Roger Clemens vs Greg Maddux (1 Viewer)

[Doctor Detroit]

Choose wisely.

 

[Workhorse]

Clemens.

Very close in terms of career WHIP but Maddux never had to face AL lineups with the DH. Clemens gets him on ERA+ and K/9.

 

[ThisGuy]

Maddux never pitched in the AL, in the late 90's/early 2000's. If Roger spent his entire career in the NL, he'd have even better #'s

 

[Berserker]

Clemens-4862 IP, .228 BAA, 1.17 whip, 3.11 ERA, 4635 Ks, 46 Shutouts, 118 Complete Games

Maddux-4730 IP, .249 BAA, 1.14 whip, 3.10 ERA, 3229 Ks, 35 shutouts, 109 CG

Unless you are judging by Gold Gloves, Clemens is the clear choice.

 

[Despyzer]

Total Baseball has this statistic called ERA+ that adjusts for league avg. and ballpark avg.

Clemens led in this statistic 7 times in his career, Maddux 5. Only Lefty Grove has done it more times, with 9. Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson also did 5. The immortal Cy Young, only twice.

 

[greenroom]

Are we to assume both pitchers were clean. I personally think Maddox has been clean, but Clemens I have doubts on. That said I do think Clemens has had a better career

 

[Despyzer]

Are we to assume both pitchers were clean. I personally think Maddox has been clean, but Clemens I have doubts on.

Do you have anything at all on which to base these doubts?

 

[whoknew]

I love Maddux and watching him pitch is one of my favorite things to do. Having said that and not to take anything away from him, I think its pretty clear Clemens is better. Clemens is about the 2nd or 3rd greatest pitcher of all time (and climbing), I reckon.

 

[jabarony]

Are we to assume both pitchers were clean. I personally think Maddox has been clean, but Clemens I have doubts on.

Do you have anything at all on which to base these doubts?

His name has been mentioned in past probes - nothing substantiated, though. Who was the middle reliever last year who got busted for roids? I think he was a D-Back. He mentioned a bunch of names including Clemens that were later retracted.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

One surprising thing about these two is despite all their success and the fact both played on very good teams for most of their careers neither has had great playoff success. Neither has ever one more than one game in a series which I find almost shocking. Clemens has had a few nice WS outings but two of his best efforts were in sweeps and his best WS in 2001, his team lost and Randy Johnson kind of showed him up.

I think both are top ten pitchers all-time though and Clemens is likely top five. Maddux had three of the five best individual seasons including 1995 which was one of the best in baseball history and his pinpoint control is legendary. Clemens has benefited from being very good in his 40s while Maddux has fallen off in recent years lacking the power to get the big K when he needs it. I think if you had this poll in 2001 it would have been split down the middle but Clemens has the advantage because of what he has done over the past five years. I think I'd still take Bob Gibson and Walter Johnson over either but when you are even mentioned with possibly being as good as those two, that's pretty damn impressive.