Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Rocket's Red Glare: Clemens Back to Yankees

Rocket's Red Glare: Clemens Back to Yankees

Rotation got problems? Easy solution: sign a Hall of Famer!

Roger Clemens, owner of 348 career wins, has decided to return to the American League and to Bronx pinstripes, after three years (and a 38-18 record) with his "hometown" Houston Astros.

Clemens announced he has agreed to a minor league contract with the Yankees and most likely will join the Bombers after several minor league starts help him get into game shape.

Your thoughts, Bauxites?

Posted by Mick Doherty on Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 04:05 PM EDT.

Rocket's Red Glare: Clemens Back to Yankees | 20 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Ron - Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 04:34 PM EDT (#167356) #

Clemens will be 45 in August. Sooner or later age will eventually catch up to him. This could go both ways. He might be a stud or a complete bust.
But the main question is: Did the Yankees improve their ballclub by signing Clemens today? I'm leaning towards yes.

mathesond - Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 04:46 PM EDT (#167357) #

Did the Yankees improve their ballclub by signing Clemens today?

My rule of thumb is, whenever you add a player and the only cost, talent-wise, is the roster spot of the 25th best player (which may or may not be the 12th best pitcher), then yes, the ballclub should be improved.

Now, if they had to give up, say, Hideki Matsui would they be improved? That could make for interesting, if pointless, debate. Or if they decide to send Hughes back down to the minors to make room for Roger, well, then there's room for discussion. But who am I to deal with hypotheticals?

John Northey - Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 06:32 PM EDT (#167358) #

I'm glad to see Clemens in the majors again as I love the idea of seeing him get over 350 wins. Sadly, it is with one of the two teams the Jays will be chasing. Ah well, as a baseball fan it is always good to see a great keep going until he can no longer go.

VBF - Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 08:38 PM EDT (#167359) #

This drama queen deserves little more than a turning of a head.

So what, he plays home games only for a fraction of a season?

At least he knows how to play owners. Why sign in February when you can find the richest, most pitching starved team, and ask the world from them. He should have asked for a chunk of New York City too.

Truly the Gene Simmons of baseball. (And this comes from a big fan of Gene).

royshowell - Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 09:18 PM EDT (#167361) #

I'm truly sick to death of this guy's diva-horsecrap ("Oh, shall I play...oh, shall I not play...oh, what shall I do?). Here's hoping he gets his head handed to him every time he takes the mound.

Nolan - Sunday, May 06 2007 @ 11:18 PM EDT (#167363) #

I'm truly sick to death of this guy's diva-horsecrap ("Oh, shall I play...oh, shall I not play...oh, what shall I do?). Here's hoping he gets his head handed to him every time he takes the mound. I really can't understand this viewpoint. If one dislikes Clemens because of an arrogant attitude or questionable actions [such as his throwing of a bat at Piazza], then fine, that's great. However, why isn't it all right for the man to take his time to decide on a major life direction change; many people in the "real" world retire and then decide to go back to work and then retire again. If I was Roger and was set for life monetarily and had accomplished as much as he, I too would take my time and take the best option available. If no tream wants to sign him for a half season to pitch only home games, that is their perogative, just as it is Clemens right to create those types of standards for himself. What he's doing is out in the open and upfront and, as far as I am concerned, a minor issue. [in the preview of this comment, I can't seem to get separate paragraphs...so we'll see what happens]

Sherrystar - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 10:25 AM EDT (#167376) #

I agree with royshowell, this "I'm retired", "I might come back" thing is a farce. Clemens only cares about himself and here's hoping he gets rocked EVERY time he takes the mound.

Pistol - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 11:44 AM EDT (#167380) #

That's a lot of money (and perks) for someone who's a 6 inning pitcher and had problems with his legs.

Mick Doherty - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 12:01 PM EDT (#167382) #

In the eight seasons since the turn of the millenium, he's 91-44 (.674). In the eight seasons prior to that, 113-73 (.606). So while he's been a little less available, you can make the argument, certainly, that he's gotten better.

Dave Till - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 02:06 PM EDT (#167393) #

Since you asked for Bauxites' thoughts on this subject, here are mine, in their entirety:

Bah.

Thank you for your time.

deep dish - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 06:24 PM EDT (#167410) #

Hard to read. As Jays fans, we know we have an uphill battle ahead that just got harder. Clemens is sitll an above average picher who brings a lot of experience and swagger to his club.

I think MLB needs to take steps to make the season more interesting for teams outside of the big spenders. Mathematically, our team doesn't look too good right now, and we probably don't have a lot to look forward to.

Why not be like soccer and throw in a couple of other trophies? Why not put the big spenders in one division and let the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Dodgers spend as much as they want to win the Premier League - travel would be brutal but I am sure could be worked out.. We could also have a League Cup where more teams qualify for a playoff (and somehow addresses the inequality of an unbalanced schedule and division play), I'd also like to see a Champions League with some other club teams who win qualifiers from say Mexico, Cuba, Korea or Japan. -- in other words, a real "world series" - who cares if the world teams get knocked out early - they will improve. This is how the most popular sport in the world works, and I think it adds to the excitement.

ChicagoJaysFan - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 07:22 PM EDT (#167415) #

Deep dish - I don't think spending in baseball matters as much as its made out to be.

I base this on a few reasons.

First, I think that some correlation between payrolls and wins is expected and good (because the better players should be compensated more than the worse players and better players should make better teams).

Second, it's not payroll but what you do with it that determines success. Almost every year, there is at least one team that makes the playoffs or comes close with a payroll in the bottom 10.

Just to simplify my look at this, I took teams in the bottom 10 of major league payroll (source) and only looked at AL teams (baseball reference is easiest for me to go through only looking at one league). For teams that either made the playoffs or had 90+ wins since 2000, we have:

last year, the A's made the playoffs (10th lowest payroll)
2005 Cleveland had 93 wins (6th lowest payroll)
2004 no one
2003 Oakland made the playoffs (8th lowest payroll)
2002 Oakland made the playoffs (3rd lowest)
2001 Oakland made the playoffs (2nd lowest)
2000 Oakland made the playoffs (6th lowest payroll) and so did the White Sox (5th lowest payroll).

Yes, this is slanted because Oakland has been so successful, but they're also not the only team that has been able to make the playoffs from so far back, so before splitting up the league to give incompetent GM's a chance to win, I'd rather they get their own house in order first.

I also think there are some inherent problems with splitting the league up (I don't particularly like the European format as it cements teams into each division essentially). For example, how many years ago was it that Minnesota was deemed too small a market to support a winner? Under a payroll-splitting league, they'd be stuck in the doldrums and probably never have had the chance to be in the ML playoffs (as a West Ham fan, I know how hard it can be for teams to move up in Europe once you fall down for even one season).

Paul D - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 09:13 PM EDT (#167425) #

I wonder if Clemens will mention Toronto in his acceptance speech.

John Northey - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 09:45 PM EDT (#167427) #

For the season to be more 'interesting' I think the only thing to do is make the playoffs the same as the NBA and NHL - 16 teams in, 14 out. Once the wild card was added I saw this as inevitable and each season it looks more so. Shrink the regular season back to 154 games, then 4 rounds of playoffs with 7 games each so a max of 182 games (regular & playoff) vs todays 5+7+7+162 = 179 game max. The season wouldn't expand out too much further although November games would be a lock for the World Series.

As I've said in the past the Jays would've done well under this method in the past, making the playoffs in all but one season under JP (7th seed last year, 8th seed in 2005, 6th or 7th seed in '03 depending on tie breakers, 8th seed in '02) - and would've made it in Ash's last 4 seasons as well (8th in '01, 7th in '00, 6th in '99, 5th in '98). Thus under the hockey/basketball system the Jays would've been in the playoffs 8 out of the last 9 years. Figure that would've keep the dome full and probably saved a few guys jobs.

CeeBee - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 10:18 PM EDT (#167430) #

John, I know the baseball purists won't like that plan but I do and I hope it does happen soon, while there are still 30 teams in the majors and not 20.

TamRa - Monday, May 07 2007 @ 11:59 PM EDT (#167447) #

Unlike most Jays fans, I have no issue with Clemens. Being a prima donna isn't all that noteably different in the world of professional sports.

what I AM tired of is this constant parade of Yankee-centric stories. Does EVERY friggin baseball story have to be about the Yankees?

Why isn't the rest of the world as sick of this phenomena as I am?

deep dish - Tuesday, May 08 2007 @ 12:09 AM EDT (#167448) #

Here is an interesting point of reference. The 2006 New York Yankees had a 191Million dollar payroll. My 12 team championship fantasy team has a payroll of about 151 million (including Abreu and Jeter)

How hard is it to be Brian Cash man?

Paul D - Tuesday, May 08 2007 @ 12:33 AM EDT (#167450) #

what I AM tired of is this constant parade of Yankee-centric stories. Does EVERY friggin baseball story have to be about the Yankees?

Why isn't the rest of the world as sick of this phenomena as I am?

Well in fairness, it'd be hard to write the story of Clemens signing with the Royals. You know, cause he signed with the Yankees.

VBF - Tuesday, May 08 2007 @ 02:23 AM EDT (#167452) #

It's not the story that's the problem. It's the dramatization of it all. The Yankees made it a soap opera.

The King of the Castle high up in his quarters making his speech to his devoted followers below that he will be joining the troops in battle in a fight to the death! How heroic! Where's the sappy Disney music?

We saw the same thing in the 2004 World Series with the bloody sock.

Mick Doherty - Tuesday, May 08 2007 @ 11:53 PM EDT (#167537) #

Interesting property of the Web -- I have not changed the article since originally publishing, but the photo displaying has changed because apparently the source photo hosted at ESPN.com has changed. Roger's in the NYY cap now.

Rocket's Red Glare: Clemens Back to Yankees | 20 comments | Create New Account

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