Greg Maddux to have number retired by Braves

Greg Maddux will have his number (31) retired by the Atlanta Braves on July 17th.

From 1992 to 1998, Maddux was a dominant as any pitcher (perhaps ever). His highest ERA during that seven-year span was 2.72. And that season (1996) was significantly higher than the other six seasons. His second-worst ERA during that span was 2.36.

In his career, Maddux won four consecutive Cy Young awards (1992-1995) and eighteen Gold Glove awards.

Maddux, who played with the Cubs, Braves, Dodgers and Padres, finished his career with a 355-227 record, 3,371 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.16.

Could A-Rod be back this month?

Excluding his hip injury, New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez had a horrible off-season. And the superlative "horrible" was probably an understatement.

There was the Yankee Years book by Joe Torre that referred to him as A-Fraud, the leaked report about his steroid usage and then the link to the Manhattan Madame.

After the steroid scandal, which was close to spring training, A-Rod talked about how he was looking forward to the escape and diversion of just playing baseball.

Instead, he injured his hip and underwent surgery on it on March 9th. The initial prognosis was that he would miss six to nine weeks.

A-Rod "feels 70 percent" and there is a chance that he could be back on the field by the end of this month.

"Everything is going well," Cashman said. "He's working extremely hard. Everything is going as planned."

Rodriguez is a career .306 hitter with 553 homeruns, 1606 runs batted in and stole 283 bases.