhead.

Good work, Kerm. You and your $10 numbers.

Update On Other Important Things

We had (more) diversity training at work today. And the facilitator made the mistake of starting the session off by asking, "Who can tell me what diversity is?" Which of course caused giggling.

Ed Harken: The affiliates are concerned about diversity.

Champ Kind: What in the hell is diversity?

Ron Burgundy: Well, I could be wrong, but I believe, uh, diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.

Ed: Ron, I would be surprised if the affiliates were concerned about an old, old wooden ship, but nice try.

Elsewhere:

Derrek Lee and Greg Maddux win Gold Gloves, and Aramis Ramirez doesn't - proving once and for all inertia controls a plurality of Gold Glove votes.

The Ottawa Senators are 13-1-0, the best start in NHL history. NHL ratings on Versus quintuple to .16 - double the legal limit in most states.

Big upset in the Indianapolis mayor's race, and Stephen Colbert drops his presidential bid.

Carny fight mars National Peanut Festival, while the Chinese are slipping date-rape drugs into children's toys.

And, finally, cows are committing suicide in Washington state.

Dearly Departed Cubs, Not Missed

One good thing about rarely having good players is that it doesn't hurt when they go to other teams.

For example, take a look at this exercise in the Cubs Mailbag:

My dad pointed out that two former Cubs, Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux, were pitching against each other last week, and we started talking about former Cubs still in the Majors. If you could assemble a starting lineup and pitching rotation of present and former Cubs still playing today, what would the roster look like?-- Kellen L., Racine, Wis.

You could have an ex-Cubs lineup of Matt Stairs at first, Mark Grudzielanek at second, Nomar Garciaparra or Cesar Izturis at short, Mark Bellhorn at third and Michael Barrett catching. You can pick among Corey Patterson, Luis Gonzalez, Juan Pierre, Rondell White, Kenny Lofton and Sammy Sosa for the outfield. Besides Maddux and Moyer, there's Sergio Mitre, Kyle Farnsworth, Tom Gordon, Antonio Alfonseca, LaTroy Hawkins, Julian Tavarez and Joe Borowski. Dontrelle Willis never made it to the big leagues with the Cubs but was in their Minor League system. I'm sure I'm missing a few, but that's a start.

That team could not beat anyone. Ever.

(Also note in an earlier question that Heidi B. of Kenosha is VERY upset with fans who boo.)

So Long, Farewell...

One Nut is sent to San Diego to not catch for Greg Maddux.

Chris Young Is A Lousy Storyteller

At least in e-mail. From Buster Olney's blog today:

Greg Maddux is known for being a funny clubhouse character. What is your best Maddux anecdote, from his first three months with the team?

CY: Greg has been a great teammate and leader during his short time here. Everyone in the clubhouse looks up to him and respects all that he has accomplished. He is a great personality and full of funny jokes. The best one I have heard is during spring training he went to the car dealership to pick up something for his car. The sales rep helping him kept repeating, "You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" Greg cordially replied, "No." The guy kept at it, trying to put a name with the face and finally asked Greg his name. Greg jokingly replied, "Jeffrey Dahmer." The sales rep simply replied, "No, I guess I don't know you," without realizing who Greg said he was. Classic example of his sense of humor.

Maddux Approves Of Cubs Spending

Greg Maddux, for one, is impressed with the Cubs' offseason spending binge:

"I didn't see it coming, but good for them. Looks like they've made a lot of good improvements. How could you not root for these fans?"

I like the "for the fans." Like a politician who does it "for the kids," Maddux is looking out for the fans. Except Greg is more sincere.

Counting Down BCB's Countdown...

Bleed Cubbie Blue's Top 100 list is getting down to it - now at No. 17 and Ed Reulbach, who played a long, long time ago.

Greg Maddux, incidentally, was No. 18. Damn you, Larry Himes.

Weekly Cubs.com Mailbag Follies

Responding to a question about Carlos Zambrano and whether he will be the next Greg Maddux to get away, Carrie Muskat comes up with this gem:

First of all, the Cubs didn't lowball Maddux. The contract he signed with the Braves did little more than match the Cubs' offer. Secondly, the Cubs' offer to Zambrano is simply part of the process. Let it play out. Negotiations are ongoing.

OK, perhaps the Cubs didn't lowball Maddux (which is debatable), but the second part of her answer belies the first. The Cubs let the negotiations "play out" after the '92 season and what happened?

1. Maddux got an offer from the Braves.


2. Scott Boras calls Larry Himes and says Maddux wants to stay with the Cubs.


3. But the Cubs had just signed a bunch of other free agents - Jose Guzman, Dan Plesac, Candy Maldonado - and say they have no money left for Maddux.

Now, is that shrewd negotiations or complete ineptness by Larry Himes? And why in the word is Carrie Muskat defending Larry Himes at this point?

(This is not to say they should wildly overpay for Carlos. This is to say Carrie Muskat rarely makes sense.)

Ted Lilly's Number

"I know No. 31, No. 31 was a friend of mine. Ted Lilly, you're no No. 31..."

The Cubs tell Ted Lilly he can't have uniform No. 31, which he wore in Toronto but previously belonged to Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux in Chicago.

Tellingly, however, the Cubs are going to allow Jason Marquis to wear No. 21, should he want to. Poor Sammy.