No more excuses
Week at a Glance: Yo, Joe! Give Pedro a chance
Posted: Tuesday June 22, 1999 10:18 PM
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Just give me the dang ball! Martinez is leading the majors in wins, strikeouts and ERA. Brian Bahr/Allsport |
By Bryan Boyle, CNN/SI
Red Sox ace Pedro
Martinez has made his case to start the All-Star Game -- over and over
again. And in case you missed the latest one Sunday: one run over eight
innings with 10 strikeouts and no walks against the Rangers to record his
major league-leading 13th win.
Afterward, Martinez put himself in the cleats of Yankees manager Joe
Torre, who will select this year's starting pitcher for the American League
All-Stars.
"I think he's going to have a tough choice," said Martinez after the 5-2
victory Sunday that bumped Boston within one-half game of Torre's AL East
leaders. "There's a lot of good guys out there and it's going to be up to
him.
"I thought I could've been the starter last year and the year before. And
I wasn't.
"One guy gave me the excuse of being respectful to the other guys -- like
[Greg] Maddux. And the other guy told me that a guy with a perfect game
would give the team a better chance to win and would handle the pressure
better. That was the excuse from [Indians manager Mike] Hargrove. And I
respect that. I just have to think I'm going to be there. I think I
will.
"Knock on wood."
Martinez should be knock, knock, knocking on Torre's door, instead --
numbers in mitt.
After his 10th double-digit strikeout game in 15 starts this year,
Martinez leads the majors in more than just wins. Entering Tuesday,
Martinez's 161 strikeouts are tops, four more than Randy Johnson and
nearly double Chuck
Finley's 84, which are good for second place in the AL. Martinez's 2.10
ERA is also tops; Mike
Sirotka's 2.54 is good for second. And then there's the oft-overlooked,
ever-revealing WHIP, or pitching ratio. Add Martinez's walks and hits,
divide that total by his innings and you get 0.97, tops in the majors and
the only one under 1.00.
But Martinez is a pitcher, after all. He knows about curveballs, and he's
learned that starting the All-Star Game is not all about fat stats. The
numbers game is played in a political arena.
"I don't know what the excuse might be," Martinez said. "But I can tell
you one thing: For respect, I'll give my spot to anybody like Roger
[Clemens], like David
Cone, Randy Johnson, Maddux -- somebody like that. I'll give them my
spot. For respect. Only for respect.
"For numbers? I don't know what they're going to tell me."
There's no telling. But unlike 1997 when he won a Cy Young Award as an
Expo, Martinez doesn't have to worry about Maddux, who's in another league.
Martinez is in a league of his own this year, and he deserves to start the
All-Star Game in his backyard July 13.
The choice is obvious. Any other is inexcusable.
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New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles,
June 25-27
The Orioles are flying high. After starting the
season by making a mockery of a $79 million payroll, the O's enter
Tuesday's three-game series with Boston having won 10 of their last 11 to
lift themselves out of the AL East cellar. Now Baltimore faces six games in
six days against the top two pitching teams in the league, who happen also
to be tied for the division lead. The week vs. the East's beasts concludes
with the three-game series against the Yankees. With the Blue Jays heating
up of late, winning three straight and seven of their last 10 after Monday,
a 4-2 week or better for the Orioles could again make things appealing in
the AL East.
If you only watch one:
Orlando Hernandez (7-6)
vs. Sidney Ponson
(7-4) June 27, 1:35 p.m. ET
Ponson hasn't gone less than 8 IP in a
start since Memorial Day |
Philadelphia
Phillies at Chicago
Cubs, June 25-27
The Cubs return home for the first time
since suffering the indignity of a three-game sweep in Wrigley Field at the
hands of the cross-town White Sox. The Cubs enter Tuesday with a 1-9 mark
in their last 10 and a four-game skid. The series with Philadelphia comes
at the end of a grueling 10-game, 11-day road trip and returns the Cubs to
the Friendly Confines for three day games, in which the Cubs are 19-17 this
season. The Phillies enjoy the day, as well. They're 13-7 under sunlight
while continuing to hover 4-6 games behind the NL East-leading Braves. It's
the first series this season between these two teams. They meet again in
Philadelphia for three games, July 2-4.
If you only watch one:
Randy Wolf (2-0) vs. Steve Trachsel (2-9)
June 27, 2:20 p.m. ET
In two career starts (13 2/3 IP), Wolf has
13 K's and a pair of wins. |
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.400-plus
Blue
Jays third baseman Tony
Fernandez, 37, is enjoying his most impressive season of a 16-year
career. On Sunday, Fernandez broke Julio Franco's record for career hits by
a Dominican-born player with No. 2,178. The next day, Fernandez boosted his
major league-leading average to .414 as Toronto won for the seventh time in
eight games. Fernandez, with his sixth team in seven years and third tour
with the Blue Jays, has 23 hits in his last 40 at-bats (.575) and an
11-game hitting streak. Fernandez has remained above .400 since June 13.
Not since Ted Williams finished the 1941 season at .406 has a big leaguer
hit .400 or better. In this era of "chases" -- Roger Maris, Hack Wilson,
Nolan Ryan -- the Glance can't help but ask: Is it too early for a Splendid
Splinter Chase? |
All-Star Voting
In the closest American League race, the
Yankees' Derek Jeter
leads Boston's Nomar
Garciaparra by less than 8,000 votes for the starting shortstop
position at this year's All-Star Game at Fenway Park on July 13. After
listening to another chorus of "M-V-P" chants at Yankee Stadium last week,
New York manager, as well as AL All-Star manager,
Joe Torre made his opinion known. "If all these people, instead of being
vocal, started punching [ballots]," said Torre. "If they go 'M-V-P' they
can punch three of them at one time." Who will NL All-Star manager
Bruce Bochy select to start is also in some doubt. His choices include
11-game winners Kent
Bottenfield and Jose
Lima, upstart Paul
Byrd and, of course, workhorses like Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Kevin Brown. Balloting
for the 70th All-Star Game ends on June 27. |
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Joy
John Jaha, OAK, .305
BA, 14 HR, 42 RBI, .615 SLG this season
Had 2 2B, 5 HR, 8 RBI in
4-game series at Detroit last week |
Coy
Omar Daal, ARZ, 7-4,
3.29 ERA, 6.3 K/9 this season
First Six Starts: 2-3, 3.99 ERA;
Last Six Starts: 4-0, 2.62 ERA |
Oy!
Darren Oliver, STL,
4-5, 4.88 ERA, 1.44 WHIP this season
In his last four starts,
spanning 22 innings: 0-3, 9.82 ERA, 14 BB |
For the money
Hideo Nomo,
MIL, 4-1, 4.01 ERA in first eight starts this season
If you took a
chance the Mets and Cubs wouldn't, you're beaming. |
To the show
Matt Luke, ANA, called
up from Class AAA on June 12
Hit 12 HRs with L.A. last year. Has 1
HR, 2 RBI in 8 AB this season. |
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| As a service to their
Spanish-speaking readers, the Boston Globe runs Red Sox (Medias
Rojas) game stories in Spanish on days when Pedro Martinez pitches at
Fenway Park. |  |
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The Giants and Cubs combined for 15 walks in San Francisco's 11-5 win on
June 19. Despite yielding seven free passes, Shawn Estes earned the
win. |  |
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The Dodgers have more players from the Marlins' 1997 World Series
championship roster -- Kevin Brown, Craig Counsell, Gary Sheffield and Devon White -- than
Florida does now. Antonio Alfonseca, Cliff Floyd and Livan Hernandez remain.
Marlins pitcher Alex
Fernandez, still with the team, spent the World Series on the DL.
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Luis Polonia played the last two seasons in Mexico. He signed as a free
agent with Detroit this year and is batting .436 with seven doubles, two
triples, two homers, 11 RBIs and six stolen bases in 78 at-bats.
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The Whiff Watch
 Baseballs are landing over the fence at a record rate this
season, and players are swinging for those fences at a record rate, too.
The Cubs' Jose
Hernandez is on pace to break Bobby Bonds' record of 189 strikeouts in
a season, set in 1970. Through Monday's games, Hernandez had 77 strikeouts
-- and only six homers. There have been only five players to fan at least
180 times in a season -- Bonds, Rob Deer, Cecil Fielder, Pete Incaviglia and
Mike Schmidt -- but they each had the decency to hit at least 26 homers
while doing so. |
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The Glance's Strikeout King Projection |
| 1. Jose Hernandez, CHN 195 (77 K's in 64
games) |
| 2. Mike Cameron, CIN
180 (70 K's in 63 games) |
| 3. Jose Canseco, TB
177 (71 K's in 65 games) |
4. Sammy Sosa, CHN
177 (72 K's in 66 games)
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| Questions? Comments? Concerns? Ask the Glance. |
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Glance answers up |
A few years ago, John Valentin made an
unassisted triple play -- how did he do it? An Irish Baseball Fan.
Garret Pearse, Dublin, Ireland
Splendid question, Garret. On July 8, 1994, Boston's John Valentin became
the ninth regular-season player, 10th in major league history and second
for the Red Sox to get an unassisted triple play. In the sixth inning
against Seattle at Fenway Park -- with Mike Blowers on second
base and Keith
Mitchell on first base -- Valentin caught a line drive off the bat of
Marc Newfield and
touched second base, forcing Blowers for the second out. Valentin had
initially thought there was already one out, but he glanced at the
scoreboard above the first-base dugout and realized otherwise. When
Valentin tagged Mitchell running from first, the unassisted triple play was
recorded. Unfortunately, the mitt Valentin used to complete the rare feat
was later stolen. Valentin had wanted to give it to his father. Valentin
did, however, put his bat to use in the bottom of the same inning, homering
to become just the second big leaguer to hit a homer in the same inning as
his unassisted triple play. Incidentally, Valentin has also hit three
homers in one game (June 2, 1995) and hit for the cycle (June 6, 1996).
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Week at a Glance appears each Tuesday throughout the season.
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