Dealing

A few hundred years from now, people will ask who were the great pitchers of the end of the Twentieth Century and the start of the Twenty-First. They will mention Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Those who respond to those names will all say the same thing:

"Yeah, but they were no Greg Maddux."

With Roger thinking about retiring (he comes back as soon as Maddux gets close to Roger's win total), the media focus on the Elder Statesman of Pitching has no choice but to look to Greg Maddux. It's about time. Maddux deserves the credit he is now receiving. He keeps pitching like this and he could retire with north of 360 wins.

My only question is this: Hey, Greg? Since you hired a personal trainer this offseason and you are pitching lights out now, why didn't you do this the last two years?

With 5 games left on the road trip, the Cubs really only need two wins to call it a successful trip. Get three or more and there can really be some talk about this team going places as the pitching staff will be ready for upgrades in the names of Wood, Prior and Miller. There presence not only makes the staff stronger, but gives Jim Hendry more opportunity to improve the team by trading pitching.

Last Thought: A team with a history of Bruce Sutter, Willie Hernandez, Randy Myers, Lee Smith and it's Ryan Dempster who holds the record for consecutive saves. Demps is starting to make a believer out of me. Those walks that he gave up last year haven't followed him into this year.