Pedro Martinez glad to pitch in - 美國職棒

Pedro Martinez glad to pitch in - Special assistant takes hands-on approach

http://t.co/I8ajAkeebI

The job description of “special assistant to the general manager’’ can
often get a little fuzzy.

「GM特助」這個職位名稱跟工作內容的關聯有些模糊。

Some special assistants don’t do a whole lot of heavy lifting, while others
never lift a finger unless it’s a chicken finger at a social function.

有一些特別助理沒啥重責大任，有些除了參加活動之外啥都不幹。

Pedro Martinez is still in his rookie season as a special assistant to Ben
Cherington and the Red Sox front office, but it does not sound as if he’s
been sitting around all that much. He’s due to pay a visit to the rookie
Gulf Coast League in Fort Myers soon, he’s made multiple visits to Triple-A
Pawtucket, Double-A Portland and the Red Sox’ baseball academy in the
Dominican Republic, and his to-do and already-done list includes work with
Jon Lester, Jose Iglesias, Daniel Bard, Rubby De La Rosa and Drake Britton.

Pedro Martinez再次成為菜鳥，在本季加入了紅襪的FO，為Ben Cherington做事。不過
Pedro並沒有一直坐在辦公室，他馬上就要去視察位於Fort Myers的GCL，過去也數度拜訪
過Pawtucket、Portland以及紅襪在多明尼加設立的棒球學院。Pedro完成的工作與接下來
的工作包含：Jon Lester、Jose Iglesias、Daniel Bard、Rubby De La Rosa和Drake
Britton。

“They ask a lot of questions, those guys (in the front office); they have an
interest in knowing how things look,” Martinez said yesterday. He has access
to all the reports he could care to pore over but “sometimes reports are not
what you really see in the game; results are only numbers,” he said. So,
Martinez prefers to see and talk to pitchers himself. And sometimes not even
pitchers.

「很多FO的人都會問我問題，他們想知道情況看起來如何。」Pedro擁有觀看所有報告的
權限，「但是有時報告寫的東西和實際看到的完全不同，結果也只有數字。」所以Pedro
喜歡親自去看看比賽，也會去和投手們談談─有時甚至不是投手。

Before Iglesias came up to the big leagues to stay, the third baseman/shortstop
had been pouting about his plight in Pawtucket.

在鷹俠站穩大聯盟之前，他曾對於被下放這件事不爽。

“I knew being able to speak Spanish, he’d relate to me and say what he was
feeling, and it’s exactly like I thought,” Martinez said after making a
promotional appearance handing out Good Humor ice cream across the street
from Back Bay station. “He was feeling a little bummed out from hitting .400
and being sent down — it’s kind of a letdown. I knew that he wanted to
express some of that. As soon as we had like half an hour together, he was
completely open and I was able to penetrate his mind and remind him that
whatever he overcame before, coming from Cuba and the difficulties he faced,
were a lot tougher than the situation he was in.

Pedro在Back Bay station發放Good Humor冰淇淋的活動結束後表示：「我知道用西班牙
語能讓他感覺和我比較貼近一些，告訴我他的真正想法。事情正如我所料。」

「他對於打了.400卻被下放這件事很沮喪─我知道他想表達一些關於這方面的問題。我跟
他相處了一小時半之後他終於完全敞開心胸，我也得以完全了解他的想法。」

「我提醒他，他曾經克服了逃離古巴等等的困困難遠比這個情況棘手。」

“That’s why I could actually get to him, I told him, ‘Hey, I’ve been
through the same situation’ (with the Dodgers). And then he became upbeat
right away.”

「我告訴他『嘿，我在道奇也遇過一模一樣的情況。』之後他就變的很樂觀了。這就是為
什麼我能讓他敞開心胸。」

Martinez took a personal interest in Britton, the talented young right-hander
arrested for DUI after a high-speed chase in Fort Myers in March. There’s no
way to prove cause and effect, but Britton has pitched well of late for
Portland after his visits with Martinez.

Pedro個人對於曾經酒駕被捕的Drake Britton很有興趣。我們無法證明其中的關連性，不
過在Pedro拜訪Portland之後Britton就開始拿出好表現。

“Britton was someone I really wanted to see after everything that happened
and I chose to go specifically because of what happened to him because he wasn
’t doing what I expected him to do, given the talent he has and being
healthy,” Martinez said. “I’ve been able to talk to him a lot and I’ve
helped him relax a little bit and he’s been pitching better. I’m extremely
happy I took that trip.”

「經過所有事之後，我特別想看看Britton─我特別找他的原因是他的表現不如我對他的
期待。他很有天份，也很健康。」

「我和他談了很多，我也幫助他放鬆一些。現在他頭的很不錯，我很高興我踏上了那次的
旅程。」

Not everyone has opened up yet to Martinez. He wants to help Bard any way he
can.

不過不是所有人都已經對Pedro敞開心胸。Pedro很想盡他所能幫助Bard。

“But I will need him to kind of let me in,” Martinez said, “because I don’
t know him that well and he’s a little different than the others. He’s the
kind of person you can talk to, but you don’t know when is the right time to
approach him.’’

「但是我需要他讓我參與。」

「因為我跟他沒那麼熟，他也和其他人有些不同─他是那種能跟你談話，但是你不知道什
麼時候該深入討論他的那種人。」

Right now, Martinez is as perplexed as anyone about why the Red Sox pitching
has tailed off after a strong start. The injury to Clay Buchholz is a big
part of that story, but Martinez cannot help there. Lester’s slump is
something else. Martinez is eager to get to work with pitching coach Juan
Nieves, of whom he is a big fan, to figure out what’s going on with the
lefty.

對於紅襪投手近來不如季初的表現，Pedro跟大家一樣困惑。Clay Buchholz的受傷是原因
之一，這部份Pedro幫不上忙；Lester的部份則值得探討。Pedro很想要跟他很喜歡的投手
教練Juan Nieves合作，看看Lester到底是怎麼一回事。

“I’m pretty sure Juan is right on top of it, he’s aware what’s going on,
so getting together with him will probably make four eyes more accurate than
just two,” Martinez said. “I want to get my nose in the video room and see
if I can find something that’s different on Lester. Around the mental
aspect, I’m pretty sure he can overcome that; he’s one of the strongest
players mentally that I can see. I think he’s going to bounce back.”

「我很確定Juan已經掌握狀況了，他會掌握事情的洞像。不過跟他合作的話，一共就有四
個眼睛在看─應該會比兩隻眼睛準。我也想去看看投球影片，知道Lester哪裡不一樣。」

「致於心理層面，我確定他有能力克服。他是我遇過心理素質最好的投手之一，我相信他
能谷底反彈。」

Martinez believes Lester is “just going through a little funk like everyone
else would in the middle of the season. If it’s happening to him now, it’s
probably the right time because the second half is about to start in a little
bit and I think the All-Star Game break can help him and get back to normal.”

Pedro相信Lester只是和大多球員一樣季中狀況有點跑掉了。「如果真是這樣，那發生時間
是很OK的，因為下半季要來了─我相信明星週放假後能讓他回到正常狀態。」

Martinez will meet with Cherington and Co. during the current homestand, then
head back out to work.

Pedro在這次主場系列中會和Cherington與公司人物見面，接著再回去工作。

“It all depends what they want,” he said.

「工作內容就看他們要我做什麼。」

The Red Sox want a lot out of Martinez. Sounds like they’re getting it.

紅襪需要Pedro幫很多事情，聽起來他們有得到幫助。」

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"HARD WORK BEATS TALENT
WHEN TALENT FAILS TO WORK HARD."

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