Clement had 3 effective years with the Cubs. He pitched nearly 600 innings and had an ERA of roughly 3.7 ( too tired to do exact math)
That is solid 3rd starter territory and while Prior and Wood were going down he stayed in. I don’t recall him blowing big leads in fact he tended to get the LEAST run support so maybe instead of the 18 pitch at bat you might remember how much he helped us get as far as we did in 03 and do the best he could to keep us in it in 04 when our highly touted “stars” where on the DL. Clement’s contribution to the Cubs has always been underrated.

I was there at Dodger Stadium that night. Both players hung tough. Something had to give.

" Sorry about the head. But you weren’t that good."

Gosh, Grandma, sorry about the cancer, but you’re old anyway.

You’re using a small – indeed, microscopic – sample to castigate a decent pitcher. Look at Clement’s numbers with the Cubs – they’re absolutely “that good.”

Hey look a Maddux story I have not previously posted. This from a 2004 piece by Tom Verducci in SI

“Remember that great 18-pitch at-bat the Dodgers’ Alex Cora had against Matt Clement this year? Clement kept pumping in sliders, his best pitch, with a 2-and-2 count and Cora kept fouling them off — more than 10 of them — before at last nailing one for a home run. You asked Clement why he threw his best pitch for strikes in that situation. He said that he had just walked the previous hitter and he did not want to go to a full count, lest he walk another batter. You explained that 2-2 is a pitcher’s count, and the hitter is going to take a defensive posture, ready to fight off any pitch. But at 3-2, you said, the hitter is back to being aggressive, reading fastball first and reacting to other pitches as a Plan B; 3-2 is more of a hitter’s count. So don’t be afraid of 3-2, because nine out of 10 times, you said, you can exploit the hitter’s aggressiveness. "I guarantee you,‘’ Mercker told me, " Matt Clement will win games just because of what Greg has told him. I’ve already seen him adjust"

After Worf’s post I want to go out and have another baby and name it Matt Clement.

I was so pissed watching that game. Baker would not go out of the box to use his best pitcher in the most important game. That was my turning point on Baker. McKeon outmanaged Baker so badly in that series.