Jun
20
Yankees not interested in Pedro
ByI think we can wrap up the ongoing saga of Pedro Martinez. According to GAKIII’s sources, the Yankees will be passing on Pedro. As previously reported, the Yankees were interested in using Pedro for depth if he would take a Minor League contract. Martinez though has stressed his desire for a Major League deal and a spot in a team’s rotation. These were clearly incongruous demands. Meanwhile, if no teams are interested in hiring the one-time flamethrower who now sits at 86-90 with his fastball, he says he will become a swimsuit model. That I would not love to see.
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I thought he was hitting 94…can’t he sit there too?
Good. Who needs the creep? Will never forget that Pedro Martinez almost ended both Jeter’s and Soriano’s careers with cinsecutive pitches –deliberately nasty two seemers veering in on their hands. In fact, he’s the main reason BOston pitchers hit Yankee hitters more than any team’s [itchers hit any othe team’s hitters over what as I recall was a four year period. I know it’s not fashionable to say this but I believe that Martinez and Varitek were at the core of Red Sox intimidation that helped bring down the Yankees in recent years. I hope tha Yankees made this jerk squirm.
Things that had to do with “bringing down” the Yankees in recent years:
1) Mediocre starting pitching
2) Injuries
3) An exposed bullpen
4) Over-use of the Proctors and Sturtzes of the world
5) Joe Torre refusing to bunt on gimpy Curt Schilling
Things that had nothing to do with it:
1) Red Sox “intimidation”
I’m sure Jorge is happy about this.
F Pedro.
What an inauspicious ending (?) for a great pitcher. His season in 2000 is, IMO, the best pitching season ever.
Definitely one of the best career peaks ever.
Can’t say that I’m disappointed.
Telling us what we already knew. Pedro still wants starter money and hasnt proved at all that he deserves it.
Whozat — I guess you haven’t been to many games at Fenway Park. And maybe your baseball memory deosn’t extend back to the 70s when physical intimidation clearly played a role in the Yankee-Sox rivalry.
Varitek’s unopposed headlock on A-Rod and the head-hunting of Pedro and other Sox pitchers have both been identified in BOston as as pivotal points in Sox history. And the blood-thirsty Fenway crowd and Boston media have always made sure to stir the pot. Just last week they were howling in delight when Penny plunked A-Rod.
I do agree with you one one point. The failure to bunt against Schilling was indeed a major fact in the 2004 ALCS defeat. Maybe even more important than the Yankees’ consistent failure to retaliate for hit batsmen under Torre. But if you don’t think Boston has had a very conscious strategy of intimidating Yankee hitters, you’re not watching very closely.
BTW, I should add that Boston’s commitment to physical intimidation was focused on the Yankees, but not limited to them. I haven’t run the numbers for this year olast but for several years beforde that Boston led baseball in a very interesting statistic: ratio of hit batsmen to walks. The Sox staffs constently had low walk totals, indicating good overall control. BUt they led or were near the top of the league in hit batsmen — indicating that this was not the indavertent result of wildness. It was a delibberate strategy of intimidation. Sox management, like no other in baseball, is into gamesmanship. Well, baseball is a game and everyone tries to win. But these guys are different. And time will reveal more and more just how different they are.