But how can he do against T-Ballers?

Pedro Martinez is apparently intrigued by a potential return to Los Angeles. In typical Dodger fashion, the team kind of wants him but not really, has expressed interest in talking to his agent but hasn't in weeks, has talked about the parameters of a potential contract but has no idea about how much he should get, etc. In my 98 years of following/blogging about baseball I've never come across an organization so wishy-washy when it comes to free agents. "Hey Frank, Albert Pujols is interested in signing a league-minimum contract with the Dodgers for 2009 and then donating his entire salary to the Dodger Dream Foundation. You interested?" "Um...well, I can't say we have no interest, but we're definitely not looking at doing it right now and we have to see how other things work out. Our roster is mostly full and our payroll is stretched pretty tight. But I mean, we have the money to sign him, that's not a question. What the fuck are you looking at me like that for? WE HAVE THE MONEY, OKAY?"

In all reality, Pedro wouldn't be a bad add for the Dodgers; their three main fifth-starter candidates (Jason Schmidt, Claudio Vargas, Shawn Estes) shouldn't even be allowed to pitch in fucking Little League games, and for some reason Joe Torre is adamant about burying stud prospect James McDonald in the bullpen "for now," so Pedro is probably the best realistic option they have for the end of the rotation. PECOTA has him down for a 4.31 ERA in 110 innings in 2009, which is much better than the projections they have for Schmidt, Vargas and Estes. In addition, there are a bunch of hokey-but-fun-to-think-about reasons to sign him: a Pedro signing would bring about closure to the Delino trade, it would give Manny a best friend on the team, it would improve clubhouse chemistry, it would give the young pitchers on the staff a mentor, etc etc etc. Bottom line is, there are a lot of positive factors involved in potentially bringing in Pedro.

However, the biggest Pedro pimping around baseball isn't over his decent PECOTA projection; it's over his performance in the World Baseball Classic. His final line for the tournament: six innings, no runs, six Ks in two appearances. Hey, that's pretty good, no wonder he's asking for a base salary in the $5-million range. And when you remember that he did all that against the superstar-laden U.S. roster, consisting of perennial mashers like Derek Jeter, Adam Dunn, Brian McCann, Ryan Braun, and Chipper Jones, you have to think that...

What? What's that? All that came against the Netherlands? The team whose most notable hitter is Randall fucking Simon?

Uh...maybe we'll start the bidding at $4 million?