Report: Pedro to test free agency

[dirtdogman5]

ESPN: No more contract talks until end of season (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1793396)

Well I don't know quite what to say. Hopefully we can resign him, but only for the right price. It's not really too good that Pedro should contradict himself by saying he's not talking to the media and then he does when it has to do with money. Any thoughts?

[RedSoxRooter]

It's "Petey being Petey"... It's selfish to bring it up now, after a great start.

I say let him walk.

Something to consider:

Pedro, RHSP:17.5
Tek, C: 7
Lowe, RHSP: 7
Nomar, SS: 11.5

Those are the numbers, in Millions, the Sox will have to play with to fill each of those positions.

43 Million. 1 third of your payroll on 1 sixth of your players? And by my account, these players haven't won anything yet...

You think with that kind of cash we could get a 2 year catcher, a 2 year SS and a couple of starters (maybe even a lefty!??) I think so.

It's not managments fault that all those players contracts came up at the same time. If this happened at the end of '05 or '06 it wouldn't be such a big deal. The timing is just off by a year or two.

[yeszir]

I read that article in the globe this morning and got immensely pissed off. Just as fans are starting to come around to his pitching he comes out bitching. Shut up and quit worrying about "respect" (in other words, 2 or 3 extra millions).

[TheFens]

I too read that article in the globe. I can't believe this guy. He comes out and bitches, and then he goes out and pitches a shitty game against the rangers. He's the most spoiled, pampered, annoying player in baseball. It's a damn shame that hes a great pitcher or else I could really really REALLY hate him. But I'm torn. What's better, a low 2 era or not having this whiny baby on our team?

[Zenny]

I can't believe you guys are worried more about team chemistry than having arguably the most dominant pitcher of all-time on your team. So what if he complains, 9 times out of 10 (well, 1 out of 2 in cold weather) he's going to go out there and be dominant. I'm going to say it right now, if you're jumping off of the Pedro bandwagon now, there's no coming back on.

[yeszir]

Originally posted by Zenny@May 2 2004, 10:08 AM
I can't believe you guys are worried more about team chemistry than having arguably the most dominant pitcher of all-time on your team. So what if he complains, 9 times out of 10 (well, 1 out of 2 in cold weather) he's going to go out there and be dominant. I'm going to say it right now, if you're jumping off of the Pedro bandwagon now, there's no coming back on.
Its not chemistry in my mind. Its the fact that he's being a bitch. He has the nerve to call the owners liars, and wants to take down all of the other potential free agents by mentioning their names. He has no idea when to keep his mouth shut.

[Zenny]

Originally posted by yeszir+May 2 2004, 04:30 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (yeszir @ May 2 2004, 04:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Zenny@May 2 2004, 10:08 AM
I can&#39;t believe you guys are worried more about team chemistry than having arguably the most dominant pitcher of all-time on your team. So what if he complains, 9 times out of 10 (well, 1 out of 2 in cold weather) he&#39;s going to go out there and be dominant. I&#39;m going to say it right now, if you&#39;re jumping off of the Pedro bandwagon now, there&#39;s no coming back on.
Its not chemistry in my mind. Its the fact that he&#39;s being a bitch. He has the nerve to call the owners liars, and wants to take down all of the other potential free agents by mentioning their names. He has no idea when to keep his mouth shut. [/b][/quote]
That&#39;s what I&#39;m talking about. I can handle the mouth if he continues to lead the league in ERA. I&#39;d rather have a team that hates each other and wins it all than a team that group hugs and sings "Koombya" after the lose 9-1 saying, "At least we scored a run and had a lot of fun doing it&#33;" Winning is the key, the rest is just bullshit.

[RedSoxRooter]

I couldn&#39;t have said this any better...

From Projo:
"Bill Reynolds: If you want to leave, Pedro, do it quietly

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 4, 2004



Memo to Pedro:

Shut up and pitch.

Because your act has grown tired. Your whining. Your petulance. Your propensity for making yourself the center of attention.

Then again, self-absorption has a short shelf life, and you became a poster child of that a long time ago.

This latest little diatribe was vintage. In a season where, once again, you&#39;ve essentially been incommunicado to the media, you elected to lash out at the Red Sox for their failure to give you a new contract, using selected media members as your messengers. No matter that this is only the beginning of May, the Sox are in the middle of a great start, and a new manager is learning how to negotiate the unique terrain that&#39;s baseball in Boston. You fired a verbal blast at the Red Sox, one that changes the landscape, serves notice that odds are you will not be here next year.

Which is all part of the biz, I suppose.

But you didn&#39;t leave it at that.

"I&#39;m just really sad for the

fans in New England who had high hopes that at this time I could say, truly, that I was going to stay in Boston, but now they&#39;re going to have to compete with the rest of the league," you said.

The fans?

Please.

Don&#39;t insult our intelligence.

This has nothing to do with fans.

This is all about an attempt to get more years of big money, one last score. If you can get it, fine, more power to you. If you can&#39;t? You&#39;re just finishing up a contract that reportedly has given you &#036;90 million, so don&#39;t expect someone passing a collection plate in your behalf. The point is, this is business, one that should be conducted between you and the Red Sox in private. To bring the fans into it is disingenuous.

You&#39;ve been bordering on being just another Jock Brat for a while now, what with your penchant for doing what you want to do, damn the consequences. Then again, you long ago learned we always make allowances for talent, that as long as you still can get people out, both the Red Sox and many of us will make every allowance for your behavior, bring out the excuses like managers bring out pinch-hitters in the late innings of a losing game.

But this is poor timing.

The Red Sox are off to a great start, with maybe the best pitching they&#39;ve had since the Truman Era, and you clearly are one of the centerpieces if this. The last thing this team needs is you being a distraction, the portrait of an unhappy Pedro, feeling as if the Sox are playin&#39; with your future, your baseball life. The last thing this team needs is for you to be the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.

Don&#39;t misunderstand.

You are a great pitcher, as good as anyone I&#39;ve ever seen. You are one of the best pitchers of your generation, and it&#39;s been a privilege to have had the chance to see you at your best.

But maybe a better phrase is, you were a great pitcher.

In your prime, you were all but unhittable, doing it with your own particular ?lan. You also seemed to have a certain undefinable spirit, a certain joy, a love for what you did. You were bright, you were funny, and in the aftermath of Roger Clemens, whose tenure had grown embittered in his last few years, you were refreshing, like a clean wind blowing through a dusty hallway.

That&#39;s been gone for a while now. In its place has been someone who seems to move through the latter stages of his career with all the emotional maturity of a 15-year-old. When things are going well, you&#39;re fine. When they&#39;re not, you&#39;re something less than that. You have become our baseball diva, tempermental, thin-skinned, believing that the moon and all the stars spin in your personal orbit.

You also are not the pitcher you once were, not that that should come as a surprise to anyone. You will be 33 in the fall, and that&#39;s a lot of pitches thrown, a lot of wear and tear on a frame not designed to throw hard forever. Power pitchers who last are usually big and strong. History tells us that.

Still, you are remain very good, even if you now need more finesse, more guile, and pinpoint location, all to compensate for the lack of the big gun. Even if it&#39;s never going to be 1999 for you again, you still are going to have games when you give us reminders of the way it used to be, for on memory alone you still are better than most of the pitchers in the game.

You also are under contract for this year at more than &#036;17 million a year, and one of the unwritten rules of that contract should be that you shouldn&#39;t be a distraction, In other words, spare us the melodrama.

So if you want to be a free agent at the end of the year, throw yourself into the open market. That is your right. If you want to go somewhere else next year and pitch, that is your right, too.

Until then?

Just shut up and pitch."

[yawkeyway]

Thats a great article RSR. I&#39;m just too lazy to sign up for the projo online, but they have great Red Sox articles I hear.

[CrespoBlows]

Pedro can leave, the sox can easily replace him, with two good pitchers from all the cap we free up.

[RoyNHSox]

Originally posted by CrespoBlows@May 5 2004, 06:51 PM
Pedro can leave, the sox can easily replace him, with two good pitchers from all the cap we free up.
I wouldn&#39;t exactly say Pedro will be easily replaced. But your point about all the freed up payroll ~&#036;17.5M is true if Pedro does walk. I&#39;m hoping that if it happens that Theo can be creative with the money. The free agency market for starting pitchers in 2005 isn&#39;t exactly brimming with quality talent. But through the market and/or trading I&#39;ll put my trust that ownership will find near suitable replacements.

[Tek04]

I was reading a peter gammons article yesterday and he mention something along the lines of trades happening for Barry Zito, Kip Wells, and Jason Jennings. I wouldnt mind picking up Barry Zito, despite the struggles he is having this season.

[yeszir]

Ahhhh, Kip Wells. He&#39;s another fantasy team destoyer. I almost didnt win my league last year because of a couple of his crappy starts.

[DuffyCliff]

Originally posted by CrespoBlows@May 5 2004, 06:51 PM
Pedro can leave, the sox can easily replace him, with two good pitchers from all the cap we free up.
What a laugh.

Sorry, the pitcher with the best winning percentage for any single major league team in history isn&#39;t "easily replaced". Pedro is 104-30 with a 2.26 ERA and 4-1 postseason record for the Boston Red Sox. He&#39;s arguably the greatest pitcher we have ever had. Everyone seems to fixated on the "Diva attitude" and not that he can simply flat out pitch.

Can we quit with all the talk radio-like reactions, please? Pedro is complaining? Pedro is greedy? How do we know who is lying and who isn&#39;t?

Pedro told the media that he&#39;d comment on it at the end of April when Henry told him he&#39;d "work things out". Pedro is willing to give a hometown discount and Management obviously hasn&#39;t shown any interest. He never said he wanted a new contract although he obviously does, he was upset bcause they haven&#39;t even shown any INTEREST. Forget about contract, we are talking Interest&#33; Papi can&#39;t get a phone call? Just as they haven&#39;t shown interest in Tek OR D-Lowe.

This is OK? I don&#39;t think so.

I trust Theo... At the moment I do not trust H/W/L. It worries me that they hold more power over this franchise than Theo does, who can be overuled whenever Ownership feels it&#39;s necessary.

See: A-Rod deal.

Major money. Big deal. So is Pedro&#39;s contract. That is what worries me.

Let Theo handle everything. Tell him how much he has and let him work his magic.

[yeszir]

DuffyCliff, I&#39;d say that Pedo is INarguably the best pitcher the sox have ever had. Other than that, I agree 200% with your post. :D

[DuffyCliff]

Originally posted by yeszir@May 6 2004, 06:09 PM
DuffyCliff, I&#39;d say that Pedo is INarguably the best pitcher the sox have ever had. Other than that, I agree 200% with your post. :D
I&#39;m very concerned about him right now... :unsure:

[DuffyCliff]

See... now what was that? Pedro comes out in the 2nd with a much more violent delivery and gets a six pitch 1-2-3 inning. In the 1st he was curled up in his delivery like a wilted little man. Those 2 runs may cost him the game with Sabathia pitching.

[Benny9Sox7]

id rather go with cy young

[yeszir]

Not necessarily with Sabathia pitching, but with the sox hitting. Ugh. No hit wonders&#33;

But as the violent delivery thing shows, pedro needs to be aggressive, no matter what his velocity, to get hitters out.

[DuffyCliff]

He just needs to get out of the first inning without any harm. He is usually lights out after that as we are saw in the last couple of innings.

[RoyNHSox]

Originally posted by DuffyCliff+May 6 2004, 06:17 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (DuffyCliff @ May 6 2004, 06:17 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-yeszir@May 6 2004, 06:09 PM
DuffyCliff, I&#39;d say that Pedo is INarguably the best pitcher the sox have ever had. Other than that, I agree 200% with your post. :D
I&#39;m very concerned about him right now... :unsure: [/b][/quote]
I&#39;m concerned as well, and hope that he can string together a few more outings like tonight, not counting the 1st inning. It&#39;s up to him now to show us that he&#39;s still a dominator, and somehow give ownership assurances he&#39;s going to hold up, if they&#39;re going to sign him for long-term.

[DuffyCliff]

I think if Pedro really wants that contract, he needs to make at least 32 starts this season while still having Pedro-like dominance as far as ERA and WHIP. He hasn&#39;t made over 30 since 1998.

People make such a big deal over the 200 IP thing. If Pedro made 32 starts this year and only pitched 6 each time, he&#39;d still have 192. He pitches 7 for the most part. He should cross 200 innings easy if he makes his starts.

[Benny9Sox7]

Truthfully, I think Pedro wants to stay in Boston and is just lashing out like this so that the Owners will do something to make him stay. He doesnt have his speed like he used to but, he still has great movement and placement and still can hit 92mph.

[RoyNHSox]

Do you think that management might want try to use Pedro a little bit longer in games this year, to see if he can hold up for the long haul, and to see if he does have the durability for the next few years. In the past pitch counts were so carefully adhered to preserve his arm. But since this is the last year of his contract, maybe they might not be so willing to limit his use.

[Benny9Sox7]

It&#39;s kinda hard to say, i think, because who knows if he&#39;s gona come back next year or not.

[DuffyCliff]

I believe that he wants to. He says he wants to. His Agent says he wants to. Manny says he wants to. If Pedro stays through 2007, that&#39;d make it 10 years. Just enough to have his number retired, and hopefully by then, we&#39;d have a couple World Series titles.

[yeszir]

Originally posted by DuffyCliff@May 7 2004, 12:22 AM
I believe that he wants to. He says he wants to. His Agent says he wants to. Manny says he wants to. If Pedro stays through 2007, that&#39;d make it 10 years. Just enough to have his number retired, and hopefully by then, we&#39;d have a couple World Series titles.
Wow, 10 years is a long time in baseball when you think about it. If he stays, do you think he&#39;d have his number retired? The sox have no retired pitcher&#39;s number up there, and I&#39;m not sure if Pedro meets all of the requirements necessary to go up there. Don&#39;t you have to contribute to the community and things like that?

[DuffyCliff]

I think the two main requirements are that the player is in the HOF and has at least 10 seasons with the Red Sox for number retirement.

Community Involvement

Catholic Charities USA
1731 King Street #200
Alexandria, VA 22314
E-mail: dcoates@catholiccharitiesusa.org
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org

- assisted the Dominican victims of Hurricane George

Leadership Institute for Global Hemophilia Training
21 Sawmill Way
Georgetown, MA 01833
(978) 352-7657 OR (800) 249-7977
Fax: (978) 352-6254
E-mail: info@kelleycom.com


Pedro J. Martinez and Brothers Foundation

- provides assistance to area groups that focus on youth, family and education


The Jimmy Fund
10 Brookline Place West
5th Floor
Brookline, MA 02445-7295
(800) 52-JIMMY (54669)
E-mail: JimmyFundContactUs@dfci.harvard.edu

- has made frequent visits to the Jimmy Fund as well as making appearances at schools, Shriner&#39;s Burn Hospital and Lawrence General Hospital


Massachusetts Department of Public Health

- posters featured Martinez in its anti-tobacco campaign


http://bigleaguers.yahoo.com/mlbpa/players/4875/community