Boston Red Sox: All-time lineup and prospects who could dethrone them

All-Time Red Sox starting pitcher – Pedro Martinez

Come on. Did you really think it would be anyone else? Pedro Martinez dominated in the steroid era. You know, the era where people were hitting 500-foot bombs for breakfast and washing it off with 700-foot bombs.

Despite pitching in that time, Martinez has somehow come out of the other side being considered possibly the most dominant pitcher in baseball history.

The right-handed pitcher spent seven years in Boston. In that time, he posted a 117-37 record, 2.52 ERA, and 0.98 WHIP. Those numbers are ridiculous.

Oh, and he struck out 1,683 batters (compared to 309 walks) in 1,383 2/3 innings. That’s unreal.

Martinez was a bit of a head case on the mound. But in the best possible way since he used it to his advantage. For example, throwing at the first batter of a game just to send a message. You could say this was stupid, or reckless, or might fire up the other team. But his numbers speak for themselves.

Yes, he only spent seven years with the team and there were a lot of other candidates. But no one is touching Martinez.

I mean, in his first year in Boston he came in second in the Cy Young voting. He clearly took offense to that, because he went on to win the award the next two seasons. Both of them included top-5 finishes in the MVP race as well (2nd then 5th).

Martinez made it to four All-Star games with Boston. He was top-22 in MVP voting five times, and top-five in Cy Young voting six times (including the two wins). He was truly untouchable with the Red Sox. If you need one win with an all-time Boston team, you’re putting Martinez on the bump to start that game.