Pedro ready to shoulder load for Boston

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- For the pieces to fall together for the Boston Red Sox this season, the biggest piece has to be in one piece. Without Pedro Martinez being Pedro Martinez, the Sox don't stand a chance.

So far, so good. So really, really good.

A year after coming into spring training with a cloud of questions surrounding him, Martinez breezed through his first start of spring 2003 and emphatically whisked away any doubts. He is healthy. He is strong. He is Pedro again.

"I went through a whole season last year and I didn't get hurt and my arm felt great and I kept feeling better and better," Martinez said last week after mowing down the Minnesota Twins in his first outing of the spring. "It seems like it's carrying over to this spring training."

Last year at this time, Martinez was coming off a season in which he struggled with a sore shoulder, started only 18 games and threw only 116 innings. He was good, still. Opponents hit only .199 off him, and he gave up only five home runs.

But that rotator cuff injury, which put him on the disabled list and finished him for good in early September 2001, was bad enough that people wondered how 2002 would be. And not just any people.

"Last year, we used the word 'concern' a lot, but really that word could have been 'fear,'" Red Sox manager Grady Little said. "It wasn't so much the fear of him cutting the ball loose. It was the fear of how he would feel after that."

A funny thing happened last season, though. Martinez may have started out with some questions, but over the course of the season, he leaned on his feared fastball less and his other pitches -- changeup, curve, cutter -- more.

Pedro Martinez struck out the final four batters he faced in his exhibition debut. AP

He still reared back and pushed the heater into the upper 90s on occasion. But he found out most of the time he could throw a little less hard, rely on his always-good control, and still get hitters out. And could he.

Thirty starts later, he was 20-4 with a 2.26 ERA. That 2.26 mark was the best in the majors, as was his .198 batting average against. He finished second behind Oakland's Barry Zito for the American League Cy Young award. And he comes into 2003 a smarter pitcher who is, he says, as strong as ever.

"It felt pretty good. A lot better than last year," he said after the 31-pitch outing against the Twins in which he pumped in 22 strikes. "I was able to use all my pitches without any fear, without anything to wonder about."

The Red Sox last year had the third-lowest ERA in the league, behind Oakland and Anaheim, and they won 93 games. But with the New York Yankees in the same division, it wasn't nearly enough.

That means, this year, Derek Lowe will have to do better (21-8, 2.58 in '02). Tim Wakefield, the old knuckleballer, will have to do better. Rookie Casey Fossum will have to come through. Veteran John Burkett will need to recapture some of his old magic.

And Martinez will have to be … well, Pedro.

It looks like he's on his way.

Clean and sober

New Atlanta first baseman Robert Fick, a huge hit on and off the field so far with the Braves, claims he quit drinking six weeks ago in an attempt to clean up the image of a hard-partying kid with an attitude problem.

After his former club, the Detroit Tigers, cut him loose, several teams asked about him. Most asked about his reputation.

"It kind of hit home like, 'Hey, you gotta change your act a little bit,'" Fick said.

The one team that didn't ask about his past was the Braves. So, even though he would have preferred to stay with the Tigers, the new clean and sober Fick is looking forward to sticking in Atlanta.

"I wish I was a Tiger. It wasn't my choice to be cut from the team," he said. "But who wouldn't want to be the first baseman for the Braves? I plan on being the Braves' first baseman for a long time."

The Cuban crisis

Think the Yankees are a little concerned about Cuban Jose Contreras? In his latest spring outing on Sunday, he gave up seven hits and seven runs in three innings. Before the game, manager Joe Torre said, in effect, that Contreras was trying too hard and that he was "pitching defensively."

Contreras is in a battle for the No. 5 spot in the Yankees' crowded rotation, and at this point, he won't make it. Right now, that slot looks to be going to Jeff Weaver, who has looked much better.

Still, Torre said the decision is far from made and it might not be made until the last week of spring training.

"We had [Sterling] Hitchcock, Weaver and Jose in to talk to them about going out there and just pitching," Torre said, "and not to worry about decisions that are going to be made later."

Camping out

Tampa Bay's Lou Piniella is upset over the airing of a tape that showed him offering up a profanity-laced tirade in the Rays' dugout last Thursday. The Devil Rays complained about the tape, claiming that the station that captured it was unauthorized to record sound from the dugout. Piniella, too, said it was a "cheap shot," though he did apologize for his actions … A word from the wise, Boston's Martinez, on the importance of baseball in March: "You never see on the back of a baseball card how you do in spring training." … Boston pitchers were 4-6 with a 4.76 ERA in the Grapefruit League before the weekend … Was it coincidence that, after rumors of the Orioles' possible interest in Ken Griffey Jr. , that Junior smacked three home runs on Friday? … Atlanta's Fick is no friend of his former boss, Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski, calling him a liar several times in a mass interview Saturday. It all stems from the Tigers' unwillingness, for whatever reason, to re-sign the straight-talking Fick … The Phillies would still make the trade with the Braves for Kevin Millwood, no doubt, but don't you think they wish they had Johnny Estrada back, given Mike Lieberthal's hip and back problems?

Spring Training Buzz will run Monday and Thursday until Opening Day.

 

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