Hall of Fame Poll: Pedro Martinez

As a former Expo fan, this is an easy one for me, of course Pedro Martinez should be in the Hall.

When the Expos traded Delino DeShields to get Martinez, the knock on Pedro was his size, or lack there of, he wasn't big enough to handle being a starting pitcher in the majors. His shoulder wouldn't be able to handle it. He'd have to be moved to the pen.

That didn't turn out to be a problem.

Pedro pitched in the majors for 18 seasons, appearing in 476 games, making 409 starts. He had a 219-100 record and a 2.93 ERA. In 2827 innings he allowed 2221 hits, walked 760 and struck out 3154.

He won 3 Cy Young Awards, came in 2nd in voting twice, 3rd once and 4th once. He made 8 All-Star teams. He received MVP votes 6 times, finishing 2nd once ( he would have won, but 2 'writers' left him off their ballots, feeling, I guess, a pitcher shouldn't be MVP, though one of the two had two pitchers on his MVP the previous year.

Pedro finished with a 86 career WAR.

As an Expo, he made 117 starts, went 55-33 with a 3.06 ERA. The Expos, in one of those classic awful trades, sent him to the Red Sox for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas. Pavano went 24-35 with a 4.83 ERA in 5 seasons with the Expos. Armas played 8 seasons with the Expos and Nationals, and went 151-151 with a 4.87 ERA.

Martinez, of course, led the Red Sox to the playoffs in 1999 and 2003 and won a World Series ring with them in 2004. He went on to pitch with the Mets for 4 seasons and spent his last season with the Phillies.

He had his moments of fun too, pushing a charging Don Zimmer to the ground, during a brawl in with the Yankees in the 2003 ALCS. And there was game 7 of the same ALCS with the Red Sox leading 5-2, Sox manager Grady Little came out and talked to Martinez, who was clearly tiring, but left him in to allow the Yankees to tie the game. The Yankees went on to win in extra innings and Little was fired.