How Jesus Cost Pedro A Cy Young
In a recent interview with Y!’s Big League Stew, 3-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher, Pedro Martinez, said he felt that he likely would have added a fourth award to his trophy case (or closest or whatever) had he not seen his younger brother Jesus make it all he way to the majors, but never get a chance to pitch.
Martinez finished off a stellar season with Boston going 20-4 with a 2.26 ERA and 239 Ks in 199.1 innings, but the voters felt Oakland’s Barry Zito’s 23-5 record, 2.75 ERA and 182 Ks in 229.1 innings deserved the Cy Young award more and Martinez finished second in voting that year. It is worth noting, as Pedro does in his interview, that after making 27 consecutive starts that season, Martinez chose to pump the brakes on his season in late August skipping three of his final six starts. Zito did no such thing and pitched 35 games that season, as compared to Martinez’s 30.
To hear Petey tell it, Zito didn’t earn the Cy Young in the final stretch, Martinez handed it to him because he let rookie Josh Hancock pitch. And he blames that decision on his brother.
Y! BLS: You have another brother, Jesus. Did he pitch for a while?
PM: He did. He got to the big leagues [in 1997]. He got called up for a month, but they never gave him the ball. That’s why I lost the 2002 Cy Young — because I gave my opportunities to pitch to another rookie kid. [Voters] said I was “sitting on my numbers.”
Y! BLS: Josh Hancock.
PM: Yes. My brother never got an opportunity to throw a pitch, and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to another young kid.
In a way only an older brother would even try pulling off this story.
Hancock only pitched one game, yet Martinez missed three turns in the rotation (11-year vet Frank Castillo filled in for the other two, all three of which were losses and one of which was against Roger Clemens and the Yankees).
The Red Sox were 6.5 games behind New York and were playing the Yanks when Martinez skipped his first of three starts. There were still 26 games to be played in the regular season.
Can you picture Boston manager Grady Little demanding that Frank Castillo and some rookie who had never started a game take over for the ace of the ball club while the team, however unlikely, still had a shot at the pennant?
Neither did the media that accused Martinez of sitting on his numbers. All else being equal, this is how the remainder of the season went from the point in which Martinez decided to step aside:
Click pic to embiggen
While Martinez was allowing a younger fella some air time, Zito pitched a flawless September, lasting more innings, earning more wins, striking out more, maintaining a lower ERA and most importantly, helping his team make it to the playoffs.
It takes little urging for Martinez to put forth less than 100 percent. Martinez claiming to have stepped aside for the greater good of a rookie’s fragile ego is probably more sizzle than steak. Could this have been anything other than an excuse to guilt his little bro when the family gathers together for the holidays?
Because as handy as my “Mom-always-blamed-me-for-killing-the-family-turtle-even though-my baby-sister-did-it” guilt trip has come in handy more than once in my life, it ain’t nothin’ compared to “you’re-the-reason-Barry Zito-won-the-Cy-Young-and-not-me.”
Well played, Pedro. Well played.
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Photos courtesy of Flickr
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