[3fbrown]

After a brief hiatus, it is time to continue the stories of 1998. First, a few updates on well-known players. We will start with Pedro.

Pedro Martinez was my generation's Sandy Koufax - the most dominant pitcher we ever saw. He was drafted by the Dodgers before the 1993 season. In that season, after a brief time in AAA, he absolutely dominated. He only got 134 innings in, but he went 8-2 with a 2.15 ERA. His innings were short because of a couple of bouts with tendinitis in his elbow and a couple of blisters.

1994 was nearly as great, as his ERA rose to 2.54, but offensive levels rose across the league as well, so his ERA+ was still 166. But again the injury bug bit, most notably with season-ending surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow, limiting him to 78 innings.

Same thing for 1995, lots of injuries, and only 118 (awesome) innings. Unfortunately the last injury was a torn UCL, and the recovery from Tommy John surgery took a full 2 years! He didn't come back until mid-1997. At that point, the injuries kept coming, and in September he tore his rotator cuff, an injury that would keep him out well into 1998. He only pitched 44 innings in 1997.

When Pedro got healthy (!) in 1998, the Dodgers did what they had to after injuries had about ripped his arm off...they put him in the bullpen. He still had some injuries of course, and only got into 38 innings.

All of this seems incredibly sad - Pedro has been destroyed by injury, and can't live up to his potential. But the thing is that even though injuries have kept him off the field, they have not reduced his effectiveness. Overall for his career, he has only pitched 413 major league innings across 6 years. But he has gone 27-12 with a 2.44 ERA, and has walked 2.1 per 9 IP while striking out 11.6. If he can keep that up in the bullpen and stay healthy, he will still be a star, just not the star he could have been.