Pedro is for the Birds

The same day the Mets offically announced their new acquistion Johan Santana from the Twins news broke that their other star pitcher, Pedro Martinez, was making rounds of his own with the Birds (no not with the Orioles but with the real life feathered variety)

The AP reported that...

Associated Press - February 6, 2008 11:43 PM ET

A video of New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal at a cockfight has been posted on YouTube this week.

Martinez and Marichal laugh before releasing the roosters. The two took part as honorary "soltadores (sohl-tah-DOHR'-ays)," the word used to describe the person who puts the animal to fight.

The fight takes place in the Coliseo de Gallos (koh-lee-SAY'-oh day GAH'-yohs) (Rooster Coliseum) in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's biggest cockfighting venue. Cockfighting is legal and popular in the Dominican Republic.

Pedro has obviously ruffled some feathers with his participation in cockfighting and given that we are champions of fair and balanced reporting theWadeblogs thought someone should examine how Pedro himself has done when going up against the Birds ( of the MLB variety).

It is said that the Early bird gets the worm and theWadeblogs spent all morning digging up the following stats (special props go to the Ultimate Mets Database as well as stats from ESPN) with regard to how Pedro has matched up against the Baltimore Orioles, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

We checked out how Pedro faired vs. the Birds in compairison to the rest of his MLB opponets and interesting enough the Birds have gotten the best of Pedro recently. The Cards and O's have the 3rd and 4th highest team Batting Averages respectively over the course of 2005 - 2007.

By Opponent	ERA	W	L	SV	SVO	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	AVG
vs. ARI	0.67	3	0	0	0	4	4	0	27.0	17	2	2	2	5	26	.177
vs. ATL	3.64	6	3	0	0	9	9	2	59.1	45	24	24	4	14	50	.211
vs. BAL**	3.86	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	7.0	8	4	3	1	1	5	.276
vs. BOS	18.00	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	3.0	7	8	6	1	2	1	.467
vs. CIN	3.71	2	0	0	0	3	3	0	17.0	10	8	7	1	10	24	.179
vs. FLA	2.52	3	3	0	0	8	8	0	50.0	38	16	14	2	6	61	.211
vs. HOU	1.23	2	0	0	0	3	3	1	22.0	12	3	3	2	5	24	.154
vs. MIL	5.14	1	0	0	0	3	3	0	21.0	15	12	12	5	5	29	.200
vs. NYY	1.23	1	0	0	0	3	3	0	22.0	14	3	3	1	4	17	.175
vs. PHI	4.77	2	2	0	0	6	6	0	34.0	32	18	18	5	10	38	.248
vs. PIT	3.38	1	1	0	0	3	3	0	16.0	14	6	6	1	3	22	.226
vs. SDG	3.72	2	1	0	0	3	3	0	19.1	14	8	8	5	6	17	.197
vs. SEA	6.00	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	6.0	9	4	4	0	1	7	.346
vs. STL**	3.43	1	1	0	0	3	3	0	21.0	20	10	8	2	5	19	.253
vs.LAA	3.86	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	7.0	6	3	3	0	4	3	.250
vs.LAD	5.85	1	2	0	0	3	3	1	20.0	18	14	13	4	5	15	.228
vs.Was	2.77	2	1	0	0	4	4	0	26.0	21	9	8	2	7	19	.221

If you are wondering how Pedro has done against the birds of the great white North.... for his career (up to the point that this linked article was published on 7/01/2002), Martinez was 5-2 with a 3.66 ERA against Toronto.

So as Pedro and Johan start their hen pecking for the top spot in the Mets starting rotation (pitchers & catchers report to camp later this month) be sure keep an eye on to see if MLB's birds continue to get the best of "Soltadores" Martinez.

For any of those statheads out there... if you can scratch up amd provide Pedro's lifetime stats against the O's, BJ's, and Cards we will reward you with a cool prize...

Either Mets 40th Anniv All-amazin' Team Commorative Video (NEW) or if you like that other New York Team (a NEW XL shirt I recieved from watching the Yanks on the big screen in Bryant Park). First one to send the info gets the bounty. email: shane.igoe@gmail.com