Don't disrupt the chemistry ...

... of a team that hasn't won the World Series for four years in a row.

"If you want no part of Pedro Martinez in pinstripes, which surely must be the general sentiment among Yankee fans ... "

It's tough to even comment on an entire article when the first sentence forces you to do a spit take and wonder if you've read it correctly.

Pedro Martinez is not the complete answer to the Yankee starting pitching problems. Nobody is. Pedro is definitely a six-inning pitcher nowadays (which is about 4 2/3 innings more than the Yankees can expect from Brown, Vazquez, or the fresh-faced Brad Halsey).

But why wouldn't you want Pedro on your team? I can't think of one reason.

I suspect the Yankees would have to overpay for him, which would make him like every other player on the team, except maybe for Hideki Matsui and Bubba Crosby.


Harper basically contradicts his own argument by correctly comparing Pedro to pre-Yankee Clemens:

"Perhaps most significantly, the Yankee players loathe Pedro for his intimidation tactics over the years, especially after last year's playoff game where he threw at Karim Garcia and then made that threatening gesture toward Jorge Posada, a player he has mocked from the dugout for years when not pitching.

Yes, they felt much the same way about Roger Clemens, and Clemens won them over when he became a Yankee. But he did so at least partly by setting an example with his work ethic, by being a good teammate."

Y'all loathe Pedro? Boo friggin' hoo. Get over it. Nobody likes their coworkers, except some of us don't get paid millions of dollars to loathe our coworkers and play baseball for a living.

The Yankees don't need "good teammates," they need good pitchers. If Pedro Martinez actually comes to the Yankees and pitches well, then "happy" would be my general sentiment.

If he earns his pinstripes by hitting Mike Piazza in the head, then he might instantly become my Favorite Yankee Ever.