A few weeks ago, Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. must have had a vision.  You see, his team is the defending World Series Champions, and as of right now, they are in the playoffs, ready and eager to defend their crown.

But all is not well.  His first baseman can't get on-base, his shortstop can't hit, and his pitching rotation, well, it's in shambles.

He has Cole Hamels, World Series MVP, and he's been fine.

He as JA Happ, who is about to regress to the mean.

Pedro would like to celebrate another World Series with the Phillies.

Photo by drgandy, used under creative commons license.

Well, he also has Brett "The Wife-Beater" Myers, Antonio Bastardo, and Rodrigo Lopez, but all are currently residing on the DL.

This is a problem, obviously, which is why Amaro must've had the vision.  And it showed him the key to solving all of his team's problems.

It showed him the image of a small, old pitcher with a history of injury problems and a severe lack of success in the last few years, mostly due to his fastball, which would now fit comfortably in your church's softball league.

Amaro knew, after that vision, that he had to sign Pedro Martinez.

All jokes aside, Pedro is a Phillie, and it hardly can be considered a big deal.  Pedro's a name, but his ability to get hitters out has diminished so much that his only chance to pitch in the bigs is as a fifth starter in the NL.

Because Pedro's velocity has fallen so far, he no longer can just challenge hitters with it, as he did during his glory years, when he was known as PEDRO.  Now, he has to rely more on his command -- not a good thing, since his BB rate was 3.6 last year -- and his breaking stuff -- not a bad thing, since he has good breaking stuff.

He has to totally change how he pitches.  Change speeds all the time, never fall into a pattern, work off the curveball, pitch to corners.  If he can do those things, Pedro can be a decent fifth starter.

But I'm not sure he can.  He'd old, injury-prone and not good, frankly, at least since 2005.

As for the idea that the Phils are headed down Halladay Lane?  They need him, bad, but they don't have enough to acquire him.  The Jays want top-shelf talent, preferably in the high-minors or bigs, and the Phils lack that.

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