On Monday, Greg Maddux will officially close the book on his great career, having accomplished virtually everything he could have hoped to when he made his MLB debut as a skinny, 20-year-old pinch-runner for the Cubs 22 years ago.

He won 4 Cy Young Awards, was named to 8 All-Star Games, earned 18 Gold Gloves, and won 355 games (8th on the all-time list). He also appeared in 20 NL Playoff series and 3 World Series.

One thing he didn't accomplish: outlasting the teammate who started the game in which Maddux made his first appearance for the Cubs back in 1986—Jamie Moyer.

For the second time in two years, former Cub Greg Maddux, most recently of the Padres, has been traded to Los Angeles. No word yet on whom the Dodgers will be sending to San Diego to complete the deal for the future Hall of Famer, who was 6-9, 3.99 for a terrible Padres team.

Maddux's first move west happened back on July 31, 2006. With the Cubs languishing in 5th place in the NL Central at 43-62 and 15 1/2 games behind the first-place Cardinals, Jim Hendry gave the future Hall of Famer a chance to play a role in yet another pennant race. At the time, the Dodgers were 50-55, but just 5 games off the NL West lead then held by the Padres.

Maddux justified the deal by going 6-3, 3.60 over the season's final two months and helping to pitch Los Angeles into the playoffs, where they were dispatched in three straight NLDS games by the Mets. Mad Dog started the third and climactic game in that series, though he went just four innings and was hit hard.

In exchange for Maddux, the Cubs acquired shortstop Cesar Izturis, who was with the team for 12 days short of one calendar year and was terrible, eventually being shipped to the Pirates, before he joined the Cardinals this past off-season.

Late word from Wrigley Field Wednesday night, as reported by Paul Sullivan on the Trib's Hardball blog, is that Jim Edmonds, pending the results of a physical, "is expected to be in a Cubs uniform Thursday afternoon."

If the new Cub is in the starting lineup for Thursday's game, he will be facing former Cub Greg Maddux, who will be starting for the Padres against Ryan Dempster.

The irony is obvious: Cub fans will presumably be rooting for a formerly hated opponent to succeed at the expense of a still beloved, former Cub.

For the record, Edmonds has gone .263/.282/.500 against Maddux in 38 AB's, with 2 HR and 4 RBI.

Cubs.com also notes that Daryle Ward is suffering from a bad back. If Ward has to go on the DL, lefthanded-hitting 1B/OF Micah Hoffpauir could be summoned from Iowa. Since reporting to the I-Cubs on May 7th following recovery from a pulled muscle in his rib cage, Hoffpauir has gone 9-for-27 with 2 HR and 10 RBI, 9 of them coming in just two games, Monday and Tuesday night.

As Mike Wellman pointed out at The Cub Reporter, that's more RBI in two games than Matt Murton had produced in 23.