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PEDRO MARTINEZ
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Pedro Jaime Martinez (born October 25, 1971 in Manoguayabo, Dominican Republic) is a baseball pitcher who plays for the New York Mets. He has won three Cy Young Awards and has been considered one of the top pitchers in baseball since the late 1990s. Martinez is unusual for a power pitcher as he is 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and 170 pounds (77 kg), small by modern-day standards. Martinez’s pitches include a tailing fastball, an outstanding changeup , and a hard curveball.

       

Martinez throws from a low three-quarter position that hides the ball very well from batters, who have remarked on the difficulty of picking up Martinez’s delivery. Throughout his career, his arm angle has dropped increasingly lower; he presently throws from the “low 3/4″ slot. Earlier in his career, his fastball was consistently clocked in the 95 mph (153 km/h) range, but in recent years, his fastball has slowed. In many games, his fastball now tops out in the 88-89 mph (142-144 km/h) range, although he is still occasionally able to throw a mid-90s fastball. As the speed of his fastball has slowed, he has come to rely more on his changeup as his “out” pitch.

       

Contents

       

1 Early years
2 Best years
3 Memorable games
4 Quotes
5 Facts

       

Early years

       

Martinez’s career started with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1992 as a relief pitcher. Before the 1994 season, he was traded to the Montreal Expos for Delino DeShields, and became one of the top starters in baseball. In 1997 he posted a 17-8 record for the Expos, and led the league in half a dozen pitching categories, including a 1.90 ERA, 305 strikeouts and 13 complete games pitched, and won the National League Cy Young Award. Pedro Martinez was also the first righthanded pitcher to reach 300 strikeouts with an ERA under 2.00 since Walter Johnson in 1912.

       

The 13 complete games were tied for the second-highest single-season total in all of baseball since Martinez’s own career began (Curt Schilling had 15 in 1998; Chuck Finley and Jack McDowell also reached 13 in a year). However, this 1997 total is by far the highest in Martinez’s career, as he has only compiled as many as 5 complete games in any other season on two other occasions.

       

Best years

       

Martinez was traded to the Boston Red Sox in November 1997 for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas, Jr., and was soon signed to a six-year, $75,000,000 contract by the Sox, at the time the largest ever awarded to a pitcher. In 1999 he enjoyed one of the greatest pitching seasons of all time, finishing 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts, winning his second Cy Young Award (this time in the American League), and coming in second in the Most Valuable Player ballot. The MVP vote was controversial as Martinez received the most first-place votes, but was totally omitted from the ballot of two sportswriters who believed pitchers were not sufficiently all-around players to be considered. Martinez was named the AL Pitcher of the Month in April, May, June, and September of 1999, an unprecedented feat for a single season.

       

In the 1999 playoffs against the Cleveland Indians, though hampered by an injury, Martinez dominated the final game of the series. Entering the game in relief with an 8-8 score, Martinez pitched six no-hit innings for the win. In the American League Championship Series, he pitched seven shutout innings to beat the New York Yankees in Game 3, handing them their only loss of the postseason.

       

Martinez’s strikeouts and win count were slightly down in 2000, but he posted an exceptional 1.74 ERA, the AL’s lowest since 1978, winning his third Cy Young award with his ERA about a third of the park-adjusted league ERA (4.97). No other single season by a starting pitcher has had such a gigantic differential. He also set a record in the lesser known sabermetric statistic of Weighted Runs allowed per 9 innings pitched (Wtd. RA/9). Martinez posted a remarkably low 1.55 Wtd. RA/9.

       

In 2000, Pedro Martinez’s WHIP was 0.74, breaking a 77-year-old record set by Walter Johnson. The American League slugged just .259 against him. Martinez became the only starting pitcher to have more than twice as many strikeouts in a season (284) than hits allowed (128).

       

In 1999 and 2000 Martinez allowed 288 hits, 597 strikeouts, 69 walks and a 1.90 ERA in 430 innings. Some statisticians believe that under the circumstances-with lefty-friendly Fenway Park as his home field, in a league with a DH, during the highest offensive period in baseball history-this performance represents the peak for any pitcher in baseball history.

       

Though he pitched well while healthy, carrying a sub-2.00 ERA to the midpoint of the season, Martinez was injured for much of 2001 with a rotator cuff injury as the Red Sox slumped to a poor finish. He rebounded in 2002 to lead the league with a 2.26 ERA and 237 strikeouts, going 20-4. However, that season’s American League Cy Young award went to Barry Zito of the Oakland A’s. despite a higher ERA, fewer strikeouts, and a lower winning percentage. Martinez became the first pitcher in history to lead his respective league in ERA, strikeouts, and winning percentage, but not win the Cy Young Award.

       

After the 2004 season, Martinez became a free agent and signed a 4 year, $53 million contract with the New York Mets.

       

Memorable games

       

Martinez has come about as close to throwing a perfect game as possible without actually getting credit for it. On June 3, 1995, while pitching for Montreal, he retired the first 27 Padres hitters he faced to accumulate nine innings of perfect pitching. However, the score was still tied 0-0 at that point and the game went into extra innings, and Martinez surrendered a double to the 28th batter. According to Major League Baseball rules, that meant that Martinez accomplished neither a perfect game nor a no-hitter.

       

Martinez also came close to the feat on September 10, 1999, when he beat the New York Yankees 3-1. He faced just 28 batters while striking out 17 and walking none; only a solo home run by Chili Davis separated Martinez from a no-hitter. Martinez had previously thrown a 1-hitter against the Reds in 1997.

       

Martinez was also on the mound for Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS versus the Yankees. He was left in by manager Grady Little in the 8th inning and proceeded to allow the Yankees to tie the score, and his team eventually lost.

       

Quotes

       

Don Zimmer being thrown to the ground by pitcher Pedro Martinez during Game 3 of the ALCS

       

Martinez is a very controversial pitcher, both on and off the field. He refuses to yield the inside part of the plate, and has a high numbers of batters hit as a result. His career rate for hitting batters is historically high. When asked about the Red Sox - Yankees rivalry, he responded: “I’m starting to hate talking about the Yankees. The questions are so stupid. They’re wasting my time. It’s getting kind of old … I don’t believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I’ll drill him in the ass, pardon me the word.” In Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS, Martinez threatened to hit Yankee catcher Jorge Posada in the head, angering 72-year-old Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer. Zimmer ran towards Martinez during a bench-clearing incident and Martinez, grabbing Zimmer’s head, violently threw the coach to the ground. After a Red Sox loss to the Yankees late in the 2004 season, Martinez remarked in a press conference, “They beat me. They’re that good right now. They’re that hot. I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy". The New York media publicized the quote heavily, and whenever Martinez pitched at Yankee Stadium in the 2004 American League Championship Series, fans chanted “Who’s Your Daddy?”

       

Facts

       

Martinez’s brother Ramon Martinez was also a Major League pitcher and the brothers have twice been teammates, with the Dodgers (1992-93) and Red Sox (1999-2000). Their younger brother, Jesus, also pitched in the Dodgers farm system for several years.

       

Martinez’s first cousin, Denny Bautista, is a Major League pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.
Pedro pulled out of the 2005 All Star Game because of short rest, pitching Sunday July 10th. This was not the first time Martinez had pulled out of an All-Star Game.

       

Pedro Martinez also skipped his last start in 2002, after the Red Sox had been eliminated from the postseason; some have suggested that this hurt him in the Cy Young voting that year, when he finished second to Oakland’s Barry Zito.

       

Pedro has a friend from the Dominican Republic named Nelson who is only 2 feet tall, and was believed to be the Red Sox good luck charm during the 2004 season.


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