Bill Madden of the Daily News reports that Scheurholz is confident that he can re-sign both Maddux and Glavine. Then he quotes a moronic “source” who says that they can’t win in the postseason so nobody wants them.
Leaving aside that just getting to the postseason is a tall order for most teams, it’s not true. Glavine before this season’s disaster had usually pitched pretty well. He has a winning record still, 12-11. He was the World Series MVP, for crying out loud. Maddux’s postseason record is actually pretty good, 11-8 with a fine outing this season. His postseason ERA is in the low threes, which is still very good even if you forget that it’s bloated by pitching poorly in the NLCS for the Cubs back before he was really Greg Maddux.
There is something to be said here, and I think Madden probably misunderstood his source. Maddux and Glavine are finesse pitchers and rely upon deception to a large degree. If a hitter sees one of them three times in ten days, he’s going to get familiar with him. So you don’t do that — you use a four-man rotation.
Anyway, the reasons Maddux and Glavine will probably come relatively cheaply have nothing to do with postseason “failure” and everything to do with age and (in the case of Maddux) fragility. Nobody wants to have a lot of money locked up long-term in a pitcher and then lose him.
Don’t forget, this is a member of the famously parochial New York media talking. They’re probably engaging in a bit of wishful thinking because they’d like the Yankees or Mets to sign one or both of Maddux and Glavine.
True that Glavine has a winning record in postseason and that Maddux has performed reasonably well, but i maintain AOL’s $$ is better spent on hitting – see the fact that, since Glavine’s WS MVP, the Braves have won a grand total of 0 games in which they scored fewer than 4 runs . . . that means every time Maddux or Glavine (or any other pitcher) goes out, give us 7 innings of 3 run ball and we get 2 innings of flawless relief, we still lose. Not good
I wouldn’t take anything Madden says seriously. In the same column, he tried to paint Art Howe as some kind of tough guy because he once held a grudge against a columnist who ripped him. Ooohh, scary!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Given the dearth of free agent hitting on the market this offseason, I’d be shocked if the Braves didn’t re-sign both Glavine and Maddux.