Pitcher Greg Maddux: How Does He Rank Historically?

Greg (Mad Dog) Maddux is a lock for the Hall of Fame. But how does he rank against his peers, and the all time greats?

Here is Mad Dog's record to date:

Lifetime record of 333-203. Good for a winning percentage of .621, which ranks 61st all time on the active list and 52nd all time on the retired list. His win total of 333 currently ranks 10th all time.

His K rate is 6.2 while his BB rate is just 1.8. That works out to an excellent K to BB ratio of 3.4. As those who have watched him throughout his career already know, Greg Maddux is a tremendous control pitcher.

Career ERA of 3.07, which is just 74% of the League ERA over his career. An outstanding number that ties Maddux with Hall of Famer Lefty Grove, and has been bested by only ten other retired starters.

Greg Maddux has won four Cy Young Awards in his career and did so consecutively from 1992-1995, all with the Atlanta Braves. He has been an All Star 8 times, and has won 16 Gold Gloves which ties him for most Gold Gloves ever with Jim Kaat and Brooks Robinson.

Maddux has been an unbelievably durable pitcher in his career, having pitched 200 plus innings for 18 straight years (199.3 in 2002).

Mad Dog currently has 3,169 strikeouts which is good for 12th on the all time list.

Maddux has pitched in 21 post season series, and has gone 11-14, with a 3.34 ERA. His teams have gone 10-11 in those series. In 3 World Series Maddux has gone 2-3, with a 2.09 ERA. His teams have gone 1-2 in the World Series. He won the World Series in 1995 when the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians, and twice lost the Series to the New York Yankees in 1996 and 1999.

Taking out his first year with the Chicago Cubs, when he went 2-4 in just 31 innings, and Maddux's overall record is 331-199 (.625). Over the course of his career his teams have gone a combined 1853-1481 (.556). So he has pitched .069 better than the teams he played for.

That is a very high number that has been bested by only a few dozen pitchers in baseball history. It stamps Greg Maddux as one of the best pitchers in baseball history.

Heading into the 2007 season, Greg Maddux will shortly turn 41 years old. He signed a free agent contract with the Sand Diego Padres this winter. Petco Park is a great pitchers park, which should help Maddux compile even more stats to his already illustrious career. But no matter what Greg Maddux does for the rest of his pitching career, the stats he has already compiled mark him as one of the greatest pitchers of all time.