Pedro named Special Assistant to the GM

I guess his first duty could be helping Ruby De La Rosa refine the change up.

Great move!!!

The ramifications of Pedro's signing will far exceed his imput in Spring Training.....although considerable.

If Pedro Martinez walks into some young Dominican's home and says "we would like you to sign with the Boston Red Sox", what do you think that kid may do?

His influence with Latin ballplayers, and especially young pitchers, could be powerful for years.

I'm sure Rubby will learn a lot from him, but so will a Webster, a Barnes, an Owens, etc. One of the things that set him apart from other pitchers, other than his change-up and fastball command, was his mind. He was a real artist on the mound, and our organization is much improved as of today.

Pedro Martinez is the most beloved living Red Sox player, right? Who else could it be? Yaz? Maybe a while ago, but so many Sox fans have no real connection with him at this point, and he's just not as engaging a personality, anyway. Fisk? Not even the same league. Schilling? Ha, that clown. Big Papi comes close, probably wil be right there or even more when he retires, but it's not quite the same when you're still playing.

A couple thoughts.



This is a good question. I spent more time than I should have thinking about this.

It's still probably Yaz. Everyone between the ages of 40 and 70 basically grew up with him. It's definitely a different connection with the crowd than that Pedro has, but the feelings about Yaz are more reverent, you know? Throw in the fact that he spent his whole career with the Red Sox, the fact that he's the franchise leader in just about every counting stat... It's impossible to quantify, but I'd say it's Yaz.

It's funny that you mention Schilling. He's probably the least liked good player in Red Sox history, isn't he? I mean, is there ANY other player with his accomplishments who, if you ask half the fans in the park what they think of him, would say something along the lines of "I respect what he did for us, but I wish he'd shut up and go away forever." I think you'll find better opinions of Manny, and possibly even Clemens. Politics is a funny thing like that.

EDIT: It probably should be noted there are a lot of Red Sox fans in Rhode Island. Politics may be a funny thing, but fraud sort of isn't.



I've seen this quite a bit since the stories about De La Rosa working out with the Martinezes earlier in the month. It's obviously good for any young pitcher to be able to get instruction from Pedro, but I don't think the change-up Pedro threw is teachable. One of the things that made his change possibly the best ever is the fact that Pedro had abnormally long fingers, allowing him to get a deeper grip on the baseball. In a way, asking a pitcher to mimic Pedro's changeup would be like asking a hitter to mimic Ted Williams' hand-eye coordination.

Think of every great pitching coach you can. Now, can you name one of them that didn't suck out loud as a player? I can't.

Great players are almost universally bad coaches; good coaches were almost universally terrible players. Every please continue to ignore this fact.

I do not see Pedro as being a coach, but I would love to see him teach that circle changeup to as many players as possible.

This is just silly. You cannot teach that pitch. I've already seen Pedro show the grip he uses for it any number of times; it's not like it's some highly guarded secret. I'm sure any number of pitchers or coaches on the Red Sox could show you how to throw Pedro's circle-change, but unless you've got his arm and his hands and his mechanics, it doesn't mean much.

If you could just "teach" a pitch like that, every pitcher on the Yankees would throw a completely unhittable cutter. Or Randy Johnson would be teaching pitchers to throw a slider with eight and a half feet of break. It doesn't work that way.

Obviously it is not the pitch for everyone, and I doubt anyone will be as effective with the pitch as Pedro was. Nevertheless, it does not hurt for him to show a young pitcher how to throw the pitch. While, I am not sure Pedro could help a struggling AA pitcher consistently repeat his delivery, but he could show that pitcher how to properly throw the circle change up. There have been plenty of examples of guys brought in simply to teach a pitch rather than act as a full-time pitching coach. I think the most famous example is when Rube Foster taught Christy Mathewson his iconic screwball. Phil and Joe Niekro helped Wakefield with his knuckleball. If nothing else, working with a master of the pitch will help the confidence of kid trying out something new.

Just a quick note. I watched De La Rosa pitch and he already had a very good changeup. He used it to punch out players who got to looking for the heat. And while I have no idea how long his fingers are, his fastball - the one that clocks in at 98+ - was moving sharply also. It's not as if this guy is a novice, believe me. The pitches I watched, those two, both were darting around.

If you were to poll Red Sox fans on their FAVORITE players, I don't think Yaz would rank very highly. The list would be dominated by '04-'07 guys, just because those teams were so damn popular. On the other hand, if you did a like/dislike poll for each player, he might actually have a chance to win that. High name recognition and there's no minority faction of people who hate him as far as I know, which is true for most everyone else.