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The man behind the story that never ends. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

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Andrew Friedman finally broke his public silence on the Pedro Martinez situation, sort of. While he didn't say yes, he also didn't say no. Here was his statement to Marc Lancaster:

"We have a responsibility to do our due diligence," Friedman said. "I think a lot more is being made of it publicly than really exists."

Basically, Friedman is saying something that he has told me many times before; If he doesn't explore every option to improve his ball club then he should be fired because he wouldn't be doing his job. Even if there was a lot more to this situation, Friedman wouldn't give up the goods because he's not that guy. Very rarely do you hear the Rays admit public interest in a player, and it's even more rare that you can pinpoint a trade partner i.e. Matt Joyce and the Tigers.

Right now I'm guessing there really is a lot more being made of the situation because of the team's place in the standings. If ther Rays were 11 games over .500 instead of one game, adding Pedro Martinez would be like icing on the cake instead of the cure for a disease. I've said it a few times in the past few weeks; the addition of Pat Burrell, Jason Bartlett, Scott Kazmir and Chad Bradford will be like trades and signings of their own. If Scott Kazmir is really back to his old self, he will be 10x more effective than Pedro Martinez would be in any role. Let's just hope that he is really the Kazmir of yester-year.