Paul Maholm is is back in Pittsburgh. Not like that — at least not yet anyways. Maholm returns for the second time this year as a Cubs pitcher to face his former ball club the Pirates. As with many of the Cubs players, Maholm has heard his name in trade rumors. That doesn’t come as a surprise, but the fact that the Pirates have been linked to him less than a year after declining his option to stay on the team is.
“I mean it’d be ironic to leave as a free agent and then come back if they wanted me back,” Maholm said. “They’re rumors and we’ll see how it turns out. My next two starts are against them so, it should be an interesting 7 days or whatever we got.”
“I don’t think they’d send scouts out to see me if there wasn’t interest. Nothing has really changed from the time they drafted me till now. I want to enjoy it and enjoy competing against these guys tomorrow.”
Maholm said despite all of the rumors that he and his teammates have been involved in, they have been able to maintain focus.
“I think the guys you talked about (Dempster, LaHair, Soriano, Garza, Maholm) most are really professional and know their job is to go out and compete and win baseball games,” Maholm said. “Until you’re told you’re on another team, they’re going to do everything they can to win games for us.”
Clint Hurdle, the Pirates current manager and Maholm’s manager in Pittsburgh last year, said that the he and general manager Neal Huntington haven’t had any discussions about trading for the southpaw.
“I’m not sure how much substance there is to that. I haven’t had any conversations with Neal about Paul,” Hurdle said. “I think that we felt at that time where we were and where he was, there was a two way street to make a deal and to bring people back and make it work, I don’t think we saw the fit the same way so you move on.”
“I think we’re always going to be open minded to add value or add help or add something whether it be off the mound, bench, position player pool or bench. Neal works very hard and his eyes and ears are always open. Anything that comes up doesn’t surprise me but I usually get with him and see how much substance is to it.”
Maholm’s stock has really went up especially over his past four starts. Maholm has a 4-0 record and a .89 ERA with a .956 WHIP over that time.
“I’ve had two stretches where I’ve won four straight and in between, I pitched well,” Maholm said. “Obviously every starter has bad games. It’s really turned out to be a regular turn of events for a starter, but the last four (games) mainly just mixing my pitches, getting ahead, keeping the ball down. I’ve gotten some great defense and run support. That’s kind of what you look for.”
His manager Dale Sveum said the fact that Maholm has had all of pitches working for him over the past month has been a big part of his success.
“He’s been going out there and having all four of his pitches working. He’s moving the ball in and out, back-dooring his cutter and he can flip his curveball in there for a strike,” Sveum explained. “He’s sticking to the gameplans we’ve put together and he’s not shaking off. He’s doing a great job with his pitch selection too.”
Hurdle said while his team prepares for each pitcher the same, the familiarity with Maholm can help them.
“Paul goes out and makes good pitches. We’ve seen that he competes well and can get outs. Our job is when he doesn’t make those pitches, to do something with them,” Hurdle said. “We do have the history of knowing Paul, and are pretty certain of how he’s going to attack. If there’s a variation of that, then you just have to counterpunch.”
“It always comes down to the pitchers level of execution whether it’s one of your guys or not. If they execute, it’ll be a challenge. If they don’t execute, you have to capitalize.”
Maholm said unlike last time, when he entered the tunnels the opposite way to stop by and talk to some old teammates, he came through the visitors tunnel and stayed around his own clubhouse. Despite hanging out with some of his old teammates Sunday night, he said they aren’t friends during this series.
“I got to see a lot of the guys last (Sunday) night at Karstens’ event. Now we’re not friends for the next three days,” Maholm joked. “I haven’t heard from any of the guys. Last night I obviously talked to some of them, but it wasn’t about anything about trades or anything. It was just catching up. I’ll go out on the field and chat with Ray (Searage) and Clint and a couple of people during batting practice, but not to state my case to get traded back. It’ll be just to catch up.”
Photo Credits: Getty Images
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