Astasio, Pedro

Early years

Pedro Julio Astasio was born in the city of Hato Mayor del Rei on November 28, 1968. He grew up on a farm of his father, who, in addition to housekeeping, raised six children alone. Their mother died when Pedro was eight years old. Since childhood, baseball has been the main passion of the boy. In the field of view of the Scouts of Major League Baseball, he fell while still in high school. Immediately after its completion, in 1987, Astasio signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers ^{[1] [2]} .

A few weeks later, Pedro made his debut in professional baseball. His first team were the "Tigres de Lisey", speaking in the Dominican Winter League. He played only one match for them, but later, becoming a Major League Baseball player, he returned to play for them every winter until 1996. During performances in the "Tigres" Astasio won thirteen victories with ten defeats. In the spring of 1988, Pedro began training at the campo las Campos las Palmas. The training center was established by the Dodgers scout Ralph Avila a year earlier. In the summer league games, Astasio won four matches and lost two, his ERA transmittance indicator was 2.08. In the spring of 1989, he was transferred to a farm club "Los Angeles" in the United States ^{[1] [2]} .

Pedro spent the next three years in the lower leagues. In 1989, he joined the Gulf Coast Coast League team. By 1991, he had reached the level of the AA League, where he played for the San Antonio Missions . Faced with a higher level batter, Astasio won four games with eleven losses with an ERA of 4.78. However, the Dodgers coaching staff was pleased with his game and in the spring of 1992 invited the player to the pre-season fees ^{[1] [2]} .

At the training camp, Pedro showed a good game, but closer to the start of the regular season, he was sent to the AAA-league farm club Albuquerque Dux . There he retrained from the starting pitcher to the receiver . With the new role, he coped with difficulty, but after a number of events was in the main part of the "Dodgers" in Major League Baseball. Because of the riots in Los Angeles , which lasted from April 29 to May 4, a number of games the team was postponed. For this reason, in early July, the team had four paired games (doubleheader ( English doubleheader ), a situation where the team plays two matches in one day) for six days. The coaching staff of the team called Astasio from the farm club as a starting pitcher for one of these matches ^{[2] [3]} .

Major League Baseball

Los Angeles Dodgers

As part of the Dodgers, Pedro made his debut on July 3, 1992. He played a full game against Philadelphia , ending in a 2-0 victory. As the game progresses, he threw ten strikeouts , setting a team record for beginners. Five days later, Astasio returned to Albuquerque. In the course of the regular season, he returned to the Dodgers twice, playing in three games in August and seven in September. Four of the eleven games played by Pedro ended in victories with a dry score. His main pitch was fastball , also in his arsenal were kervball and change-up . He often served in the inside of the strike zone , which is why he often hit the ball in the batters and twice in his career he became the league leader on this indicator ^{[2] [4]} .

After spring training in 1993, Astasio became the fifth pitcher of the team's starting rotation. At the start of the championship, he played not the best way. Dodgers head coach Tom Lasorda believed that the reason was the lack of control over the pitch. By the end of July, Pedro was the team's worst starting pitcher with an ERA of 4.74. Only in the last two months of the regular season, he was able to demonstrate a game close to his debut season. In the end, Astasio scored seven wins with three defeats and became the only starter of the team with their positive difference ^{[2] [4]} .

In the spring of 1994, doctors discovered he had a heart murmur, after which Pedro was suspended from training with the team. In the end, they were considered insignificant, but he missed most of the pre-season fees. Nevertheless, the Astasio Championship began in the first team and made eleven strikeouts in the first game for itself. Since mid-June, he conducted a six-game series, during which his transmittance was only 1.88. The decline this time came closer to the end of the championship, which was shortened due to the strike announced by the players union. Pedro finished the year with six wins with eight losses and the highest ERA in the team - 4.29 ^{[2] [5]} .

He continued to demonstrate an unstable game, failing five games early in the 1995 season. Only at the end of May Pedro won his first victory, followed by five defeats. After that, he was transferred to the team bullpen . In the role of the receiver, Astasio played better (ERA 3.40 vs. 4.82). Los Angeles Times columnist Bob Naytengeil suggested that the player’s problems lie not in his skills, but in the field of psychology. As a result of the regular season, the Dodgers won the division for the first time since 1988 and reached the playoffs. In the first round, “Los Angeles” lost to Cincinnati Reds in three matches. Astasio played in each of them, holding a total of 3 1/3 innings , not missing a single point ^{[2] [6]} .

The 1996 season was Pedro's best since its debut. He played 211 2/3 innings in the regular season with a transmittance of 3.44. Lack of support from the batters of the team led to the fact that for eight wins Pedro had nine defeats. The Los Angeles Times called three factors that allowed Astasio to improve his game: he began to act faster on the pitching hill (previously he was one of the slowest players in the National League ), he began to trust his fastball instead of twisted innings and began to play less in public . Together with Hideo Nomo , Ismael Valdés and Ramon Martínez, they made up the best league pitching team. Dodgers finished second in the division and again reached the playoffs, where they lost to Atlanta in three games. Pedro took part in the second match of the series ^{[2] [6]} .

Before the start of the next season in “Los Angeles” was replaced by the head coach. Instead, Lasorda, who led the club for twenty-one years, was Bill Russell . Astasio started the championship with three wins, but then lost seven starts in a row. During the match with the Cardinals , Pedro missed five points in the first four innings and was replaced. After that, on the bench, he almost got into a fight with Russell. They were separated by the team coach Joey Amalfitano . Astasio made a public apology after the game, but was later fined by the Dodgers. On August 19, he was exchanged at Colorado Rockies for second-base player Eric Young ^{[2] [7]} .

Colorado Rockies

Pedro's debut in the new team took place in Houston . He spent 6 2/3 innings on the field, making eight strikeouts. He then won five games in a row, making 12 strikeouts in the Braves game and setting a personal record. One of the Colorado coaches, Frank Funk, called Astasio the best pitcher who ever wore the Rockies uniform. After the end of the season, Pedro received the status of a free agent and was one of the most sought-after players on the market. As a result, he concluded a new four-year contract with the team for an amount in excess of $ 24 million ^{[2] [8]} .

At the start of the 1998 season, Pedro missed twenty-seven wounds in twenty innings (ERA 12.15). Rockies head coach Don Baylor explained the player’s failure with the return problems with the filing control. According to the results of the championship, Astasio became the worst starting pitcher of the National League. At the same time, despite thirty-nine missed home runs , he scored thirteen victories with fourteen defeats, for the third year in a row spent at least two hundred innings on the field and set the club record, making one hundred seventy strikes. In the course of the season, Pedro hardly adapted his style of play to the peculiarities of the high-altitude home course Kurs-Field ^{[2] [8]} .

The following year was the most controversial in Astasio's career. He had a lot of playing time, despite the greater number of missed home runs. Pedro also distinguished himself in offense, knocking out twenty hits . At the same time, on August 12, he was arrested on charges of domestic violence after a quarrel with his wife, with whom at that time they lived separately ^[9] . The club and the league did not disqualify the player, and three days later he returned to the pitch in a winning game against Montreal . While Rokiz dropped to last place in the division, Pedro repeated Kevin Ritz's club record, scoring seventeen victories. In addition, he established new team achievements in the number of innings played (232), full games (7), and made strikeouts (210) ^{[2] [10]} .

Pedro’s problems with the law were far from resolved. On January 28, 2000, he pleaded guilty to the attack and received a two-year trial period, avoiding imprisonment. Soon, the Department of Immigration and Naturalization notified Astasio that he could be deported from the country ^[11] . He received permission to withdraw his confession in order to be able to stay in the country after the court hearing, scheduled for July, and then postponed to November. Despite this, Pedro was the starting pitcher for the game on the opening day of the championship. After two losing matches, followed by six wins in a row. In total, in the season he won twelve matches with nine lost. Astasio almost completely missed September after damaging the oblique abdominal muscles. A few weeks after the end of the season, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, which had troubled him for two years ^{[2] [12]} .

On November 13, at the trial, Pedro pleaded guilty to a single case of domestic violence and was sentenced to six months probation. In the spring of 2001, the immigration authorities refused to deport the athlete. Season, which became the tenth for Astasio in the league, has developed unevenly. After a confident start with ERA 1.93 in four games, there was a recession. In the next fifteen games, he scored only three victories. The team for the second year in a row went in last place in the division and, reducing the payroll, traded Pedro to Houston Astros ^{[2] [12]} .

End of career

In the offseason, he was diagnosed with a rupture of the articular lip of the shoulder. Astasio refused surgical intervention because he was in the status of a free agent and in the event of an operation could have problems signing a new contract. The third club in his career was the New York Mets , with which Pedro signed a one-year contract for $ 5 million, with the possibility of extension for the 2003 season ^[13] . In the new team, he reunited with partner Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza . At the start of the season, Pedro scored three victories in a row. Journalist Rafael Hermoso wrote that the team was all impressed with Astasio's willingness to play and the way he set an example for young players. On August 6, he played the full game in Milwaukee , allowing his opponents to knock out just three hits. After that, the pain in the shoulder intensified and Pedro unsuccessfully played nine games in which his transmittance was 10.80. The 2002 season was the last in which he played a lot ^{[2] [14]} .

In 2003, Astasio played just seven games for the Mets. In the summer of next year, he signed a contract with “ Boston ” and played for him five games in September, but did not get into the club's bid for the playoffs. In 2005, Pedro spent twenty-two games for the Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres . As part of the latter, he was the only time in his career to be the starting pitcher for the playoff match. In the second game of the series with the Cardinals, Astasio played four innings, allowed his opponents to score four wounds and was defeated. He completed his career in the Major League Baseball in 2006 as part of the Washington National ^{[2] [14]} .

At the end of the performances, Astasio was in fourth place among pitchers from the Dominican Republic in terms of the number of matches won. He also became the fourth representative of the country who played at least 2,000 innings in Major League Baseball ^{[2] [14]} .

After baseball

After the end of his career, Pedro returned to the Dominican Republic, where he resides on a ranch near San Pedro de Macoris . In 2013, he returned to professional sports for the first time when Rokiz invited him as an assistant coach for the pre-season team time ^{[2] [14]} . On October 7, 2018, Astasio was elected to the Hall of Sports Glory of the Dominican Republic ^[15] .

• Nowlin, Bill; Parker, Paul. The Major League Baseball Around the Colorado Rockies. - Phoenix, Arizona: Society for American Baseball Research, Inc., 2018. - 272 p. - ISBN 978-1-943816-76-7 .

• Statistics on baseball-reference.com (English)
• Statistics on baseball-almanac.com (English)