Category: Pedro Martinez

1991 Cal League All-Stars Pedro Martinez All-Stars - A Rookie Card Review

10/24/2019

by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Pedro Martinez has two cards in the 32-card 1991 Cal League set, and they are #1 and #32. The first card is the more commonly available of the two. It’s a typical minor league card that doesn’t appear to have the greatest printing quality. Also, Pedro didn’t look too happy in the portrait. However, Pedro very much enjoyed his time in the Cal League, which he dominated.

Pedro pitched to 8 wins and no losses with 10 starts at Bakersfield. He enjoyed a 2.05 ERA in 61 ⅓ innings, as well as a 12.2 strikeout rate per 9 innings against only a 2.8 walk rate per 9. It was definitely a sign of things to come, huh? Anyway, Pedro dominated the league so much that the Dodgers called him up to Double-A San Antonio, where he also pitched well. He finished at Triple-A Albuquerque, where he pitched OK, although not great.

Pedro’s other 1991 Cal League card, #32, is a much nicer looking card. It’s also apparently extremely difficult to find, especially in top condition. Even raw, they can sell for $15 or more. What makes it a nicer card is the photo, which is a shot of Pedro throwing a warm-up pitch from the mound, while smiling.

Both cards also list his Dominican League (Santo Domingo) stats on the back, which is awesome. Good luck finding anything better than a PSA 8 of #32, though.

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1990 Sport Pro Great Falls Dodgers Pedro Martinez - A Rookie Card Review

10/24/2019

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

The first ever Pedro Martinez rookie card is pretty much where you have to start with any serious Pedro Martinez rookie card collection. For a minor league card, it’s not bad. The design is a bit bland, but the portrait isn’t bad - albeit dark. It’s a piece of history in any case, hearkening back to when Pedro played in Montana.

Pedro didn’t pitch too badly at his first minor league stop in the Pioneer League. He compiled an 8-3 win loss record with a 3.82 ERA in 14 starts. He had a decent strikeout rate with 82 strikeouts in 77 innings. Pedro was still honing his control, though, as he walked 40 in those 77 innings. It’s not a bad performance, in any case. However, he was actually out-pitched by lefty Mark Mimbs. Who? Yeah, exactly. (Although, Mimbs actually did pitch for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1997, so that is an interesting Red Sox connection, I guess…)

There was a time where these 1990 Sport Pro Great Falls cards held a lot more value. But, in June 2019, one PSA 10 example of the Great Falls Pedro Martinez card sold for just $25. You can grab a PSA 9 copy for under $15, but why wouldn’t you just want a 10? There are 901 PSA 9 copies VS 545 PSA 10 copies. They aren’t exceptionally rare. Still, this is a must have card for any Pedro Martinez rookie card collection.

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1992 Donruss “The Rookies” Pedro Martinez - A Pedro Martinez Rookie Card Review

10/23/2019

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

While not one of Pedro Martinez’s premier rookie cards, the 1992 Donruss card from their “The Rookies” subset has a few things going for it. First off, this card does feature Pedro in a major league uniform, in Dodger Blue wearing his familiar number #45. Secondly, unlike previous editions of “The Rookies,” Donruss actually released this set in packs rather than in a boxed set. Why is that good? It means that gem mint copies of this card are much harder to find than you’d expect.

There are 2075 graded examples of the 1992 Donruss Rookies Pedro Martinez card, yet only 275 of those have graded out as a PSA 10 Gem Mint. There are 1295 PSA 9 examples, which is why that’s what you’ll much more commonly find for sale. As a serious Pedro Martinez collector, you’ll most likely want the PSA 10. In late 2019, you can find PSA 9 copies for about $15-20, but the PSA 10 copies tend to be $30 or more. You’ll find a similar case for Pedro’s former teammate, Manny Ramirez, who actually has a whopping 2500 graded examples of his card in the set, yet only 270 graded PSA 10. That card, interestingly has similar price points. So, it’s pretty cool to have these two in the same set.

(It’s worth noting that Tim Wakefield also has a rookie card in the set, as well as all-star second baseman Jeff Kent. Of course, Wakefield doesn’t have many graded examples, although neither does Kent, interestingly enough.)

Of course, this card also depicts Pedro on the mound. Many of his early cards do not. I’ve also always preferred rookie cards with players in Major League uniforms, which is something I know many collectors prefer. All in all, this is a pretty nice and affordable Pedro Martinez rookie card that still holds some value from the Junk Wax era when graded PSA 9 or better.

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From the Steroid Era to the Juiced Ball Era - Ten Years as a Hardcore Baseball Fan

9/5/2019

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Pedro's key rookie card still underpriced AF...

My buddy David from Premier Sports Card Shipping and I were talking about the single-season home run record, the steroid era, and more. That conversation led me down a rabbit hole of thinking about these record-setting sluggers that now see their careers tainted by the use of steroids and other Performance-Enhancing Drugs. Very soon, I'll be writing up some pieces on my thoughts on McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, and the lot. Surprisingly, I've never put my thoughts about them down, and I probably should!

But first, I decided to do a bit of a “bloggy” post today, talking about my thoughts about ten years as a serious baseball fan and how my true love of the game comes from the art of pitching.

The year was 1998. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were slamming home runs everywhere. It seemed like a lot of guys were slamming home runs. After baseball had suffered through the strike shortened 1994 season, no World Series, and a delayed 1995 season, the sport needed a shot in the arm. As it turned out, the two biggest sluggers may have taken some shots, and probably not in the arm.

But, the reason I became interested in baseball is not the home run race. Actually, I was only casually interested in basketball back then. Baseball didn’t really appeal to me much. What caught my attention was a new pitcher on the hometown Red Sox who was making headlines. I didn’t really know much at all about baseball at the time. But, what I did know that what this young ace pitcher named Pedro Martinez was doing was special.

I watched a few games in 1998. Of course, the Red Sox were competitive that season and fan favorite Mo Vaughn was still in his prime. Nomar Garciaparra was in his second full season and easily one of the best hitters in the game. The Sox wouldn’t get very far in the playoffs, but the way that Pedro was able to just baffle batters intrigued me. They were a pretty fun team to watch, too.

But, I didn’t really start watching baseball seriously until after the 1999 All-Star Game. You know, the one where Pedro struck out Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, and Sammy Sosa in the first inning, and both Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell. Matt Williams would only be on base thanks to an error and be caught stealing on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

After those two innings of that All-Star Game, I was hooked. I loved how this relatively small guy could not only blow fastballs by these mighty hitters, but fool them with offspeed pitches looking stupid, too. For me, pitching was the more fascinating part of the game, and to this day, I prefer pitcher’s duels. “Good pitching” beats “good hitting” they say, and it’s true.

For many baseball fans, it seems like home runs have become the most important thing for a player to do. For me, watching all these big, bulky guys hack away just to hit the ball over the fence seemed silly to me. Sure, you had guys like Mo Vaughn that were just built like that. But I preferred to watch the more athletic and dynamic players like Garciaparra, O’Leary (people forget how good Troy was!), and John Valentin. I know most fans loved McGwire, Sosa, and the other big sluggers. But I preferred to just watch Pedro make batters look silly.

In an era in 2019 where the ball is jumping off the bat more quickly than ever, quality pitching is becoming harder to find. Just look at the 2019 Red Sox. They can hit and light up the scoreboard without any trouble most nights. But, the trouble is, so can the opposing teams. The Red Sox’s best pitcher is Chris Sale, who when he’s right, is probably as good as Pedro was. But Sale isn’t right, right now, and the only other truly good performing pitcher on the current team is Eduardo Rodriguez. I don’t really love slugfests, even though it’s fun to be on the winning side of one. I miss the days of consistent pitching keeping the team in the game so the offense could do their job.

Of course, many times when Pedro took the mound, the Red Sox offense would suddenly go silent. But, that’s because Pedro was just so good that the opposing pitcher would do his best to try and match him. That’s what Pedro’s competitiveness did to a game - it made everyone else just try to be a little bit better. Most of the time, the other team failed. That struggle to score runs always appealed to me more so than how many home runs were hit.

Not to say I don’t love home runs, of course. But, I’d love to see a little balance come back to the game. Fortunately, the game is actually blessed with quite a few very good pitchers: Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Zack Greinke are likely all headed for the Hall of Fame. Stephen Strasburg has really turned a corner and become the pitcher everyone thought he would be. Chris Sale is one of the best when he’s healthy. Heck, Patrick Corbin has suddenly turned into an incredible pitcher for the Nationals, too. And, of course, who can forget Gerrit Cole becoming dominant for the Houston Astros?

The best pitching teams right now are the Houston Astros (Verlander/Cole/Greinke) and the Nationals (Scherzer/Strasburg/Corbin). To me, the perfect World Series would be these two teams pitted against one another. Of course, the Dodgers, with their own Hall of Fame bound ace, young hurler Walker Buehler, and a solid staff of effective young and old hurlers have a good chance to the the last ones standing. I always side with pitching, but it’s hard to ignore what the Yankees, Dodgers, and Twins are doing this year bludgeoning everyone to death.

In my ten years as a baseball fan, I’ve been delving into the stats and trying to better understand the game I’ve come to love so dearly. Right now, I feel like the game needs a young phenom pitcher - or several - to absolutely dominate. I think there are a few candidates in the game right now. I don’t know who it will be that rises above the others, but as with everything in sports, offense and defense have a way of eventually overtaking the other.

I will say, though, that today’s biggest stars are definitely on the offensive side of the ball. Honestly, I’m OK with that. But for me, I’ll always be a sucker for a pitcher’s duel. I’m hoping we see a few of those in the upcoming MLB playoffs. For me, an Astros and Nationals world series with the Nats finally coming out on top (and giving that Expos fan base a sigh of relief) would be the best thing that could happen to baseball right now.

Of course, it will probably be Yankees and Dodgers, and what is more classic than that?

Who do you think will win the World Series this year? Do you think baseball is in a good place right now, or is offense just too nuts right now?

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Pedro Martinez Baseball Cards

10/4/2013

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Pedro Martinez - One of the Greatest Pitchers of All Time

by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

Without a doubt, Pedro Martinez is one of the best pitchers of the late 90's and early 2000's. Is he one of the best pitchers of all time? That's certainly up for debate. But for those that watched him pitch in his prime, there was no one more dominant than Pedro was. Yet, since his career ended in 2009 for the Phillies, Pedro Martinez cards, besides a few of his rarer autograph and memorabilia cards are fairly inexpensive when compared to the cards of other greats. This is despite the fact that he is today enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This article is both a tribute to a great pitcher and as a guide to Pedro's more valuable cardboard treasures.

1997 Donruss Signature Autographs #70

While most Pedro Martinez card collectors are interested mostly in his rookie cards and Red Sox-era cards, this is certainly one card that should be a part of any Pedro Martinez baseball card collection. I do not personally have one yet, but this is certainly on my wish list! This card is numbered to 900, so it's fairly rare. It usually sells between $45-60 USD on popular auction sites like EBay.

1997 Donruss Signature Autographs Millennium Marks #85

There is another card that is nearly identical to the previous card, except that it is part of a subset called Millennium Marks. It's numbered to 1000, and is a bit less expensive that its slightly more rare counterpart, about $40 USD. In my opinion, it's actually a nicer looking card.

1991 Classic Best Pedro Martinez Minor League Rookie Card

Many of the Pedro Martinez rookie cards on the market today are fairly inexpensive and can be had for about $3 USD, or even as little as $1 USD not including shipping charges. There is just such a large quantity of most of them today, that on sites like EBay, you can pick up lots of 20 or even 40 or 50 because they were collected so heavily back at his peak. True, they're not worthless, but hardly the investments that many envisioned.

The 1991 Classic Best Pedro Martinez #355 rookie card featuring the future superstar and Hall of Famer in a San Antonio Missions uniform is one of the few that's worth about $5-6 USD. Basically, any of the minor league cards, what many card collectors refer to as "pre-rookies" are the ones you should seek out, since the majority of his rookie cards can be purchased as part of assorted lots that you can purchase on Ebay for less than $5. I myself picked up 3 of his rookie cards in one such lot. This Classic Best card is one I'm still looking to add to my collection.

Rarest Pedro Martinez Rookie Card Ever?

The rarest Pedro Martinez rookie card is perhaps the Pedro Martinez card from 1990 Sport-Pro Great Falls Dodgers team set. It's his first ever card printed, and many copies on the open market today are PSA-graded. So, it's moderately rare, and many copies, especially graded ones, can fetch as much as $50-60 USD. If you're able to secure a copy relatively inexpensively (the best way is to find a set of Great Falls Dodgers cards that includes the Pedro card) then you should definitely pick it up.

If you're a Dodgers card collector, the set also has the first rookie card of Raul Mondesi, certainly not as valuable today as it once was, but still a rookie card of a minor star. Otherwise, Pedro is the only other star-caliber future Major Leaguer in the set.

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1991 Cal League All-Stars Pedro Martinez All-Stars - A Rookie Card Review

1990 Sport Pro Great Falls Dodgers Pedro Martinez - A Rookie Card Review

1992 Donruss “The Rookies” Pedro Martinez - A Pedro Martinez Rookie Card Review

From the Steroid Era to the Juiced Ball Era - Ten Years as a Hardcore Baseball Fan

Pedro Martinez Baseball Cards

Pedro Martinez - One of the Greatest Pitchers of All Time

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