Don't Forget To Remember Me...

The names are familiar ones to most of us... Pedro Martinez, Nick Johnson, John Patterson, Juan Rivera, Mike Piazza, Dave Roberts and Moises Alou... Normally, all of these guys would be on our fantasy teams making some sort of positive contribution... Most of the aforementioned players are tried and true veterans who have more than proven what they can do on the field... they all share one thing in common at the moment - they're injured! No, they aren't contributing a thing to your fantasy teams at the moment, but you can't forget about them as they are still VERY capable of making a big contribution before this season is over. Over the next week, I'm going to cover each of these players in depth, one each day...

I lead off this list with Pedro Martinez for many reasons... First and probably foremost is that I'm a HUGE fan of Pedro's. I remember watching him pitch (mostly out of the bullpen) in 1993 as a rookie for the Dodgers and being totally in AWE of his stuff. His arsenal of pitches even at only 21 years of age was formidable, and he already knew "the art of pitching." All Pedro did that year was put up a 2.61 ERA and 119 strikouts in 107 innings... these were the numbers of a star in the making... November 19, 1993 was one of the saddest days for me as a Los Angeles Dodger fan as they traded the pitcher I was in awe of to the Montreal Expos for infielder Delino Deshields!!! Before that day, I never paid much attention to the Expos, save for 1981 when the Dodgers defeated them in the playoffs before advancing to the World Series and defeating the New York Yankees...

So, the next year, 1994 I began to follow the team north of the border closely for the first time, and I've done so ever since - even as they moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Nationals. The rookie pitcher I admired blossomed as a starter. Pedro went 11-5 that year in helping lead the Expos to their first division title since that same 1981 season where they ironically lost to the Dodgers in the playoffs. Every year with the Expos, Pedro's numbers got better and better, closing out his career with them with an amazing 1997 season where he put up an 17-8 record, a 1.90 ERA and 305 strikeouts in 241 1/3 innings. A star had been born!!! With a very small payroll though, there was no way that the Expos would be able to retain their ace - free agency and a HUGE payday awaited Pedro...

In 1998 Pedro moved onto Boston where he went from being merely very successful to legendary!! Since I've ALWAYS been a Red Sox fan, I was very happy he went to one of my favorite teams!!! In 1999, he posted a 23-4 record with a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts... The next year, he posted an incredible 1.74 ERA and 0.74 WHIP with 284 strikeouts and a .167 batting average against... 2000 was also the first year that I won some fantasy leagues - Pedro was the cornerstone of my winning teams, including one which made an appearance on the ESPN.com overall leaderboard!!! In 2004, Pedro (along with Curt Schilling) led the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years. The curse of the Bambino had been broken! With that triumph though, Pedro's days in Beantown sadly ended...

Pedro moved onto the New York Mets in 2005 and helped lead them to their first division title since 1988 (ironically the Mets lost in the playoffs to the World Champion Dodgers that year)... This past June, I finally got to see Pedro pitch in person for the first time... although he didn't have his best stuff, it was such a priviledge to finally see my hero pitch!!! Pedro was injured most of the second half last year and had rotator cuff surgery in the off season... He's currently rehabbing his pitching elbow and his targeting a return by the first of August. He's a gamer and a fierce competitor - look for Pedro to have a big impact on any fantasy team he happens to land on those final two months of this year. If you don't believe me, check out this article in Newsday which looks VERY encouraging. In the article, Pedro states "It's like I'm rejuvenated. I feel like I'm my good old '97, '96 years."... If indeed that's the case, the rest of the teams better watch out!

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Well, there were some great games last night... Did any of you catch that wild game out at Chavez Ravine between my Dodgers and the Cubs??? It was quite the roller coaster!!! Derek Lowe pitched a very strong six innings giving up only one run and striking out five batters in exiting with a 5-1 lead. The usually reliable Dodger bullpen had a meltdown last night though, giving up seven runs in the seventh inning to the Cubs and blowing D-Lowe's win. As I have D-Lowe in several fantasy leagues, this was quite disappointing and reminiscent of the 2005 season where the Dodger pen routinely blew his leads... Getting back to the game... as most of you Cubs fans know though, that Cubs pen is not very reliable, so no lead is safe. Sure enough, the Dodgers came back to score four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 9-8 lead. Takeshi Saito pitched a perfect ninth for his 15th save in giving the Dodgers their third straight win after losing four straight. Prior to the Dodgers' triumph, the crosstown Angels beat up on the New York Yankees 10-6. Jered Weaver gave up three runs in a gutty five inning performance including Alex Rodriguez' league-leading 19th homer.

So who is the hottest team in baseball??? No, it's not the Dodgers... that honor would happen to belong to the Washington Nationals... Yesterday, they won their fourth consecutive game in defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4. The resurgent Dmitri Young went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, while Brian Schneider hit a two run homer off Cardinal starter Anthony Reyes. "The Chief" Cordero pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save of the year... For the Nats, it was their 11th win in their past 15 games... amazingly, most of this is being done without their top three starting pitchers - John Patterson, Shawn Hill and Jason Bergmann... Why have the Nats suddenly started winning??? Maybe it was my column two weeks ago!!!??? By the way, my apologies to John, Shannon and Ryan - I must have been asleep when I posted that originally - I hope I didn't start any rumors with that one! Long story short is the BIG error I posted has been fixed! All kidding aside, it appears that their hitters have finally begun to wake up as they have scored 56 runs in their past 10 games. Also, the aforementioned Cordero is looking like the pitcher we all know he can be - I'm convinced that the health of his Grandma was having a lot more of an effect on him than most of us knew. In seven outings since her passing, Chad has not given up an earned run in lowering his ERA from 4.70 to 3.22. The window to buy Chad low in fantasy leagues is quickly closing, so if you haven't done it yet, you might want to think about doing it this weekend!!

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... and yes, I tricked you all with the title today, did I not? ;)

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