Greg Maddux to Pitch 5000th Inning
Needing just 2 2/3 IP to reach 5000 innings for his career, Greg Maddux should reach the historic mark later this week.
Maddux will become just the 13th player in major league history to reach this mark and just the second pitcher besides Nolan Ryan to reach this mark while pitching a game in the decade of the nineties.
Will Maddux be the last to reach 5000 IP in his career? The safe bet would be yes.
At 22 he threw 249 IP. In the next two seasons he followed up with 238.2 and 237 IP. Then at age 25, 26 and 27 he threw 263, 268 and 267 IP. With today’s monitored pitch counts a younger pitcher will rarely hit these IP marks in one season, let alone in consecutive campaigns.

Although he’s having his worst season in the past twenty years in terms of a win-loss record (7 – 12) he is right around the league average in ERA (4.08) and has a below league average 1.219 WHIP. Will he retire? That of course is up to Greg. He has proven that he is still an asset to a team in the back-end of a rotation. I’d also assume that attendance spikes during his starts. Lastly Maddux has always taken on a teachers role for younger pitchers and this can be a great benefit to a younger staff.
For his career Greg is tied for 8th in all time wins with 354 (with Roger Clemens) and ranks 4th in games started and 10th in strikeouts.