Jim Bowden of XM tweets that it appears both Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz will wait until the season has started to sign 2010 contracts.
For Martinez, such a move mirrors his 2009, when he waited until July to sign with the Phillies. He was effective for them, pitching to a 3.63 ERA in regular-season 44 2/3 innings, along with several strong postseason starts.
Smoltz improved greatly as the 2009 season progressed, faltering badly with Boston but pitching to a 4.26 ERA with St. Louis.
The peripheral numbers for both pitchers suggest that they can help major league teams this season. However, considering that neither one has pitched 200 innings since Smoltz did in 2007, this seems like a wise decision for both of them.
Twitter says that account doesn’t exist.
I’m lol’ing at this on a couple of levels.
I’m lol’ing at this on a couple of levels.
That’s fine. League Minimum for you both.
wow. Well there goes Omar Minaya’s great off-season.
Good move on both of their parts… And as such they probably reside in the brains of 4-10 GM’s with questionable rotation depth going into the season.
Both are in a nice spot. There are plenty of clubs with question marks in the back end of their rotation who could use either one. Both will have jobs by June. Just grab them quick. Because after that, it’s Paul Byrd time!
so they want none of the work, all of the reward? What will happen is the same thing pedro did last season. Wait until about 1/2 way through, and join a team that is winning a division or at least competing and make it into the playoffs
I’m getting more than a little sick of that routine myself, and I don’t care about who set the precedent. Decide whether or not you want to play. If you do, play the whole season and make it mean something. That should not be too much to ask.
I can’t blame them, and think it’s a perfectly good decision. In the past I’ve turned down job offers while unemployed in order to wait for a better option/offer.
Ha ha, sure, but the regular work world and baseball are worlds apart (how many of us have our salary guaranteed whether or not we work a lick? How many of us tell our boss “I’ll just work some of the year”…). Seriously, I know baseball is a greedy business where not even millions are “enough” for some players (and I don’t begrudge them), but baseball isn’t just for the sake of the players, it’s for the sake of the fans too. As a fan I know the beauty of watching the player who plays because he has a passion for the game and really wants to be there because of the love of game. And hey, since even the worst paid player is well-compensated (by “normal” standards) that’s little enough to ask. The other thing is, since guys copy-cat each other, I don’t want to see things get to the point where we have a big pool of prima-donnas just signing whenever they feel like it (or trying to). I am fine with in-season trades here and there, but I like the (deteriorating) tradition of a player and his team going into battle as a unit and fighting through the season from beginning to end. If the team wins a title I like to see the players earn it – not just jump in when it happens to be convenient. For me that gives me something more solid to root for than just a team name and a set of colors. That’s where I’m coming from on this.
Not because of the AJC or any other outside source. This is seriously the only chance I see the Braves giving Smoltz a way to come back and finish here. Say we lose Kawakami midseason and we are in the thick of the playoff race. We could
A. Move Medlen into the 5 spot and call someone up to replace him in the bullpen. (Kimbrell/Hyde/Dunn/Proctor/etc.)
B. Call up Minor ahead of schedule.
C. Sign Smoltz let him pitch in the 5 slot for the rest of the season. Let him and Bobby finish out their careers together.
While C would be touching and could be a pretty special story. I’d much rather go with A.