Tonight in the Padres-Giants game, Greg Maddux was going for his 350th career win. If Maddux achieves the feat of getting his 350th win ( by all accounts, he'll get it quite easily), it will put him 9th place on the all-time leader board for wins for a pitcher.
Perhaps more importantly, or even more interestingly, it will put him only 4 wins behind the next closest member of that list...that would be Roger Clemens. Clemens currently has 354 wins and probably will never pitch again and add to that total.
So barring some random crazy aligning of doom against Greg Maddux, he will most likely reach and surpass Clemens on the all-time wins list. In fact, add another year of 10-15 wins (possible) after this season, and he could end his career in a three way tie for 3rd place all-time, behind Cy Young and Walter Johnson.
So this is the question I would like to pose, and it's very simple: All things considered with Clemens and Maddux, who is going to go down as the better pitcher of the modern era? Is Clemens' overall dominance as a power pitcher too impressive even with all the steroids he was pumping through his body? Or are we going to now look at Greg Maddux, with his phenomenal pitch control and finesse style of pitching, as the best pitcher of the current generation?
If I had a vote, I'd have to give it to Greg Maddux.
