ORLANDO -- Pound for pound, pitch for pitch, Dominican Pedro Martínez has been the best Latin American pitcher of all time in Major League Baseball.

Martínez, a three-time Cy Young winner who enjoyed one of the most impressive career stretches in the history of American baseball, will enter the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Sunday, where he will join compatriot Juan Marichal. They are the only Hispanic pitchers who have been admitted to this exclusive baseball fraternity.

In total, 14 Hispanic players have plaques in Cooperstown, but Martínez and Marichal, Puerto Ricans Roberto Clemente and Roberto Alomar, Venezuelan Luis Aparicio, Panamanian Rod Carew and Cuban Tony Pérez are the only ones who earned their place thanks to the vote of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).

Puerto Rican Orlando Cepeda was inducted by the Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee; Cubans Martín Dihigo, José Méndez and Cristóbal Torriente were inducted by a Special Committee on the Negro Leagues; and three broadcasters received the Ford Frick award: Argentinian Eloy “Buck” Canel, Ecuadorian Jaime Jarrín and Cuban Rafael “Felo” Ramírez.

Martínez and Marichal are the two main options when it comes to determining the best Latino pitcher of all time. Marichal, a nine-time All-Star, had a 243-142 record, six 20-win seasons, an ERA of 2.89, 242 complete games and 2,303 strikeouts in 3,507 innings.

Martínez, an eight-time All-Star, had a 219-100 record, a 2.93 ERA and 3,154 strikeouts in 2827.1 innings.

Martínez -- who pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies -- won five ERA titles and three strikeout titles and helped the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series and break the franchise's 86-year championship drought.

The new Cooperstown inductee was one of eight finalists in an online fan poll to choose the four greatest living players of all time, as part of an MLB promotion that took place in April and May. The four winners -- outfielders Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, catcher Johnny Bench and pitcher Sandy Koufax -- were announced during last week's All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

Martínez was selected as one of the four greatest players in Red Sox franchise history, along with countryman David Ortiz and legendary outfielders Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski.

But it's the era in which they played that really gives Martínez the edge over Marichal. Marichal pitched between 1960 and 1975, an era dominated by pitching, while Martínez was active between 1992 and 2009, at the height of the steroid era and the greatest offensive explosion of all time.

In the seven years between 1997 and 2003, Martínez had a 118-36 record, a 2.20 ERA, 1,761 strikeouts in 1,408 innings (11.26 K/9 IP), a WHIP of 0.94 and an average of 5.59 strikeouts per walk. Martínez has the best adjusted ERA (154) of all time for starting pitchers with at least 1,000 innings. Marichal's adjusted ERA is 123. (Unlike regular ERA, higher is better with adjusted ERA.)

Adjusted ERA (or ERA+) attempts to establish the degree of difference between a pitcher's earned run average and that of his fellow pitchers. Adjusted ERA is calculated by dividing the league average ERA by a pitcher's ERA and then multiplying the result by 100 (plus a couple of other minor factors). For example: In the year 2000, Martínez posted an American League-leading 1.74 ERA while the AL average was 4.91, and the Dominican pitcher an ERA+ of 291.

Great Panamanian closer Mariano Rivera (13-time All-Star, 2.21 ERA and all-time saves leader with 654) has the best adjusted ERA in major league history (205) and is a strong candidate to challenge Martínez and Marichal in the debate over the greatest Latino pitcher.

But even the best closer of all time falls short in comparison to the starting pitchers.

Rivera, who pitched 19 years with the New York Yankees, will be eligible to appear on the Cooperstown ballot in 2019 and will most likely receive a vote similar to, or above, the 91.1 percent that Martinez received this year from the BBWAA.

In terms of performance and age, right-handed Venezuelan Félix Hernández is the likeliest candidate to dethrone Martinez in the future. Hernández, 29, has a 136-97 record, 3.06 ERA and 2,068 strikeouts in 2,184 innings in 11 seasons with the Seattle Mariners. King Félix won the Cy Young Award in 2010 and finished second in 2009 and 2014; he also won two ERA titles and has made the All-Star Game in six of the last seven years.

But for now, Martínez is the greatest Latin American pitcher of all time.