PEDRO to "audition" in WBC

[Boy Howdy]

Martinez is a free agent, but if the legendary ace doesn't have a team by spring training, the WBC will act as his audition. He'll represent the Dominican Republic, then decide what club to sign with either during or after the tournament.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01302009/sports/mets/pedro_plans_to_use_wbc_as_last_audition_152762.htm

Viva Pedro!

[scOtt]

Ok... finally I see some worth from the WBC. That's a heluva good idea by Pedro!

[Mad Mark]

I wonder which team he hopes to pitch for? Somebody's possibly going to get a 1-year bargain with this guy.

[Moose Milligan]

As much as I like him, I wish he'd hang it up....if only to preserve one of the cooler stats ever, IMO.

214 wins, 99 losses.

Not only does he have 100+ more wins than losses, but he has LESS THAN 100 LOSSES! Is there anyone not named Koufax in the HOF as a starter in the modern era (looking at you, Drungo...don't whip out Al Spalding on me )who has less than 100 losses?

Koufax had 87 losses in 314 games started. Pedro has 99 losses in 400 games started.

[Boy Howdy]

I wonder which team he hopes to pitch for? Somebody's possibly going to get a 1-year bargain with this guy.

All indications are he's more interested in remaining with the Mets than they seem to be in keeping him.

Just this week though, Mets GM Omar Minaya met Pedro in the DR and acknowledged publicly that the Amazin's do still have interest in him.

I attended Pedro's last game (for now anyway), so I could echo Moose's sentiments and enjoy the fact that I participated in the last standing ovation.

However, I'd enjoy it even more if he does a Lazarus Mussina rise from the dead move and wins 20 games this season.

[RShack]

As much as I like him, I wish he'd hang it up....if only to preserve one of the cooler stats ever, IMO.

214 wins, 99 losses.

Not only does he have 100+ more wins than losses, but he has LESS THAN 100 LOSSES! Is there anyone not named Koufax in the HOF as a starter in the modern era (looking at you, Drungo...don't whip out Al Spalding on me )who has less than 100 losses?

Koufax had 87 losses in 314 games started. Pedro has 99 losses in 400 games started.

I'm not missing your point, but I can't resist the Koufax tangent...

His career is neatly divided in half.

In the first 6 years, before he figured out what to do, he went 36-40 in 103 starts, for an average of 6-7 in 17 GS.

After learning something in ST, 1961 was his "I'm figuring it out" year. He went 18-13 in 35 GS.

After that, he went 111-34 in 176 GS, for a 5-yr average of 22-7 in 35 GS.

He pitched when there was just a single Cy Young award across both leagues.

After winning that award back-to-back, and 3 times in 4 years, he quit. Talk about going out on top...

Carry on...

[scOtt]

I'm not missing your point, but I can't resist the Koufax tangent...

His career is neatly divided in half.

In the first 6 years, before he figured out what to do, he went 36-40 in 103 starts, for an average of 6-7 in 17 GS.

After learning something in ST, 1961 was his "I'm figuring it out" year. He went 18-13 in 35 GS.

After that, he went 111-34 in 176 GS, for a 5-yr average of 22-7 in 35 GS.

He pitched when there was just a single Cy Young award across both leagues.

After winning that award back-to-back, and 3 times in 4 years, he quit. Talk about going out on top...

Carry on...

Only knock on his career was how he got b-slapped by us in '66.

[Boy Howdy]

Only knock on his career was how he got b-slapped by us in '66.

Last game he ever pitched.

[RShack]

Only knock on his career was how he got b-slapped by us in '66.

Yeah, beat by some 20-yr-old kid wearing #22.

If you read this book and/or this book, you'll be amazed that he could even lift his arm to start that game.

People talk about a guy giving it up for the team. Sandy Koufax is the poster boy for that idea.

Most people don't realize what he went though just to pitch every game, much less the shape he was in by the WS after Alston used him up just to get there.

After a game, just the sight of how his arm looked made his teammates sick.

Koufax told Alston to do it to him "for the team". Koufax had way more nads than I ever did.

[RShack]

Only knock on his career was how he got b-slapped by us in '66.

I know you were kidding about the b-slapping, but for those who don't...

The O's scored 1 ER off of Koufax. In the 6th, Frank tripled, and Boog hit a sac-fly.

That was it. His WS ERA that year was 1.50.

By the time the O's earned that run, they didn't need it. In the 5th, CF Willie Davis set a WS record by committing 3 errors in the same dang inning, including 2 easy FB's hit right to him, which he somehow lost in the sun, one of which was followed by a throwing error. Mr. Davis gave the O's 3 unearned runs. While Koufax got the L, he only gave up 1 ER over 6. Along the way, Koufax pitched out of jams, including an E-caused bases-loaded jam. Willie Davis gave the O's all the unearned runs they would need to win, but it wasn't just him goofing up: other Dodgers contributed another 3 E's, for a grand total of 6 Dodger E's in the game. It was not your typical Dodger effort. Of the O's 6 runs, 3 were earned, and 2 of those were off Peranoski. With 1 out in the 8th, Alston relieved him with a guy named Phil Regan, who years later would be replaced as O's manager by Davey Johnson.

However, even if the O's got their 1 ER off of Koufax and nothing else, that would have been enough for Koufax to lose. The last time the Dodgers scored in that WS was in the 3rd inning of Game 1. It was the second and last of the 2 runs that they would score in the whole WS. After that, Moe Drabowski relieved McNally, set not one but two WS records by the way in which he shut them down for the last 6 innings of Game 1. Then the O's pitching threw 3 straight CG shut-outs, for a combined total of 33 consecutive scoreless innings. By the time McNally took the mound for Game 4, he was the only Oriole P to let a Dodger cross home plate in the whole WS and, as a matter of protecting himself from getting endless crap from his teammates, he wasn't going to let that happen again. Good thing too. The only O's runs in the last 2 games were solo dingers, 1 by Blair in Game 3 and 1 by Frank in Game 4. After the top of the 1st in Game 1, nobody b-slapped anybody's pitching.

That year, Koufax was 27-9. God only knows what his record would have been if the Dodgers has an actual offense. Only 2 teams in the NL drove in fewer runs than they did. Their biggest run-producer was a 2Bman who knocked in 74 runs. The O's had 3 guys who knocked in over 100. The formula then was to have D up the middle, and get production from the 4 corner positions. Of the 2 teams' typical starting players, the O's corner guys averaged out to 99 RBI. For the Dodgers, it was 52.

In the '63 WS, Yogi Berra said of Koufax, "I can see how he won 25 games. What I don't understand is how he lost 5."

I do: he played for a team that couldn't hit it's way out of a paper bag. Over his last 4 years, when he went 97-27 with an ERA that reached as high as 2.00 only once (and that was a whopping 2.04), when he produced a 4-year average of more than 24 W's and less 7 L's, the Dodgers were 8th out of 10 in NL offense 3 of those 4 years. His rare losses were often in CG's when he took the "L" in 2-1 or 1-0 ballgames.