Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 21, 2007
Closer to the Mets

Pedro Martinez pitched a very good rehabilitation game last night:

In making his third rehab start, Martinez looked as close to being in big-league form as he has in more than a year. His strong five-inning effort for St. Lucie against Brevard County probably was not his last minor league start, but the idea of him returning to Shea feels closer than ever.

Martinez allowed two unearned runs on two hits and a walk while striking out four. He threw only 72 pitches because he awakened with a sore neck, but 52 were strikes, his control was excellent and he hit 89 a few times on the radar gun. It impressed Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson and bullpen coach Guy Conti, who took advantage of the big club's day off to come see their rehabbing ace.

The question on my mind is can Pedro get more speed on his pitches, and if not, can he survive in the majors with an 89 MPH fastball? His changeup was so good, that as long as he can still use it to change speeds, he'll likely be successful. His off speed stuff worked yesterday:

Martinez spent the previous five days trying to hone his breaking pitches and it proved very successful. His sinker got the double-play ground balls he wanted to see - even if they were misplayed by the fielders - and his curve had hitters lunging.

"I can't recall one of those breaking balls being bad. ... I was getting cheap outs and ground balls when I wanted them," he said. "In the big leagues if I am able to do that, believe me the double plays will come."

A very encouraging night for the Mets.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:29 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I haven't watched Pedro much when he was with the Mets, but at the end of his time in Boston, he often had games where he topped out in the low 90's. It's been years since he consistently had good velocity.

I think the biggest thing to watch is his location. If he can spot his pitches, I think he can be effective without throwing real hard, but if his location is off, he'll get knocked around.

Posted by: Tom at August 21, 2007 08:43 AM

The velocity is what gives him that extra edge, but Pedro without a 90+ fastball is Tom Glavine. You could do worse.

Posted by: Crank at August 21, 2007 06:55 PM
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