RSSDoes Anyone Remember Pedro Martinez?
Aug 15
Sports baseball, Red Sox Comments Off
I’ve been quite glad not to hear the legendary arrogance and pomposity, but equally sad not to see Pedro Martinez pitch so far in the 2007 season. Occasionally popping up in a news story mentioning how great he was doing as he rehabilitated his surgically repaired right shoulder, Pedro has been missing from a New York Mets team that greatly needs a dominant starting pitcher. The five starters most often deployed by the Mets this year (Tom Glavine, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Orlando Hernandez, and Jorge Sosa) have all done fine, but none has stepped up and claimed a firm position at the top of the rotation. That role has slipped to Glavine, the league’s newest and possibly last 300 game-winner, by default. The Mets need someone to step forward and anchor a team that, while it holds a small lead in the NL East, has floundered and stagnated for months, allowing both the Braves and the Phillies to remain in the hunt for the division title. They’re in need of a boost, an emotional lift, a catalyst. If they’re looking to Pedro Martinez to be that man in September, they’re going to be disappointed.
On the increasingly controversial resume of Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, the non-re-signing of Martinez falls squarely and loudly in the positive column. When Red Sox fans screamed and hollered after Theo let the temperamental pitcher sign with the Mets, who offered an additional guaranteed year, and replaced him in the rotation with Matt Clement (who slams down equally hard on the other side of the see-saw as a negative for Theo,) Theo knew what most weren’t ready to accept: Pedro isn’t Pedro anymore. Injury and mileage have irrevocably changed him as a pitcher. Now, in the third year of a 4 year, $53 million contract, he’s won only 9 games since the end of 2005. After putting up solid numbers in the junior varsity world of the NL that season, the wheels came off last year and he required surgery that has cost him the rest of that year as well as his entire 2007 campaign to date.
Truthfully, Pedro wasn’t even really himself throughout most of 2004, logging a career high (before his 4.48 in 2006) 3.90 ERA, but he came up big when the playoffs arrived. In Boston, we got so spoiled from his glory days that we remember him beginning to deteriorate back in 2003 with his velocity and consistency. On paper, though, he was 14-4 with a 2.22 ERA and over 200 strikeouts. If that’s a drop-off, it only shows how far up he had been. From 1998 through 2002, he was the best the AL has seen since the late 1980s version of Roger Clemens and no one has been better since. Johan Santana puts in a good challenge, but Pedro was an astounding 87-24 during those five years, logging a high ERA of 2.89 in 1998. His 1.74 ERA in 2000 sounds mythical against the backdrop of 2007, where any ERA below 4.00 is seen as all-star caliber. Pedro limped over the 200 win plateau in late 2006 and now sits 2 strikeouts shy of the elite 3,000 mark. If he never wins another game, he is worthy of the Hall of Fame. His dominance from 1997 through 2003 rivals that of any pitcher in history over a similar stretch except for Sandy Koufax’s legendary run from 1962-1966, during which he was 111-34 with an ERA just over 2.00.
But as Martinez attempts to return, at age 35, from surgery, having already gone from a flamethrower with a 97 mile per hour fastball to a deceptive veteran topping out at 91, the early returns are not promising. On Tuesday, Pedro pitched in his second rehab start, giving up 3 runs in 5 innings for the Mets’ rookie ball team. His previous start was similarly discouraging. As a matter of perspective, many of the hitters in rookie ball were playing on high-school diamonds and finishing their U.S. History classes 90 days ago. And this Tuesday, they beat up on a three-time Cy Young award winner. It’s already mid-August and there appears to be a longer road ahead of Pedro than he had hoped in his quest to return to the big stage and playoff baseball. The Mets would be well-served to look elsewhere for their emotional lift.
Pedro Martinez may be back in the big leagues in 2008 and he may very well put together a solid season, but chances are that he will never look like the pitcher we knew five or ten years ago. As is often the case with power pitchers, the “twilight” is never very bright (Roger Clemens being the blinding exception,) though they fight against it fastball after fastball. So while I rooted hard against “Pedro the Punk” in ’05 and ’06, I’m sorry to see him struggle to return this year. I pop in my 2004 Red Sox World Series DVD and I can’t help feeling the nostalgia and a little bit of love for Pedro. As he fights his own body to return, I admit that I’m rooting for the old man, albeit with the sound turned way down, just in case he talks.
More Notes from the Cheap Seats
The other loudmouth returning from injury is Boston’s own Curt Schilling. After a month and a half of resting and strengthening his shoulder, Curt dominated minor league hitters in his 3 rehab starts, shutting out the opposition in 15 strong innings, reaching 94 mph on the radar guns. Someone must have been trying to help his confidence with those radar readings because Schilling was regularly around 89-91 in his first start back with the Red Sox, a 6 plus inning performance against the Angels. He pitched well and had surrendered only 2 runs after six innings. Terry Francona, going through a managerial slump of late, sent him back out for the 7th where he surrendered two more runs and took the loss. In his second start back, he gave up only a single unearned run in another 6 innings. He looks solid so far, but his velocity still leaves room for concern.
One loudmouth who won’t be returning from injury this year is Arizona Diamondbacks lefty Randy Johnson. After struggling with his back injury and inconsistent performances (that included several disabled list visits,) Johnson had season-ending back surgery last month. He finished 4-3 for the 2007 season and is unsure if he will be able to return in 2008. This one ends up as a brilliant move by the Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman in unloading Johnson before the season. At 284 career wins, he stands as the only plausible candidate among current pitchers to reach the 300 win mark. The current consensus among sports reporters is that he won’t be able to return to health long enough to win those final 16 games. Which means that he probably will.
The permanently injured loudmouth who won’t go away has finally broken Hank Aaron’s home run record. Barry Bonds limped over the finish line last week and currently stands at 758 homers, playing mostly every other day. Most of us are glad we can finally go back to ignoring him, but it’s impossible to ignore the sadness at the loss of 755 as the magical record. Now, he’ll start blaming the media for not paying enough attention to him after years of the opposite. How can you not fall in love with a guy who’s always angry and not happy unless he’s unhappy?
