FanHouse Luis Mendoza

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Dear Joe Blanton,

Hello there and welcome to your new home, the city of Philadelphia. It's a wonderful place to live, and I can't tell you how excited we are to have you as the newest member of the Philadelphia Phillies. I hope you enjoyed your flight to New York with your new teammates and got to know them pretty well, they'll be looking to you for support tonight.

Now, I don't want to put any added pressure on you, as I'm sure pitching on a new team is stressful enough, but tonight's game is rather important. You see, Joe, tonight we're playing our division rivals the New York Mets. They don't like us much. Something about us making up seven games in the standings last September and winning the division.

Seems the Mets are out for revenge this year, because in the last few weeks they've gobbled up all the space that was seperating us from them in the division, and now we're tied for first place with them. If we lose tonight, we'll be in second place.

We don't want this to happen, obviously, or else we wouldn't have traded for you! So go out there tonight and win us a ball game, would you? If you don't, I wouldn't bother coming back to Philadelphia with the team. The fans here are quite passionate, and they will kill you. Seriously.

No pressure!

Have a good night,
Pat Gillick

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Remember not too long ago when Pedro Martinez was the most dominant pitcher in baseball? His rise started way back in 1997, in his last season in Montreal, but where he really took off was in Beantown.

The seven seasons Pedro spent pitching for the Red Sox in Boston were pretty amazing. He went 117-37 while there, and aside from his 3.90 ERA in 2004, he never had an ERA over 2.89. Think about that for a second, and while you're doing that make sure you remind yourself that Pedro only missed a significant amount of time once in his time in Boston, making only 18 starts in 2001 (and going 7-3 with a 2.39 ERA in those starts).

How many other pitchers have been dominant over that length of time? Bob Gibson from 1963-70? Sandy Koufax? Sandy had some good seasons while with the Dodgers, but I would only say he dominated in his final four years there.

No, Pedro was the greatest pitcher I've ever seen, and I say was because the Pedro we've seen pitching for the Mets the last few seasons is not the Pedro I remember.

Will he be able to rekindle the spark tonight?

It looks like Sidney Ponson knew what he was doing when he chose the Rangers over a number of other teams who were miraculously interested in services. No sooner did Sir Sidney report to Rangers camp on Monday, when the news was announced that Brandon McCarthy is going to be out anywhere from four to six weeks with inflammation in his forearm.

While an initial MRI showed no ligament damage, McCarthy is expected to be sidelined four to six weeks because of a problem that has bothered him throughout spring training and cut short his only appearance. The 6-foot-7 right-hander apparently won't need surgery.

McCarthy had been scratched from two starts this spring because of his forearm, but it was the type of injury the team was sure would go away with some rest. Obviously, they were wrong. This will be the third time McCarthy has had to go on the disabled list since coming to Texas from the White Sox in a trade before last season.

He spent time three weeks on the DL last June thanks to a blister, and then spent more time on it in July thanks to a fracture in his shoulder blade.

As for who is going to take Brandon's place in the rotation, it will probably be either the previously mentioned Ponson, or rookie right hander Luis Mendoza. Considering the Rangers aren't going to win the division this season, I'd go with Mendoza myself.