Clemens REAL REASON in returning half a season late!

[Mile High Ballers]

Well then they should be picking his angry ass apart just like they R Barry... However, I highly doubt he would have touched Roids in the past two seasons with the present microscope on the topic. That's just asking to be bent over.

[stevekahuda]

Could the conspiracy theorist please explain why they think he is on roids? He always threw very hard (very high 90s). With age his fastball is roughly what one would expect (92-93). So, he isn't throwing any harder than expected... One could make the argument he's more of a finesse type pitcher than anything else. Very rarely do you see him blow the ball by anyone. Almost all of his strikeouts are from the splitter (which might be the best splitter ever).

So why the roids theory? Nolan Ryan was throwing harder at the same age. Why don't people think he was on roids? The indisputable bottom line is the reason some people throw harder than others is how far back their shoulder goes and how much the ligaments in the elbow stretch. Muscular strength has little to nothing to do with it (see pedro martinez and sandy koufax). Steroids may allow you to recover more quickly between starts, but that wouldn't account for sub 2 eras.

So he's always been a bit of a jerk. I don't see anything in his performance that suggests he is on steroids.

[pigskinnhorsehide]

The real reason is that this isn't Clemens but a cyborg. The real Clemens was killed in a plane crash over Mexico. And during the search for WMD in Iraq they actually found a secret laboratory several miles beneath Baghdad run by Saddam's stooges and among several top-top-top secret projects (for instance, they have JFK's brain still alive) Saddam had developed cyborg technology. Once GW Bush found out about it, he made a secret deal with Bud Selig to make a new Clemens and bring him back to the Rangers (remember Bush used to be a partial owner) only the plan fell through when a group of renegade NASA scientists found out about it and re-programmed the Clemens cyborg into choosing the Astros instead. Its common knowledge, I read it in a magazine while standing in the checkout line today. IDIOTS!!

[d18Mike]

I don't buy a cover up theory.

The Powers That Be at MLB may not be in line for the Nobel Prize in Common Sense, but they do know by now that everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING -- of this nature leaks out in time. Proof of conspiracy on this front would undermine all of the tardy work the game has done to clean itself up and expose baseball to Congressional bloodbath of epic proportions.

All that being said, I do find it puzzling that the Astros did not offer him arbitartion yet have been positively wetting themselves at
the prospect of signing him since. What changed there? They saved themselves a couple million. Big deal. Seems like a lot to go through and time missed to save the price of a utility IF.

[chadlincoln]

Ya right. Next you'll be saying Bonds uses too.

[devastor]

I don't buy a cover up theory.
All that being said, I do find it puzzling that the Astros did not offer him arbitartion yet have been positively wetting themselves at
the prospect of signing him since. What changed there? They saved themselves a couple million. Big deal. Seems like a lot to go through and time missed to save the price of a utility IF.

Who knows what was Astros reasoning! A few millions dollars could have given them maybe another 7 win games. Which would put them in first!!

[pigskinnhorsehide]

Maybe they thought that there would not be this much attention shown by other teams? Also they might of thought that they didn't need him then as they do now

[The Loveable Losers]

I don't buy a cover up theory.
All that being said, I do find it puzzling that the Astros did not offer him arbitartion yet have been positively wetting themselves at
the prospect of signing him since. What changed there? They saved themselves a couple million. Big deal. Seems like a lot to go through and time missed to save the price of a utility IF.

Who knows what was Astros reasoning! A few millions dollars could have given them maybe another 7 win games. Which would put them in first!!

I wonder if this was Clemens decision (even the arbitration thing). Maybe he wanted to be able to explore other options (including retirement). If it was the Astros decision maybe they thought they would be fine without Roger with the great tandem of Oswalt and Pettitte at the top of the rotation...too bad Pettitte has yet to show up this year.