04/03/2002

I'm worried about Pedro.

And it's more than the fact that he gave up nine hits and eight runs in less than four innings Monday, a performance from Baseball Hell.

Or that he has struggled all spring.

Or that he doesn't seem to have the same velocity he had, back when Pedro threw fastballs that were like express packages to Cooperstown.

I'm worried that he's never again going to be the pitcher we knew for three years, back when he was the best pitcher on the planet, every outing a baseball version of a canvas on which he displayed his art. That the fact he's broken down the last three years and now has a frayed right rotator cuff has changed everything.

For he's not the same pitcher now, not even close.

You could see that Monday, and it went beyond the fact that the Blue Jays essentially treated him like he was just another journeyman. Or even that he gaveup as many earned runs in a game as he had in his 10-year career in the major leagues.

It also was his body language. Martinez used to have a certain swagger, the sense that it was his ball, his game, his show, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. It was the sense all the great ones have, regardless of the sport, the montage of talent and charisma, the tangible feeling that they own the moment.

All that was gone Monday. As if Pedro's somehow smaller on the mound than he used to be, diminished in stature.

The Red Sox can spin this anyway they want, and I certainly expect them to. Their history tells you that they rarely tell the truth about players' physical problems, and there's no reason to think they're going to change now. Especially when it's Pedro Martinez, upon whose right arm this season probably depends.

So we've heard since spring training began that Pedro is fine, that (1) all he needs is time, (2) he has to get used to dealing with the 14 or so pounds of bulk he added to his frame in the offseason, and (3) it's just a question of mechanics. We have heard all spring that his performance is nothing to get alarmed about.

But something is different.

Pedro does not give up nine hits and eight runs in three-plus innings unless something's the matter.

Don't believe me?

Listen to Pedro:

"I don't think I had such a bad time with my pitches," he said after Monday's game. "The Toronto Blue Jays had a good time with me. As much as I want to do better, that's all I could do today."

Or how about this statement?

"I would like the results to be better, but I feel better . . . If I happen to have a bad season and I'm healthy, that's going to be OK, too."

Say what?

It was apparent last year that something was the matter, something serious. It was the third time in as many years that he went on the disabled list, and this time there was no avoiding the fact that Pedro has reached a certain crossroads in his career. No denying the fact that he was in his 12th year of professional baseball, and that's a lot of 95 mph fastballs, a lot of strain on a slight body

That, and his motion.

A few years back, Marek Drabinsky, the Brown baseball coach, pointed out to me that Pedro was just an accident waiting to happen, that he "has a tendency to fall off to the side when he throws and it's just a matter of time before he hurts his shoulder." That Pedro opened up his shoulder when he threw, thus putting extra stress on it. That his motion was a dance with the baseball devil.

This may sound like too much inside baseball, but watching him Monday it was apparent Pedro was trying to throw more over the top, more of a traditional motion. The lead picture in yesterday's sport section showed Martinez at the end of his delivery, left leg pointed at the plate, a textbook delivery.

Is it just coincidence?

Or has someone told him he no longer can throw the ball from a three-quarter delivery, all the while falling off to the left, a motion that supposedly put so much strain on his shoulder? And if that's the case, can he ever be as effective with this type of delivery, can he ever get the fastball up where it used to be, the pitch that made everything else in his arsenal work?

Maybe this is all overreaction, and Pedro can still be a great pitcher, the horse the Sox need.

But the signs are there, and they're not good.

Either way, I'm worried about Pedro.

I'm worried we have already seen the best of him, that it's now only memories of what he used to be.

I hope I'm wrong.