Petey Preps and the Boss Breaks His Silence

(Note: Sorry this is late, was trying to close the deal on some postseason tickets.)

As you may have heard, Pedro Martinez pitched last night. Went 5 innings, allowed 4 earned runs on 4 hits and 1 walk, fanned 7 batters along the way.

Like everyone else, I'm pretty much in the cautiously optimistic camp.

On the one hand, it's hard to watch somebody no-hit a team for four innings and be completely discouraged. Ditto somebody who musters a 1.00 WHIP and Ks 7 along the way to 15 outs.

But there are mitigating factors here. One, of course, is the curious case of Pedro's disappearing fastball.

In his first start as a Met, Pedro managed to dial his heater up to 95 MPH. You'd be forgiven if you'd forgotten that though. In the 52 starts since Opening Day 2005, Pedro's velocity has slipped to 91-92, then 89-91, until now, alarmingly, 83-85.

We all expect his velocity to rise with time. He hasn't sustained an arm injury in his Met tenure, so there's no reason he shouldn't be able to get back there, again, with time.

But as we all know, time is the one commodity we're not trading in right now. Pedro's got one last tuneup left. He wants to go 6 or 7 innings. I want that too, but I also want to see a little more life on his fastball.

Because you can fool a bunch of overeager kids with a strict diet of offspead stuff, but that alone won't cut it against the batter batting orders we can expect to face in the playoffs. The Phillies, Dodgers and Cardinals are all excellent to good to decent hitting teams... the Padres, not so much.

Going into his last tune-up before the playoffs begin, I want to see Pedro go 6 innings and have just slightly more zip on his fastball. I'm talking like 85-87, not 83-85.

What I want to see is steady improvement. This last start qualifies as that. His control was on, his pitch count was up. If we see similar progress in his next start, I see no reason why he can't keep improving and return to being the pitcher he was in April.

Remember, back then he had only had a 7-inning Spring Training tune up. This time around he's had 8 innings. His control is there, his speed and stamina aren't.

He's got one more start until the show really begins. If you go back to April, you'll see that what he needed then was his 7 Spring Training innings and another start to get back to regular. Let's hope that's all he needs this time, too.

The Boss.

You know, I know that George Steinbrenner is supposed to be this big tough guy, but the truth is I don't really know where that reputation comes from.

Well, that's only half true. I know about him firing and hiring Billy Martin a bunch of times. I know about him hiring a private dick to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield. I know about him getting suspended from baseball for a little while.

But I don't really have any personal experience with that George Steinbrenner. Those are just stories to me.

These days, Georgie plays his cards closer to his vest. He's handed more day-to-day responsibility over to Brian Cashman, and while he may still demand excellence on the field, he doesn't come out with absurd quotes or anything like that.

And he hasn't broken with that newer, softer Steinbrenner image today, but he has made a certain prediction that will be of interest to Mets fans.

"We're going to win (the World Series)," Steinbrenner told The Associated Press in a recent phone interview. "We're going all the way."

You heard it here first, Mets fans. As if you needed added incentive to want to beat the Yankees in a repeat Subway Series, there's Old Man Steinbrenner stirring the pot.

What else is he going to say, you ask?

Well, he might have said nothing at all. It's what he's done the entire rest of the season after all.

But this is the challenge set before us. We know the Yankees are the most talented team in the American League. We know the same is true of the Mets in the Senior Circuit.

There's a long way to go between here and there, for both clubs, but the challenge has been issued right from the top. There's blood in the water now.

Man. There's really nothing like October baseball. Le's go!

- A.F.O.M.G.