Over at Sons of Sam Horn, there’s a discussion going on as to whether Pedro Martinez is the greatest pitcher ever. Clearly in terms of career longevity, the case right now would be much stronger for Clemens, Lefty Grove, and Walter Johnson - a lot depends on how Pedro’s next 8 years or so go. But was his peak the greatest peak anyone’s ever seen?
Great 5-year stretches: Pedro 1999-2003, Maddux 1994-1998, Clemens 1986-1990, Koufax 1962-1966, Grove 1928-1932. (And yes, that excludes Cy years for Pedro, Maddux, and Clemens.) I would argue that of that group, Pedro’s peak - even taking into account an injury-shortened 2001 - is the strongest of the lot. The utter ability to dominate a league in an era of offensive explosion with a huge arsenal of pitches was just stunning. The flameballing Pedro was fun to watch, but when he became the wiser Pedro, when he realised he could throw any of his pitches over on demand and used that fact to toy with batters… that was on another plane of pitching. 1999 and 2000 may be the two best seasons ever pitched.
Here’s an interesting bit on Pedro on mechanics:
“Every time a pitcher throws on a mound,” he said, “I’m watching. I want to see what they’re doing. Both good and bad. I try to learn something and put it in play.
“Like once I was watching Greg Maddux, the master of control, and how straight up he holds his head when he looks into the batter. I realized that sometimes I tilted my head to the left a bit.” He demonstrates for me. “And you’d be amazed what that does to your mechanics.
“If you keep your head quiet,” he added, his eyes steady and hard, “you land softly.”
He said he used to study Roger Clemens every chance he could. “He has the best mechanics,” Martinez said. “The best.” (Times Herald-Record)
The rest of that article is about the wonder of seeing Pedro pitch in person.