Top 5 without question, I think. And of this generation's living legends (Clemans, Martinez, Johnson) the best of the group. For 11 years he was an absolutely incredible pitcher. This peak period was bookended by a period at the beginning of considerably above average performance bookended at the end by a period of average to slightly above average performance. I think Pedro was probably more dominating during his prime, but Maddux's 2400 extra innings thrown is a huge consideration.  Something tells me you wanted to be a pitcher with Greg growing up. Can you think of anyone you'd rather have teaching you about how to prepare, mentally, for a ballgame?

He has it all - long career, unbelievable peak, phenominal teammate. Plus, he also has the legend factor playing in his name. (throwing the ball to a catcher while the catcher has his eyes closed, calling 7 innings of shutout ball for Brad Penny..). As well, he has always come across as a class act and has never been associated with the likes of steriods or (as far as I know) anything that would prove derogatory to his character.

One of my favorite players ever. When I used to run baseball camps for kid's, it was Greg Maddux (and Tom Seaver) whose quotes/pitching philosophy's I quoted and lived and died by when doing the pitching clinic. There are 3 aspects of a good pitch. Location, speed, and movement.  Nobody understood that better then Maddux. It is sad to see him go, but I'm glad he's leaving while he still has a respectable skill set intact.

Thanks for the memories.

Being too young to remember his absolute prime, I've had to rely on a lot of stats, but I do not think stats do Greg Maddux justice.  I believe that he is the greatest pitcher of my lifetime, even though he started his career 2 years previous to my lifetime.  I do base a fair amount of it on this article.  If half of it is true, he is still the best pitcher of my lifetime.

He does get bonus points because the "Chicks dig the long ball" commercial is just a thing of beauty.

Hmm. In the list of the greats, he's behind Walter Johnson and ahead of Tom Seaver.  For a few others in the middle, Grove, Alexander, Clemens, Mathewson, Young, Randy Johnson, you can make arguments.  I've got him in the top 5 too. 

Will Greg Maddux be the first unanimous player to get voted into the Hall Of Fame? If not, I would love to hear a rational argument as to why Maddux shouldn't be unanimous. I thought Ripken had a good chance to be unanimous in 07 but 8 voters didn't feel the same way.

Maddux was my favourite player, hands down. Many a ballplayer could do well to emulate everything about Maddux's approach to the game. He was a thinking man who spent the final third of his career surviving on guile alone. And he was always the picture of humility. It's such an odd contrast that a man of such apparent depth would make his home in Las Vegas, a city all about surface glitter and not much else.

Much is going to be said in the coming days about Maddux's pitching feats, but let's not forget one huge component of his success - his fielding. Maddux won an incredible 18/19 Gold Gloves starting in 1990 until his retirement. His own fielding excellence certainly helped with his success, and it's something all pitchers should work really hard on - making themselves a fifth infielder. Our own Jesse Litsch and Shaun Marcum seem to have a handle on this, and it makes them better pitchers.

While Maddux was certainly a fine fielder, pitchers' gold gloves are a farce. When deciding who should win it this year, the writers employ one simple criterion: who won it last year? (NL winners, AL winners) Actually, that's a pretty popular criterion regardless of position, but especially for pitchers.

Maddux made 7 errors in 1993 and won the award. That's a lot of errors for a pitcher. It's hard to believe that his overall fielding prowesse that year was such that it could make up for all those errors and still rank him number one.

I think those 8 were the writers who think anyone who has been in a players strike doesn't deserve to get in, or that no one should get 100% since (historic player ABC) didn't get 100%. Remember, once you get a ballot you have it for life thus writers who haven't wrote in decades could still vote with grudges in mind (ie: blank ballots).

 Our own Jesse Litsch and Shaun Marcum seem to have a handle on this, and it makes them better pitchers.

Good call. The data certainly shows that Maddux and Litsch are certainly  top fielders, although on an individual basis it's hard to determine how much run value this provides. On a team level , Toronto pitchers are at the top in 2008.

I don't know about Top 5. He 'could' be. Definitely Top 10, without even having to think about it too hard.