Al Bello/Getty Images

Pedro Martinez's brief appearance in the WBC proved he might still have something left in the tank.

PUDGE AND PEDRO -- WORTH THE RISK?

By Steve Phillips, ESPN

Both Pedro Martinez and Ivan Rodriguez could help major league teams this season. After watching Martinez last year, I had real doubts whether he'd be a competitive major league pitcher again.

But after seeing his two three-inning outings at the World Baseball Classic, the second of which came on two days' rest, I believe that his shoulder is healthy. He showed the ability to bounce back from one outing to the next. The velocity on his fastball was in the range of 90 mph. He also had good bite on his curveball, and his changeup is as deceptive as ever. When Pedro's shoulder was bothering him the past couple of years, he would drop his shoulder in his delivery. He wasn't doing that at all in Puerto Rico during the WBC.

Another good sign was that he was dancing and smiling again, something you didn't see much in New York last season. His father's illness and subsequent death took a toll on him, and it has taken him some time to recover. He still has a heavy heart, but he's starting to come out of it and clearly wants to compete again as a major league pitcher.

His preference is to pitch for a contender in the National League with the hopes of adding a World Series ring for an NL team to go with the one he won with the Boston Red Sox in 2004. I think the Mets or the Dodgers would make sense for him. I know the Mets reportedly have no interest in him, but both teams have questions at the back end of their rotations that Pedro could help answer. Really, he's a fifth starter right now.

He came out of the bullpen for the Dominican team, but the challenges of getting him warmed up in a timely fashion and bouncing back on short rest consistently would prevent him from doing that over the course of a big league season.

I have no doubt that Pudge Rodriguez still has some baseball left to play, too. I had a conversation with him recently, and he addressed all the issues that teams seem to have with him these days.

According to him, the idea that he would sign a deal only if he were the every-day catcher is false. Although he thinks he could still play every day, he feels that any role a club would have for him is better than the one he has currently, which is no role at all. Some clubs also have the idea that they don't have the money to sign a player with his pedigree. He explained that, like any player, he'd like to get the best deal possible, but acknowledged that he has made a lot of money in his career and that he's not making any money at all right now, so any deal he'd get would be better than nothing.

Maybe the most difficult worry for Rodriguez to hear about is people saying they don't think he handles a pitching staff very well. That issue caused him to raise an eyebrow. He says he's not really sure where that comes from, pointing to the fact that he has taken multiple pitching staffs to the playoffs. But he acknowledged that if it's a concern that teams have, he'd be willing to talk about it and show that he does put in the time and effort to help develop pitchers properly.

Pudge is as humble and hungry as I've ever seen him. He even caught in winter ball this year to try to showcase his abilities. He obviously had a strong performance in Puerto Rico's game with Panama at the WBC, going 4-for-4 with two home runs, a double and 4 RBIs. I feel that teams such as the Marlins and Astros could clearly use him this season.

But the Marlins seem as if they are going with John Baker, the young, left-handed-hitting catcher. The Astros apparently are going to go with Humberto Quintero and J.R. Towles as their one-two punch. The Mets are another team that could use Rodriguez's services. They have some questions about their starting pitching and could use Pudge to improve their offense. He would clearly be an upgrade over Brian Schneider at the plate.

So we have two future Hall of Famers desperate to play at the major league level and, in my view, they are both very capable of performing. But somebody has to give them a job. I think they both helped their causes at the WBC.

Whether it's enough to get them signed remains to be seen. Although Pedro's performance, especially his high strike percentage, was impressive, the Dominican team has been eliminated, which means -- unfortunately for Martinez -- that he doesn't have any more chances to show that he still can pitch. Rodriguez has the opposite problem. If a team is going to sign him, it would like to have him in camp as soon as possible to start working with the pitching staff. Puerto Rico's success actually might hurt his chances.

Whether they like it or not, it could be the end of the road for these guys and we might not see them again until five years later when they both show up on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Past Baseball Tonight Clubhouses: March 10 | March 9 | March 8 | March 5 | March 4

BEST OF THE BLOGS

Each day, ESPN.com's contributors offer a wide array of thoughts and analysis in their blogs. Jayson Stark saw all the high numbers on the field and had to remind himself he was watching baseball, not football:

STRIKE ONE -- NOSE TACKLE AT SHORTSTOP DEPT.: I'm sitting in the press box in Lakeland, Fla. I'm looking at the travel roster for the New York Yankees.

The Yankees, as you've probably heard someplace, are famous for all their uniform numbers in the single digits. But not on this day, they're not.

Apparently, Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio are all off at the World Baseball Classic because the numbers I'm perusing are practically in triple digits.

There's your starting shortstop -- No. 90, Ramiro Pena. There's reliever Alfredo Aceves, No. 91 in your program. And there's backup infielder Eduardo Nunez, wearing Shaun Ellis' No. 92.

For the rest of this entry from Jayson Stark's blog, click here.

---

Buster Olney notes just how young the Oakland rotation might end up being this season:

When spring training began, the odds of Brett Anderson and/or Trevor Cahill and/or Vin Mazzaro being part of the Oakland Athletics' rotation on April 6 were roughly equal to that of Bernie Madoff getting the call to be Treasury secretary.

But as the days go by, and Anderson, Cahill and Mazzaro keep demonstrating superlative talent and getting hitters out, the chances of at least a couple of them opening the season in the Oakland rotation are getting better. "We are open-minded to the possibility," said Athletics general manager Billy Beane. "We haven't decided which way to go.

"No. 1, they are very talented kids. And No. 2, this might be the best way to go."

Usually, the Athletics would take a conservative route with their best young prospects because, as a small-market franchise, exploiting the financial advantages of fielding young, talented players is a crucial function. The Athletics and other clubs in their economic class will usually wait until players pass through benchmark days related to arbitration and free agency so as to maximize the value of the player.

For the rest of this entry from Buster Olney's blog, click here.