November 20, 200421 yr AP Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Pedro Martinez delivers to the New York Yankees in the seventh inning of game 7 of the ALCS in New York. George Steinbrenner can't wait until the games start to exact his revenge against the Red Sox. Making a swift and bold decision Friday, the Yankees principal owner presented a four-year, $50 million offer to Pedro Martinez, according to a major league source. Talks have intensified between the sides to the point where Martinez must now seriously consider joining the club he called "my daddy" after a frustrating September defeat. In one stunning move, The Boss has changed the winter landscape - forcing the Red Sox to make a large counteroffer and possibly prompting the Arizona Diamondbacks to speed up the process of trading Randy Johnson. Even if the Yanks sign Martinez, Steinbrenner is still determined to add Johnson in a trade involving Javier Vazquez. Less than a month after the Yankees' stunning AL Championship Series loss to Boston, the anger inside Steinbrenner - who had been virtually silent in public since the Yankees' final out - has just begun to bubble. The Boss' shocking move on Pedro was made independently of the Yankees' Bronx-based front office, with general manager Brian Cashman and top adviser Gene Michael said to strongly oppose such a deal. Cashman did not return phone calls Friday, and Martinez's agents did not return a message. Boston club president Admin Lucchino and GM Theo Epstein flew to Florida for a scheduled meeting with their star right-hander Wednesday. On Tuesday, a meeting between the pitcher and his agents with Yankees' Tampa officials "went well," according to Steinbrenner's statement. Following the World Series, the Red Sox offered Pedro a two-year, $27.5 million contract with a $13 million vesting option for 2007. Steinbrenner has swooped in before the Sox could negotiate a better offer. Imagine such a surreal scenario at Boston's home opener, as Pedro watches the Red Sox unfurl their first world championship flag since 1918 while standing with his new Yankees teammates. The first Red Sox-Yanks meeting will happen March 7, at Boston's spring training site in Fort Myers, Fla. By then, his World Series ring might already be in the mail. While the majority of Yankees fans would rather embrace a cactus than welcome him into pinstripes, members of the club have sung a different tune. Earlier Friday, Alex Rodriguez became the latest and most hopeful Yankee voice to express his wish of seeing Martinez on his side. "To play with Pedro is one of the dreams I still have yet to accomplish, but we'll see," Rodriguez said in an interview with Dominican Republic television station CDN-37. "I've been in the major leagues for 10 years and for me, the best pitcher I've seen is Pedro Martinez," A-Rod said. "He is a genius with the ball, has incredible discipline and knowledge of baseball. I respect him a lot." However, at age 33, he has become a six-to-seven inning starter who hits the wall at 100 pitches. And the Yankees will test his discipline. Under Steinbrenner's rules, Martinez would have to cut his long, curly locks, shave his goatee and keep his miniature friend - Nelson De la Rosa - out of the clubhouse. Martinez can also expect manager Joe Torre to frown upon using the All-Star break as a mini-vacation, squeezing a few extra days for himself in the Dominican. Torre also won't tolerate his occasional habit of leaving the clubhouse before a game ends. In a diplomatic response to the question of Pedro in pinstripes, Torre on Thursday endorsed his addition to an Associated Press reporter in Dallas. "Pedro is one of the elite pitchers in baseball," Torre said. "As a manager, you want all the toys on the shelf." A day before, Mike Mussina said Martinez would be accepted. "If he's in our clubhouse, he's going to be one of our teammates," Mussina said. Even Jorge Posada - possibly the angriest of Yankees when it comes to Martinez, with the feelings capped by the 2003 ALCS brawl that saw the Boston player toss coach Don Zimmer to the ground - believes that everyone will get along. But Martinez could be going against his own post-World Series words, when he told the Boston Globe: "I promise I'm not going to the Yankees. I want to stay right here." A Cy Young Award winner in 1999 and 2000, Martinez won World Series Game 3 against St. Louis. He has a 182-76 lifetime record with a 2.71 ERA. Last year, he went 16-9 (3.90) with 227 strikeouts in 217 innings.
November 20, 200421 yr Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Pedro Martinez 618315[/snapback] didnt know Pedro relieved to much..
November 20, 200421 yr Author Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Pedro Martinez 618315[/snapback] didnt know Pedro relieved to much.. 618329[/snapback] if you read the whole sentence, it was referring to when pedro pitched the 7th inning of relief in game 7 of the ALCS.
November 20, 200421 yr marlins are gonna offer him 5 years 60 million right now with a club option for a sixth year at 13 million, book it :plain
November 21, 200421 yr Overpaying IMO. Just like the Yankees always do with their pitching staff. 619053[/snapback] If they can, why not? They're taking advantage of a failure in the system, it's MLB's job to fix it with a salary cap or something similar.
November 21, 200421 yr Overpaying IMO. Just like the Yankees always do with their pitching staff. 619053[/snapback] If they can, why not? They're taking advantage of a failure in the system, it's MLB's job to fix it with a salary cap or something similar. 619074[/snapback] I agree 100%, but it's still funny that they pay their pitching staff so much and last year it ended up biting them in the ass.
November 21, 200421 yr Actually no offer has been made.... http://www.nypost.com/sports/yankees/32066.htm
November 21, 200421 yr ESPN says PEdro wants 4 years, 60 million. Anyways, I cant see how Pedro can sign with a cursed team. :plain
November 22, 200421 yr ESPN says PEdro wants 4 years, 60 million. Anyways, I cant see how Pedro can sign with a cursed team. :plain 619285[/snapback] The curse of Slappy McBluelips :lol
November 23, 200421 yr Let them pay that money. It hasn't paid off yet. 619077[/snapback] I think it has paid off to them. They are the most successful franchise in pro sports. It is a business.
November 23, 200421 yr In one stunning move, The Boss has changed the winter landscape - 618315[/snapback] What's the stunning move?
November 23, 200421 yr Let them pay that money. It hasn't paid off yet. 619077[/snapback] I think it has paid off to them. They are the most successful franchise in pro sports. It is a business. 620090[/snapback] But has the money spending itself paid off? By my count, they've won 0 World Series since they started the "et's sign all stars at every position mentality".
November 24, 200421 yr The funny thing is the Yanks haven't really won since they began to seriously buy a championship but it's naive to believe they won't, money has gotten them so close the last few years.
November 25, 200421 yr Mets entering Pedro Sweepstakes? What could possibly be better than the Yankees and Red Sox playing tug-of-war with Pedro Martinez? Oh, another team tugging, perhaps? Enter the Mets. According to the Boston Herald, you can count the Mets among the teams seriously interested in signing the three-time Cy Young Award winner. Wrote the Herald: "Over the weekend, the Mets conveyed to the free agent that they had significant interest in signing him, multiple baseball sources said (Tuesday). ... Other teams contacted Martinez soon after he filed for free agency earlier this month, but the Mets' recent entry introduces a wealthy candidate for Martinez's services in a market that has been slow to develop and has been relatively quiet until the Yankees got into the action last week." Well, that certainly would throw a new element into the fray that already is becoming another juicy chapter in the living history of the Red Sox-Yankees feud. The Mets, whose GM Omar Minaya certainly has made rumblings that he's hoping to make a big splash this winter, bring their New York rivalry to the table, giving the Yankees rivalry battles on two fronts. As Kevin Kernan of the New York Post wrote: "Pedro MET-inez makes sense on several levels: Martinez would become the Mets' ace and finally give them a power pitcher. Pedro would welcome a return to the no-DH world of the NL. And Mets fans, who thoroughly despise Yankee fans, would greet him with open arms." http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb...s_mlb&fext=.jsp
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