The Cubs signed Greg Maddux to serve in an as-of-yet undefined role in their front office. And Cubs fans reacted predictably - their overreaction made the 2009 offseason moves involving DeRosa and Bradley seem quaint. And the reactions were consistent, they ranged from brilliant to outstanding. Because we all remember the difference Ernie Banks made when he served as a special assistant to the GM in the 1970s after retiring... without Banks Ivan DeJesus would have never developed into the baseball legend that he is today.
I’ve got news for us Cubs fans. This isn’t the 1994 version of Greg Maddux that put up the greatest season by a pitcher in the modern era. The Cubs decided that they could win without him 15 years ago. This isn’t even the 2004 version of Greg Maddux that can stabilize the backend of a rotation. The Cubs learned that they couldn’t win with him 5 years ago. This is the 2010 version of Greg Maddux. Who may or may not be able to undermine Larry Rothschild and the dreaded towel drill.
There isn’t exactly a long list of Hall of Fame players that successfully moved into management roles. I can’t think of one baseball player who navigated this successfully; and outside of the Baltimore Ravens’ Ozzie Newsome I can’t think of one outstanding baseball or basketball GM who was a Hall of Fame player*.
* If you’re thinking Jerry West think again. The man was handed Magic and Kareem, had the can’t miss choice of Dominique or Worthy to fill a small forward hole and lured Shaq to LA by forcing Kazaam on all of us; West just understood the simple idea that you don’t overpay aging role players. Yes, he traded Vlade Divac for Kobe. Congrats. Jim Hendry traded He Sop Choi for Derek Lee. One trade does not make a genius.
Maddux is regarded as one of the smartest pitchers of the era. His brother is a highly thought of pitching coach. I imagine he’s better than any instructor the Cubs have in their minor league system. So yes, having the greatest pitcher of the modern era in your front office isn’t a bad thing.
But I’d rather have a statistician with a PowerPoint entitled “On-Base Percentage: It’s Not Necessarily a Bad Thing to ‘Clog’ the Bases.” Or, if Hendry is averse to employing basic statistics in his player evaluations, how about a wannabe agent who at least read the Wikipedia page on negotiating tactics so the Cubs can stop singing players in their late 30s to long-term contracts for 150% of market value.
But since those are all pie in the sky dreams I’ll just have to live with a retired Hall of Fame pitcher who may be able to help Marmol find the strike zone and hope that one of the interns can explain the arbitration process to Hendry.
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Agreed, this can't hurt. But Maddux's role as tutor has long been overrated, and he's said as much himself. My sense is that he's basically an affable guy with an uncanny, if unverbalizable, feel for pitching. I've never seen any advanced thinking on pitching penned by Maddux. He certainly "gets it", maybe moreso than anyone ever to climb on a MLB mound, but whether or not that can be communicated to others of lesser baseball IQ remains an open question.
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