Let me begin the humble expression of one man’s opinion with the following caveat: if the courtship of Pedro Martinez by the Phillies has either the intention of taking away from or the practical impact of diminishing the chances of Roy Halladay coming here, I’m against them signing Pedro. However, the media consensus thus far seems to suggest the opposite. And so I fail to see why signing Pedro is a bad idea.

Yes, Pedro Martinez is past his prime and there’s no question about it. Last year with the Mets, he was 5-6 with a 5.61 ERA, certainly not the stuff of a guy who amassed the 2nd-best winning percentage of any 200-game winner in modern baseball history. Yes, he is 37-years old and he’s been clocked at 91-93 mph on his fastball this week, a significant drop from the 97 mph moving heater that helped him accumulate 3000 strikeouts.

In today’s Daily News, Bob Ford suggests the Pedro signing would be bad for the Phillies, mainly because he represents something the Phillies already have. Specifically, the Phils already have an aging pitcher who occupies a middle spot in the rotation in Jamie Moyer. He quotes Charlie Manuel who said about a potential pitching acquisition “don’t get me what I already got.” But the comparison to Moyer is a poor one when you take some career stats into account.

In 17 Major League seasons, Martinez has a winning percentage of .684, an ERA of 2.91 and a WHIP of 1.051. Moyer’s pitched 23 seasons and has a winning percentage of .571 and an ERA of 4.23 with a 1.325 WHIP. Pedro Martinez has won 3 Cy Young awards. Moyer has never finished in the top-3 in Cy Young voting. In the playoffs, Martinez has a .750 winning percentage, an ERA of of 3.4 and a WHIP of 1.122. For Moyer’s part, he has a .500 playoff winning percentage, an ERA of 4.14 and a 1.137 WHIP. And for as much skeptical talk as there’s been surrounding the aforementioned 2008 record of 5-6, 5.61 for Martinez, Jamie Moyer’s ERA this season is slightly worse at 5.99.

Pedro Martinez is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and Jamie Moyer is not. I don’t put their numbers side-by-side to disparage Moyer, rather simply to demonstrate that if the question is whether the Phillies can benefit from acquiring a number 3-5 pitcher for their rotation, Martinez certainly fits the bill. Pedro probably won’t be good for more than 6 innings in any start but we know that’s exactly what we get from Moyer already (down 2 runs at the time, he left last night’s game after 5 innings pitched, having given up 6 runs).

Again, assuming Pedro’s signing doesn’t adversely affect the Hallady pursuit (or another top-of-the-rotation guy) I can’t see why it isn’t a good idea. In fact, potential savior pitcher aside, I challenge anyone to argue why a Hamels, Martinez, Blanton, Moyer and Happ rotation wouldn’t be better than what they’re currently working with.