The Roger Clemens Factor
In the seven years Pedro played for Boston he showed up early for spring training zero times. Tuesday Pedro arrived nine days early to Mets Spring Training camp. Why? The very same reason Roger Clemens showed up for his Spring Training debut with Toronto in the best shape of his career. Clemens used the bitter ending with the Red Sox as a launching pad for his "I'll show them" anger stored up, and it worked; for Clemens. Sadly it will not work for Pedro. Pedro came to camp (late) in all varieties of different shape. This began after his shoulder problems reared their head in 2001, and all of the off-season workouts or rest never returned Pedro's dominance on the mound. Pedro has lost speed, confidence, accuracy, and most importantly his un-hittable aura. No amount of working out will give that back to Pedro and Mets Fans should not be expecting a Cy Young performance from Pedro ever again because of it.