Mauer to DL, Clemens to NY

It's sort of similar to people being mad at A-Rod for making $252 million.  If you were him, and you could get away with it ... wouldn't you?

Still a DB.  But come on.  If I could travel when I wanted, pick my team, and pitch when I felt good and ready, all for 30 mil?  I would.  I'd still feel guilty.  I'd never watch When It Was a Game on HBO.  Bottom line is, he can get away with it.  Be mad at Boston and New York and Houston for bowing to his every demand.

In a smaller way, this whole ridiculousness with Clemens is like Bonds and steroids, in that it hangs over the last years of his career and casts him in a negative light.  Obviously the shadow over Bonds looms darker, but a lot of people will scoff when they think of Clemens and his ego and this whole laughable courting ritual that he ended his career with.  In both cases, it will sometimes make the most recent generation overlook one important fact:  He was really, really good at what he did.

It just goes against the traditional idea of team, working out together the whole year, for a common goal.  That is the distasteful part.  I guess he will still help the team.  Probably.  Everyone has to hit the wall sometime.  I don't know if he's done anything wrong, but I'm cheering against him.

cue responses telling me no one forced me to read it.

1.  He supposedly wanted to sign with a team that had the most chance to win the World Series.

2.  He tires out before the end of the season and wasn't as effective in the stretch run.

I think it's hard to argue that the Yankees have the best chance of winning the WS.  Obviously, I'm not saying they have no chance, but you certainly can't say they have the best chance.  Secondly, the espn article (here) says he signed with the Yankees because both the Red Sox and Astros wanted him to wait until the end of June to begin.  Therefore, he is more likely to burn out in the postseason, which goes against my understanding of why he was waiting to sign a contract.

It just seems like the signing goes against the two main reasons he was waiting, and therefore, the reasons would have to be something else (money, ego, friends, etc).

Clemens' 2007 Salary: $28M (Prorated)
Idians SIX man rotation 2007 Salary: $27.615M

Trying to paint this guy as some family man who just happens to be outrageously talented is ludicrous. I understand taking the money when it is there but this garbage about it giving his son a chance to pursue his dreams is garbage. The family has more money right now than any of us can imagine. This is a media circus that Roger plays right into. Anything about him being a great father because he takes the spring off to jerk teams around is just stupid. This is another case of someone holding a market hostage. I blame the GM's just as much.

If we are going to talk about great fathers I am sure there are a lot of us on here who can think of someone more qualified than Roger Clemens. How many of us had a dad who worked 70-80hr weeks to make sure we had enough to eat? Or who came home after a 12hr day and played baseball in the backyard? Or who worked back to back shifts in order to have time off to make it to a basketball game? Don't feed me some media trash about how he is a great father because the poor guy only gets to spend half of the year with his family, free and clear of any obligation, and then expects prima donna treatment for the 4 months he can be troubled to work.

And yes, this makes me mad.

Myself?  I don't see it.  It's been several years since he pitched in NY and his ERA was around 4.00.   Houston - and the NL - is so very pitcher friendly that I expect his ERA will be at least 4.50 this season.  That's serviceable and will help the putrid Yankees staff, but not worth $26 million the Yankees are spending.

It will make the fall of the Yankees that much sweeter, though.

I don't know Clemens personally, and I don't judge him personally.  I know him and judge him only as a public figure, based on the public elements of his life: the public decisions he's made, his public statements, and the names of his sons.

On the public decisions:  The Yankees.  Douchebag.  Self-aggrandizing.  Wants to be the savior, to cap his career endlessly with god-like redemptive moments.  How sad that he just doesn't realize, his career doesn't need any dramatic capping.  Everyone who isn't a Yankees fan would have rather seen him finish his career with one of his true hometown teams, rather than merely the team that writes the biggest checks and provides the most run support.

It's sad when any player of great stature feels he has to play for the Yankees, so as to be handed postseason berths on a silver platter rather than competing for them like the rest.  Johnson, Giambi, A-Rod, Matsui, Clemens -- total douchebags, every last one of them.  Each one diminished himself by insisting that he must only play for the Yankees.

On the public statements:  The Yankees.  Douchebag.  See Andrew's remarks, can't say it any better.  I'll add only that anyone who makes public statements to the effect that the Yankees are (present tense) part of the greatness of the game (present tense) is damaging the game.  The Yankees are most assuredly a major corrosive and corrupt element in the game today.

On the names of his sons:  K, K, K and K.  Total douchebag.

Brandini, I'm sorry, the good-father thing makes no sense to me.  The money in this deal is not going to help Clemens' kids.  Anyone who knows anything about parenting knows that if you have $10 million in the bank (and Clemens has much more than that), no amount of additional money will make your family any happier.

Clemens did not have to make any concessions in his contract in order to get his special scheduling demands -- unlike in 2005, when he was playing at an outrageous discount.  I respected that deal, because his service as an Astro really was a gift in that context.  But in this deal, he's just asking his team (and teammates) to be his bitch, and they're acquiescing.  He has the power, and he's using it, but that doesn't make it right.

So to sum up:  Roger Clemens is an all-time great douchebag.

He's a proven headhunter, and gets glory from that. If CC or Johan did that, they would be vilified by the media and fans.

He throws a broken bat at Piazza (which could have easily maimed him), and that is just Roger being Roger.

He's a greedy SOB. The Yankees offerred him a prorated contract of $25.5M. His agent went back and asked for $28M. If any other player did that, the lambasting that player would have received would be unreal.

I'll throw Bonds' name out there. His kid is still in middle or high school. If/when he negotiated his deal with the Giants this offseason, he said, he needed until May 1st so he could watch the conclusion of his son's high school baseball games and want a $20M prorated deal, the screaming about him would have reached Alpha Centauri.

Not to mention the hush hush nature of Clemen's connection to steroids. Is there any proof? Not really, but I do believe we should scrutinize him as much as Bonds, as well as every other player from the late 90s.