Roger Clemens is going to the NY Yankees. I couldn't be happier. I admit, I may live to eat those words, but that's how it looks from here. Roger will be pitching in a tougher league and division. He will no longer be in a pitcher's park. He now has designated hitters to face. He is one year older than a guy who seldom went more than 6 innings last year. The prediction: 100 innings, distributed over 18 starts of 5-6 innings. ERA in the low 3's. 6 games he is dominant, 6 games he is decent, 6 games he gets hit hard. For the Yankees, that's about 3 more victories. Maybe only two, if it puts more strain on the beleaguered bullpen.
Not that this guarantees that the Red Sox are going anywhere. They have all sorts of ways they can collapse in Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland...
Yeah, but that's one more arm that they've got now. I'm not worried, but I'm not excited, either.
ReplyDeleteAlright, I'm a little worried. Clemens is the sort of guy who would pull it together and work really hard just to stick it to us. Last year he might've been coasting a little.
Longtime reader, love the blog.
ReplyDeleteIf someone had cared about my opinion, as a Yankees fan, about Roger Clemens on opening day, I would've said much the same thing. I've changed my mind now that the Yanks have started more rookies this early in the season than any team in the modern history of the major leagues.
True, Clemens averaged 5.98 innings last year, but that was in the NL, where if there's men on in the 7th, a pitcher gets yanked for a pinch-hitter even if he's shown no signs of tiring.
So, was Clemens worn out after six last year, or did the offense-starved Astros just prefer to sub out his .074/.194/.111 line late? Brad Ausmus and Adam Everett don't get on base everyday, so when they do, you need to cash them in. Why leave that up to the pitcher?
Anyway, enjoy the pitching while almost everything is going right (Dice-K is underperforming his FIP right now), before Schilling tires, before Beckett's HR/Fly rate corrects, and before Wakefield starts pitching to his peripherals.
By mid June, the Yanks rotation could look like this: Pettite, Wang, Clemens, Mussina, Hughes.
Or everyone could get hamstring injuries, then it'll be: DeSalvo, Clippard, Ohlendorf, Jackson, Wright.
Steinbrenner is crazy to let Clemens play when he wants and not travel with the team. There's going to be some upset teammates.
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