A published report in Pittsburgh on Saturday listed the Indians among several teams who have an interest in free-agent pitcher Pedro Martinez.
Martinez, 37, has professed a foremost interest in returning to the New York Mets but has had exploratory talks with the Indians, Pirates and Florida Marlins.
It is reported that he is seeking $7 million this season.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
If he is considering the Pirates, that means he knows he has nothing left. I’d stay away from this deal if it involves more the $3 mil.
I’d do this, for $2 to $3 million (as though I have it …). At least half of Pedro Martinez’s value is between his ears; he is by wide repute a very smart pitcher. If he can get even one more year out of his declining body, he can be of value.
Maybe I just like Pedro.
the fact that the indians mgmt is even interested suggests that they have figured out that our rotation is still quite spotty, especially from the RHP side.
- reyes’ delivery makes *my* shoulder hurt just watching. just google on “how not to throw a baseball” and reyes’ name comes up;
- even if pavano kicks major butt, he’s never pitched more than 150 innings even when healthy. if he averages a pedestrian 6+ innings a start, he’s going to tire out about 3/4 through the season (25 starts x 5 pitchers, minus maybe 5 times the fifth pitcher gets passed over early in the season is about 120 games out of a 162 game season)
if both of them are out, we’re starting FOUR LHPs (lee and laffey will probably be #1 & #5, and sowers, jackson & huff are all LHP) until if and when westbrook is ready to return.
we need martinez & hafner to be healthy & fully recovered. that would make shoppach expendable as trade bait – yeah he hit 21 HRs but had only 55 RBIs because he strikes out every third AB – and has for three seasons. as a full time catcher getting 500+ ABs, we’d be looking at 170 Ks. but since he has value as a legitimate defensive catcher, i think it would be worth it to package him with a youing lefty for a proven starter. the only problem would be taking on all the extra salary. maybe make them take dellucci as part of the deal.
santana is still learning english, but it seems like he’s the heir apparent to martinez, not shoppach – as long as shoppach strikes out like that, he’ll never hit higher than 7-9.
barry –
You make a compelling point, with Santana in the pipeline we may be able to deal Shoppach, but I think I’d prefer keep him and get Victor much more time at 1B and DH this season.
I think RBI is a meaningless stat when it comes to player evaluation (it’s impossible to control who’s on base in front of you, etc.) Looking at Shoppach’s OPS+ last season he was at 123, which is very good. He makes a lot of unproductive outs like you mentioned, but that type of production is well above league average. With his defensive abilities I’ll take that kind of production from our catcher any day.
My thoughts seem to line up with Barry’s. Like the pop, like the defense but can’t see Shoppach sustaining that 120 ops with his track record, K ratio. I’d be very inclined to look for a deal for him while the value is high. One important item may or may not be how much his work had to do with Lee’s success, and by the same token Victor’s communication vs. Kelly’s with Fausto.
Re: Pedro…Ray’s comment makes a lot of sense to me, but the Canton Terrier makes a very strong point on what Pedro brings to the dance between the ears.
Not that it has anything to do with “now” but just because it seems so overlooked to me……the run Pedro Martinez had from ‘97-’03 was as good as any pitcher in baseball history. A sure fire HOF’er in my book.