Do Your Research

Put Ian O'Conner on the list of Pedro bashers that fail to back up his point with his article titled Desperate Mets put misguided faith in Pedro. It should have been titled Desperate Writer Has No Idea What He's Talking About.

You can have your opinions, that's fine. You can not like the deal, it may end up being bad. But when you spout out things that are false, then it irks me.

The ace is 33, with a reported tear in his labrum and with a fastball that's lost some bite. This isn't the Pedro who blew away that murderers' row of muscleheads at the Fenway All-Star Game. This is the Pedro with a hard 100-pitch ceiling, a Pedro who needs to flee the Yankees and that ERA-busting DH rule for a steady diet of free National League outs, a pitcher-friendly ballpark, and a cushy retirement plan.

Let's see just how hard Pedro's 100 pitch ceiling is.

He only pitched seven games under 100 pitches and pitched no less than 100 in July and August entirely. So out 33 games started, he managed to top the 100 mark 26 times. He topped 110 pitches 13 times (115, 111, 113, 115, 113, 110, 115, 111, 110, 117, 117, 113, and 117) which is almost double the games he failed to top 100. He maintained a .244/.279/.341 against opponents when he was between 106 and 120 pitches so it does not appear he is overmatched when his totals jump up.

To boot, he still had enough gas to pitch 116, 113, and 111 pitches in his first three games of the playoffs. He then pitched 20 in an ill advised relief performance and topped the season off with 98 pitches in the World Series in seven innings while giving up only three hits.

So out of 37 games started for the entire season he managed to top 110 in 43%. Keep up the good reporting and don't let a little thing called research get in your way.

Now can we put this to bed please? If you want to say he can't pitch on short rest, fine, I'll agree. That has actual facts to back it up. However, when trying to bash the deal, do not make stuff up to prove a point.

But in the end it comes down to this, why must people who are Yankee fans write about the Mets? Check this quote:

Martinez walked away from an indelible championship club, and an April ring ceremony for the ages, to join a lousy team holding second-class citizenship papers in New York.

C'mon, just a dumb article all around. It is amazing why these guys get paid to do their job.