WikiPedro

A few days ago, I was trying to remember when Pedro Martinez was traded to the Red Sox. From the google search, I landed on his Wikipedia page. What a fantastic read that was!

I don’t want to say I forgot how good Pedro was. It’s impossible to have seen him pitch, and not remember how good he was. But, it was eye opening to see it all in print again. I know you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but the relaying of his statistics was enough for me.

One of my favorite stats related to his ERA in 2000. His ERA that year was 1.74, to lead the league. In second place that year was Roger Clemens, and his 3.70 ERA. So, Pedro’s ERA was less than half of his nearest competitor. That’s not even my favorite part. The difference between the ERAs of Pedro and Roger that year was 1.96. If you add 1.96 to Roger’s 3.70, you get 5.66. An ERA of 5.66 would rank you somewhere in the mid-thirties on the AL ERA league leaders. So, the difference between #1 and #2 was the same as the difference between #2 and #32. And, that’s not even my favorite part. You see, in 2000 Pedro gave up 128 hits in his 217 innings. That works out to giving up 5.31 hits per nine innings. 5.31 HITS per nine innings. The #36 person in ERA gave up more than 5.31 RUNS per nine innings. The difference between the number of runs Pedro gave up per nine innings, and the number of runs Clemens gave up per nine innings is more than the difference between the number of runs Clemens gave up per nine innings and the number of hits Pedro gave up per nine innings. A 5.31 ERA would be lower than the team ERA of any AL team in 2000.

That’s my favorite part.

It was just so unfair.