Printer-friendly

Contact Author

November 4, 2009

Player Profile

Pedro Martinez

by Marc Normandin

It is a credit to the quality of the respective careers of Pedro Martinez and Andy Pettitte that tonight's World Series matchup, in a time well past each pitcher's prime, still elicits such excitement and potential. Pettitte has been a great pitcher through much of his career, but his numbers look like those of an amateur next to Pedro, who has been one of the best pitchers to take the mound in baseball's modern era. Much of Pedro's dominance is in the past though, and the two hurlers stand on more equal footing these days—though as Pedro's Game Two start showed us, he's still got a trick or two up his sleeve, even against one of the most talented offenses in the league.

Pedro Jaime Martinez, the younger brother of Ramon Martinez, was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1988. The skinny Dominican right-hander was assigned to Rookie-level Great Falls for the 1990 season (once he had turned 18 years old), and he would toss 77 innings with a 3.62 ERA as a starter for the club. The Dodgers liked what they saw from him, and promoted him to High-A for the 1991 season. This was just the first of a rapid series of promotions for Martinez in '91, as he pitched a significant number of innings at three levels, moving up to throw at both Double- and Triple-A. For High-A Bakersfield, Pedro threw 61 1/3 innings with 83 strikeouts and a 2.05 ERA. In Double-A, his ERA was better still, dropping to 1.76, but his strikeouts also fell, to 8.7 K/9. Still, we're talking about a 19-year-old in his second professional season facing hitters that are much older than he is, so it's a forced complaint. Pedro continued showing off his stuff with the move to Triple-A Albuquerque, where his ERA rose to 3.66 and his whiffs fell to 8.0 per nine, but again, he was 19 years old.

Pedro spent most of 1992 in Albuquerque again, throwing 125 innings, this time with 124 strikeouts. His control wasn't the best, as he walked 4.1 per nine, but considering his age, the progress was something to be excited about. He made a start and a relief appearance for the Dodgers in September of that year, throwing eight innings with eight punchouts, and that was enough to effectively end his minor league career. Pedro would throw just three more innings in the minors, his last until 2007, as he was on track to become a Dodgers set-up man in 1993. You could say Pedro excelled at the role: 107 innings, 119 strikeouts and, despite 4.8 walks per nine, he kept the ball in the park and was basically unhittable, allowing just 6.4 hits per nine. For a better point of reference, although he walked nearly five hitters per nine innings, he managed a WHIP of 1.24.

It was obvious the Dodgers had something special on their hands, but there were worries. Current-day Pedro stands 5'11" and weighs in upwards of 180-190 pounds, depending on the reports you read. So, he's not a big guy, but conditioning throughout the years has made him a much larger pitcher than he was back at this time at the beginning of his career. Back then, when he was still in the minors, he weighed closer to 150 pounds, and that slight frame scared the Dodgers' front office—how would Pedro ever throw 200 innings consistently with such a small build and frame? Would he be better off staying in relief? The Dodgers would end up trading Pedro after this brilliant rookie year for Delino DeShields, who himself had a pretty good 1993 as well out in Montreal. At the time, many thought the trade looked like a steal for the Dodgers, as Pedro's frame was a point of contention, but the Expos were willing and able to take on this risk.

See, the Expos couldn't operate like other clubs due to budget constraints, so they had to look for players that the rest of the league didn't want, or players that the other teams in the league did not understand. Pedro was one of these pitchers. Then-general manager Dan Duquette knew that Pedro could be one of two things, either a standout reliever (as he had been for the Dodgers), or a great starting pitcher—and either way, someone the Expos could control at a low cost for years to come, given his age and experience. It was worth dealing DeShields, who would have left town eventually anyways due to the nature of the Expos' dealings with productive (and expensive) players, especially since the Expos were in need of better starting pitching—this same offseason saw them trade struggling slugger Andres Galaragga for Ken Hill as well. It's the kind of deal that perfectly frames both the Expos and Duquette, though he was no longer the club's GM by the time the 1994 season rolled around.