It appears that the Dodgers are awfully serious about contending for the NL West title this year. They've been locked in a tie with the Diamondbacks for several days now and by all indications, the race is going down to the wire this year. In anticipation of that, the Dodgers have gone out and added their second future Hall-of-Famer in as many weeks by acquiring Greg Maddux from the Padres tonight.
It's the second time the Dodgers have picked up Maddux late in the season in three years. For all intents and purposes, the Mad Dog is just an average pitcher here in the twilight of his career. Most of his stats look decent this year (3.99 ERA, 1.22 WHIP), but he's pitching in the best pitcher's park in either league in Petco. Still, league average isn't bad and Maddux is still durable, which makes about as good of a replacement as they'll find on the market for Brad Penny, who the Dodgers put on the DL this week.
There's no word who the Dodgers are giving up for Maddux, but it's probably going to be some kind of fringe prospect. Still, Ned Colletti's burning through his reserve of minor league talent pretty quickly this summer in the interest of getting a mediorce team into the playoffs in a year when the National League is pretty top heavy. Given the price the Dodgers have already paid in minor league talent, is a division title and a loss to the Cubs in the NLDS even a success at this point?
