Greg Maddux Owns the Mets

Oh, how I loathe him.

Facing Kaz Matsui, Kaz managed to lay off two of Maddux's absolutely impossible-to- hit changeups in the dirt. He was actually patient enough to work the count to 3-0. But my fear that he would strike out anyway wasn't necessarily due to a lack of faith in Kaz. It's Maddux. He knew at 3-0 Kaz would take all the way. So he threw a perfect strike. Then he threw another one, just outside enough to be beyond Kaz's reach, but still over the plate. 3-2, most pitchers would throw a strike, or at least try to throw something somewhere in the vicinity of the plate. But the thing about Maddux is, when he's on, he's practically omniscient. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that if you throw a wicked sinking nasty changeup inside and in the dirt, Matsui is going to swing at it nine times out of ten. But to do it at full count?

I imagine Maddux stands there on the mound and predicts inside his own head exactly what is going to happen on every pitch. And most of the time, he's probably exactly right. Oh, how I loathe him. And how I wish he was on our team.