Fantasy Baseball Cafe Forums

by **WebHamster** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 3:00 pm

Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - The Chicago Cubs are reportedly in hot pursuit of four-time Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, the team increased its first offer of $10 million over two years to $14 million to $15 million over two years. The initial offer was made on January 13.

The 37-year-old righthander went 16-11 with a 3.96 ERA last season for the Atlanta Braves. He spent the last 10 seasons with the Braves.

Maddux, a San Angelo, TX native, started his illustrious career with the Cubs in 1986 and captured his first Cy Young Award with the team in 1992. Maddux ranks 23rd on the all-time career wins list with 289.

Maddux also has 33 shutouts and 103 complete games under his belt.

If the Cubs acquire Maddux, they will have three solid starters in Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.

by **halftime** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 6:17 pm

I hardly consider Maddux quality anymore.There is a reason that he is unsigned this late into the winter.Looks like the Cubs are desperate & are going to overpay for a washed up veteran.Now that my friends is the problem with baseball,it's not the Yankees it's teams shelling out big bucks for washed up vets!

by **DieHardCubbie** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:36 pm

$7 - $7.5 million a season....I still like it.....I don't think I want to see them go much higher than that though.... :-?

by **ironman** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 4:07 pm

Its not like the Cubs are shelling out the money to have him be their ace. Maddux isn't the same as he used to be but is still a solid vet that's good for 15 wins. He'll be good in the three spot and will also be nice to slip in between Prior and Wood every now and then to spread those two's starts apart a bit. Plus you have the expertise and experience that Prior and the rest of the youngsters can feed off, which IMO is well worth the money. If Maddux can help prior fine-tune his off-speed stuff then I'm all for it. ;-D