Mets at Marlins 7:10pm TV: SNY Pedro Martinez vs. Rick VandenHurk
It’s early but the Mets have to keep pace with the Nationals already. It’ll be interesting to see what Pedro has left in the tank this year. He’ll be pivotal to the Mets season this year. They need him to be well over .500 to have a successful season.
Willie Randolph announced today that he won’t start Johan Santana and Pedro Martinez in their final scheduled spring training games. Instead they’ll start in minor league spring games. Randolph also said that John Maine probably won’t start the final spring game, the Civil Rights Game in Memphis either.
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This strategy is less about caring for the pitchers than it is hiding them from the Marlins and Braves. Three of the last five games are against these two teams. The first two series of the regular season are in Miami and Atlanta before coming home for the last opening day at Shea against the Phillies on April 8th.
The “hiding starters” strategy is standard operating procedure for the Mets. Frankly, I agree with it. I’m sure that Major League Baseball isn’t happy about it because they’re trying to make money at these last few games with marquis names. There’s no sense in showing starters to the division rivals before opening the season. Good job Willie.
Tim Kurkjian believes that Pedro will win 15-17 games this season. He’ll certainly get another big contract if he does that. I don’t know if his next contract will be with the Mets but I think he wants to stay here.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3306140
SI.com reports that Willie Randolph says that he won’t have Pedro Martinez on a pitch count again this season. I don’t buy it! Randolph has managed the pitching staff in the classic late 20th-early 21st century fashion. He employs pitch counts and rarely lets starters finish games. He uses the formula late inning relievers regardless of the situational aspects of the games and point in the season.
Certainly Willie isn’t the only manager employing these tactics, as a matter of fact he’s in the company of almost every manager in baseball. It’s the style of the game today to closely manage starting pitchers to limit innings. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, it may keep pitchers from burning their arms, shoulders, and elbows out.
I don’t buy that Willie will change his style this year. Specifically, changing his style with Martinez doesn’t make sense. He’s 36 years old this season and coming off a 2007 in which he only made five starts at the end of the year due to injury. Martinez hasn’t pitched a complete game since 2005 (he had 4 in 31 starts).
I could see Willie running Oliver Perez and John Maine deeper into games. I’d like to see that. They’re younger players without a recent history of injury.
Time will tell but I’m not buying Willie’s big talk during spring training. It doesn’t jive with his historical record and common sense.
Photo courtesy of alpineinc
This is a quick video from MLB.com of Pedro’s highlights from his start today. Click here to view the video.
Pedro Martinez pitched five innings and gave up two runs. David Wright was 3 for 4 with a home run. You know that I’m getting antsy for some real games when I summarize a spring training game… See the full recap at MLB.com.
Nationals vs. Mets [PSL] 1:10pm TV: SNY Radio: None
Once again, the Mets are up against the NCAA tournament on TV. The reason to watch: Pedro is scheduled to pitch. I’d like to see Martinez work on some velocity. He claims to be unconcerned about it but I think he needs more than a mid-80’s fastball to be effective.
The Mets Report 