Pedro’s Been Worth the Money

Pedro Martinez pitched six and two-thirds innings of three-run ball Tuesday night against the Nationals, leaving with a 4-3 lead. Since the Phillies hung on, Pedro got the win making him 4-0 in his six starts with Philadelphia — the other two being shortened by rain. He’s already beginning to cash in on a few of his performance bonuses, including the one that stipulates he gets paid $75,000 for each start past his fifth with the team. He’s also proven that despite being 37-years-old and out of MLB to begin the year, he still has it.

Now is Pedro a guy you want starting a playoff game for you? At this point it would be a difficult decision to make. Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee are the locks for the postseason rotation. It would be hard not to start J.A. Happ with the way he’s been pitching, and even Joe Blanton’s been nails the past three months. It would be hard to move Pedro to the pen but they’ve already done that with Jamie Moyer and it’s worked out, especially because of those rain delay games. The Phillies went from being short on pitching to all of a sudden having a surplus in just a few months. They easily have five good starters, not to mention two more in the pen (Brett Myers was recently activated).

Four walks against 27 strikeouts and a 4-0 record. Maybe I’ve put the curse on him like I did with Cliff Lee, but for now there’s no doubt Pedro proved all the doubters wrong. And I’m not sure what the Phillies will do when it gets to the playoffs but I do know that they’ve addressed their needs well and that their gamble paid off. Makes you wonder where some of these other pitching-strapped teams were during all of this — they could have had Pedro a month earlier.