Maddux’s 16 Will Be a Sweet Feat

Greg Maddux is one win away from becoming the first pitcher ever to win 15 or more games in each of 16 consecutive seasons. He and Cy Young are currently the only pitchers to have won 15 or more games in each of 15 consecutive seasons. Maddux won his 14th game by allowing no earned runs over 7 1/3 innings. He has three or four starts remaining before the playoffs to set this truly remarkable record.
 
As a former pitcher, I know how difficult it is to be consistent enough to win 15 games in one season. It is simply incredible that he has a chance to do it in 16 consecutive years. To put it in even more perspective, Roger Clemens, who won his 300th game this year, has won 15 or more games 10 times in his 20-year career but has had just seven years in a row of 15 wins or more. I say ‘just,’ but even Roger’s record is phenomenal. Roger’s passion and work ethic are well documented but he’s not close in winning consistency to Maddux, a pitcher who looks more like an accountant than an athlete.
 
One of Greg’s obvious assets, which has allowed him to approach this record, is his durability. It is so hard for any pitcher to go through a season without having some form of injury to his arm or shoulder. To just be able to consistently take your turn in the rotation enough times over a 16-year period is incredible.
 
Another mandatory quality is that you have to pitch effectively over that period of time to even remain in the rotation. I am convinced that Greg Maddux is, and has been, the consummate artist on the mound when it comes to staying in his zone. He stays within his capabilities, his pitch plan, and his game plan, no matter what is going on around him.
 
When I was playing, I loved to observe pitchers like Tom Seaver and Don Sutton who always seemed to have total control of themselves and the game. They were always in their zone. Now I can’t wait to get the chance to watch Maddux execute his unwavering ability to always stay within his game plan and to not let anything break his concentration or get him out of his zone. I almost like it when he starts the season off slowly, like he did this year, because it gives me the chance to see him raise his level of concentration.
 
One has to admire the simplicity, and at the same time, the difficulty of his strategy. For years he has consistently won by throwing a regular moving fastball and a cutter to both sides of the plate and by changing speeds on those same pitches. He is an announcer’s dream because it is easy to call his pitches, but he is a hitter’s nightmare.
 
I know how hard it is to master one area of the strike zone. You must be able to throw pitches to that area that look like strikes to the hitter but end up off the plate, out of the hitting zone, and you must be able to throw pitches that look like balls but then end up in the strike zone on the corner. To really be effective, you must be able to change speeds on those same pitches.
 
Many, many pitchers have been very successful mastering one area of the strike zone. It’s not that they don’t throw to the rest of the strike zone, it is that everything they do revolves around the mastery of that one zone. Tom Glavine is the master of low and away. Every right-handed hitter goes up to the plate looking low and away when Glavine pitches.
 
Maddux has mastered the zone on both sides of the plate. I don’t think any pitcher today controls both sides of the plate the way Greg can. Hitters go up to the plate against him wondering what he will do to them this time and on which side of the plate he will do it.
 
I have no doubt that Maddux spends a lot of time studying hitters and their tendencies but it is amazing to see him probe a hitter and then attack him based on the hitter’s reaction. In a game early in the season, the Phillies had a runner on first base. Greg saw that the left-handed hitter was looking for something on the outer half of the plate. He was thinking that Greg would stay away from him to keep him from hitting the ball through the hole between first base and second base. Maddux threw an inside cutter, jamming the hitter, producing a perfect double-play ground ball to short. His shortstop bobbled the ball and everyone was safe, but all you saw in Greg was that same stare of concentration as he went on to work out of the inning with minimal damage.
 
This was a perfect example of how he has mastered the mindset of taking one hitter at a time, taking into account the situation and how he can get three outs before the other team scores a run. He has the ability to stay in that zone for every pitch of every game.
 
I have the privilege of working with young pitchers. We work a lot on throwing their pitches to the corners. I know the long hours I spent repeating throw after throw to one area of the strike zone to try to master it. I exhort young pitchers to concentrate and work diligently to be able to throw their pitches consistently where they want to throw them. I work with them to formulate a plan of attack for every hitter. I want them to get in their zone and stay there no matter what the situation. Only Greg knows the time and effort and concentration he has spent to master what he has done so effortlessly over these last 16 years. He is the consummate example and measuring rod by which every pitcher can judge his concentration, consistency and durability.
 
He is a master artist at work. I love watching him pitch. I’m pulling for him to get one more win to set the record. This achievement is so extraordinary to me that I will be shocked if anyone, after Greg, ever comes close to breaking it.
 
Note: Maddux Got his 15 wins in 2003 and again in 2004 making it 17 years in a row. He is currently pitching for the San Diego Padres and has over 330 career wins.
 
September 2003, updated June 2007
By Geoff Zahn Former Head Baseball Coach University of Michigan and 12 Year Major League Veteran Pitcher