Last night, Pedro Martinez won his 200th career game. Pedro is one of the truly outstanding pitchers of our generation, and a spot in Cooperstown is waiting for him.
We once traded him for Delino DeShields...groan. This was rightfully voted the worst trade in LA Dodgers history.
Do you agree with Lemieux (Lawyers, Guns, and Money) that Martinez is a "substantially better" pitcher than Koufax was? I found that a surprisingly strong statement, but then again I haven't followed baseball since very early in Martinez's career. Hey, at least I know who he is! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think that one can make a good case for that statement, but I'm not sure if I agree with it. However, I can definitely assert with confidence that it is a reasonable position to argue. Martinez's career has been incredible, and this with Koufax, one is certainly going to compare level of performance without regard to 'counting stats'. (Koufax retired early, so he doesn't have the counting stats---wins, etc.---of most Hall of Fame pitchers.)
ReplyDeleteFor a while, people were comparing Randy Johnson to Koufax because both are lefties and it was generally believed that many of Johnson's counting stats wouldn't end up being horribly great because he established himself in the Majors a bit late for a player of his caliber. (Historically, most Hall of Famers establish themselves at much younger ages than typical Major Leaguers.) However, Johnson has been able to last (and excel!) longer than expected, so Martinez nows seems like the most logical modern-day pitcher to compare to Koufax. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if Martinez also lasts longer than expected (he's small and people are always expecting him to utterly break down at an earlier age than most) and accrues really great counting stats to go along with the rest of his excellence.