Five Hilariously Absurd Stats to Brighten Your Day
Greg Maddux: man or machine?
Whether or not you grew up watching Greg Maddux dominate major league hitters, you probably have a sense of how good he was. The man is a legend, and the best pitcher of his generation. Contrary to the modern power pitcher, Maddux was a master of control and finesse, which made him one of the most efficient pitchers to ever step on a mound.
As a result, Maddux achieved an outstanding array of career accolades. From 1992-95, he won four-straight NL Cy Youngs. He finished his illustrious Hall of Fame career with a 3.16 ERA, 3,371 strikeouts, 17 Gold Gloves, and one of the best two-seamers ever thrown.
Thus, naturally, Maddux and his machine-like control generated some truly ridiculous numbers. A few years ago, a meme surfaced featuring a crazy Greg Maddux stat:
#GOAT pic.twitter.com/doXLNnJLIb
— Matt (@TomahawkWest) March 18, 2017
Now that’s insane. This meme went viral in the baseball community, showcasing Maddux’s excellence to the younger generation that didn’t have the pleasure of watching him in his prime. However, many have come to question the legitimacy of this absurd statistic.
While the number of batters faced and intentional walks is accurate, the wording of this stat is a little misleading. This is because split stats are inherently difficult to interpret in a way like this.
Thankfully, Tommy Poe of Walk Off Walk cleared the air, and revised the wording into a more accurate statistic. The new statistic goes:
“Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career and only issued 293 four-pitch walks. 153 were intentional.”
That is still insane! This means he only unintentionally walked 140 batters on four-straight pitches. Long story short, Maddux did not give up many free passes. Thus, whichever way you cut it, Greg Maddux was not human.