Pedro Martinez’s brilliance on the mound has translated to the microphone, and he has plenty to say about the Red Sox
Martinez #Martinez
HOUSTON — A phalanx of eight burly police officers guided Pedro Martinez through the crowd at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday, about 90 minutes before the Astros played the Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
Martinez was on his way to a spot above center field where TBS built a set for its pre-game and post-game shows.
As an analyst, Martinez is almost as sharp as he was on the mound, able to make salient points in his second language better than many people can in their first.
The Astros and Yankees were the topics of the day, but the Hall of Famer also had some insights to share about the last-place Red Sox.
“I’ve talked to Chaim [Bloom], figuring out what we need to do to find the proper direction for the team and the proper direction for the future of the team,” said Martinez, who is a special assistant to the Sox front office.
“I feel good. I feel like Chaim wants to use everybody’s brain and we’ll come up with some good answers for you guys. I’d like to get more involved. As you know, with the pandemic I couldn’t do much.
“I will be available. I will make the time. I need to get to know the players now and do the things I can do to help the organization.”
Martinez was impressed with 23-year-old rookie righthander Brayan Bello, who had a 4.71 earned run average in 13 games, 11 of them starts.
“I was able to watch him. He got better,” Martinez said. “It must have been a little intimidating for him early because he came up out of necessity, not precisely because he was mature enough to be there.
“I think he made a great adjustment once he realized what he needed to do and what it was like and got used to being around.”
Martinez never had a chance to work with Bello during spring training, partly because of restrictions in place during the pandemic.
“I’m planning on working with him, especially about some of the things that I saw with his pitches,” Martinez said. “I’ll take some time this winter, especially if he gets to pitch with [Tigres del] Licey [in the Dominican Winter League].
“I will probably go watch him, whatever he does.”
Another former Red Sox Cy Young Award winner, Roger Clemens, also was at the ballpark. He was a bit more effusive about Bello.
“I love him. I love him,” the Rocket said. “From watching him from afar, he’s going to be a good one.”
Martinez and Clemens were pitchers who didn’t want to come off the mound during their careers. Martinez pitched 199 or more innings in eight seasons. Clemens did it 15 times.
But Martinez doesn’t see the current trend of using starters for only five or six innings as being bad for the game.
“Times have changed. The teams are structured differently,” he said. “The analytics department sees that you can throw a certain amount of pitches. There are different situations and not everybody can handle those.
“A guy like [Justin] Verlander, [Max] Scherzer, Jacob [deGrom], they know how to navigate situations. Many other guys don’t. Not only that, what you see from them and not some of the new pitchers we have in the league, is that they know how to be economical with their pitches.
“They know how to pitch. With the new rules on shifting next year, some of these pitchers now will have to learn to locate their fastball better for them to be able to execute.
“As of now, you go five or six and your [velocity] and spin rate don’t diminish. Then you have power arms like we have seen in the bullpen.”
With that, Martinez had to get to work. He turns 51 next week and coming to the park for a playoff game had him smiling.
“I love being here,” said the pitcher many of us can say was the greatest they ever saw in person.