Charlie Klein
Five innings pitched. Five strikeouts. Three earned runs. One walk. Not that much of an impressive line right? Well if you happen to be a 38 year-old Pedro Martinez, it is one hell of a game correct? No, Regis, final answer.
The amount of buzz surrounding Pedro's first start for the Phillies last night is truly ridiculous. It was just one game folks! Now everyone and their fantasy baseball playing mother is thinking they have to go pick this guy up in their leagues right this minute because of all of the hype ESPN is giving Martinez. Martinez is only owned by 8.7% of ESPN fantasy leagues.
Ladies and gentleman of the jury, it's just one game. I think that the people at ESPN just want to see Pedro do well so badly that when he offers them average at best performances they will laud him until the next news cycle. If Pedro had the opposing pitcher Jeff Samardzija's line (3.1IP, 7ER, 4K's, 8 hits) the analysts would all say, "Oh well it was just one game." The same syllogism should be true of this perfomance too right? According to ESPN, it should not.
Call me a Pedro hater, call me a Phillies hater, or whatever you like, but any rational baseball observer (read: not a Phillies fan, sorry Mark but I had to say it) would say that the judgement for Pedro's success in Filth-a-smell-thia is dependent upon more than one perfomance. More importantly, it is safe to assume that if this is the best Pedro can offer, then there is a lot worse he can do in his next outing.
Martinez is a lock for Cooperstown. I have never seen a more dominating pitching performance than when he started the 1999 All-Star Game in Boston when he struck out the first five batters he faced. I honestly enjoyed most of his time for the New York Mets. But he is not that player anymore, so please, ESPN, stop treating him as such.
I definitely will call you a phillies hater. who said he was dominant? it was an average performance at best considering the run support but he pitched three rehab starts and did markedly better on his last start in the minors. and if you had watched the game you would have seen he was doing well until he got tired and started missing his spots. The jury definitely is still out on pedro but considering he hadn't pitched in the majors in quite a while it was a success. More importantly he is an improvement on jamie moyer and he offers a right handed arm so that the phils don't have to throw out 4 lefties. I've seen moyer give up the lead after the phils spotted him a few runs in the first inning on numerous occasionsthis season. His record is deceiving. the reason he receives so much run support is because he's going against the other team's 4th to 5th starter. The fact that he has the most wins on the team is irrelevant since he also has 9 losses. I am more than sure that pedro will not be losing many games against the 5th starter of other teams. Jury is out, but you have to be happy if you are a phillies fan.
ReplyDeleteP.S. please do not give fantasy baseball advice with the season you are having lol