Roger Clemens a Yankee

[StarsNPinstripes]

Hey guys, I just heard Clemens is a Yankee!

When did this happen?

[Ursa]

I applaud the Yanks for spending the money - at least their owner cares about winning. Its the D-Rays and Royals owners of the world that are messing up the competitive balance.

Maybe if some owners opened up their pockets, we would see more parody.

Baseball already is a parody...or at least the AL East is. That's not what you meant though, methinks.

[Grouperman941]

Baseball already is a parody...or at least the AL East is. That's not what you meant though, methinks.

LOL

[jzfran]

Here's my take. This amount of money is ridiculous. It just drove up the market price for other big names once their contracts are up (Santana, Peavy, etc.). A good point was made on the radio this afternoon. This rise in salary we've had over the past ten years has been felt by the fans, not the owners. It costs $300 to take a family of four to a ballgame. If guys like Clemens keep jacking up the price, it will cost even more to go to a game and a whole generation of fans will struggle to ever get to a ballgame, even though each team plays 81 at home each season.

Also, he is 45 years old I believe. You can't think he's going to be Cy Young at that age. The Yankees did the stupidest job spending $200 million this year I have ever seen. They got no pitching that was any good with that money. This was a panic move IMO.

Baseball needs a floor and cieling for salaries. Each team should have to pay at least $x and no more than $y per season. That would be the most fair for baseball, but that's another story.

See...here's what I'm talking about.

A Red Sox fan complaining about the Yankees payroll. It's ridiculous. If a Royals fan wants to b!tch at me for my team spending so much money...so be it. I accept it. I don't deny that my team has an edge and that it takes advantage of that edge. I don't deny that my team tries to buy World Series'. I'll deal with the fans who give me crap over that.

But I will NOT stand by and listen to Red Sox fans criticize my team for that. You have no right or reason to do so. You guys spend more than everyone ELSE in baseball, and aren't too far behind us. You guys posted an insane number to TALK to Matsuzaka, and keep him away from the Yankees (and every other team in the league). Did you guys hear Yankee fans b!tching about it? No.

You guys play the same game we do. It's all within the rule book. Some fans may see it as unfair, and that's their right. You may even say it's unfair AS a Red Sox or Yankees fan. But you CANNOT be a fan of one team and criticize the other without putting blame on YOUR franchise as well.

Neither franchise is at fault (baseball is), but both equally partake in it...so let's not act as if there is one culprit and one culprit alone. I, as a die-hard Yankee fan, know and openly admit to my team's overspending of money. Some good Red Sox fans do as well, for their franchise. The rest of you need to wake up and smell the coffee.

This isn't about me being a Sox fan. I'm one of the fans who willingly admits that we too spend a whole lot of $$ and we make plenty of bad decisions. I just feel that the Yankees this year really mismanaged their $$. As for baseball, the sport is a distant #3 in popularity in kids nowadays. Most kids are basketball and football fans. It's sad seeing baseball falling down the ladder in sports as players make more and more money and fans can afford to go to fewer and fewer games. Also note, I am in favor of a salary minimum and salary cap, which would definately hurt my Red Sox so this isn;t about me bashing the Yankees.

As for Roger, is he really worth being almost the highest paid player ever for about 20 starts? IMO, no he isn't. However, I applaud Steinbrenner for spending the$$ unlike many of the other big league owners.

On a side note, I expect Yankees vs. Sox in the ALCS despite the Yanks' struggles thusfar. Should be fun.

[BronXBombers51]

This isn't about me being a Sox fan. I'm one of the fans who willingly admits that we too spend a whole lot of $$ and we make plenty of bad decisions. I just feel that the Yankees this year really mismanaged their $$. As for baseball, the sport is a distant #3 in popularity in kids nowadays. Most kids are basketball and football fans. It's sad seeing baseball falling down the ladder in sports as players make more and more money and fans can afford to go to fewer and fewer games. Also note, I am in favor of a salary minimum and salary cap, which would definately hurt my Red Sox so this isn;t about me bashing the Yankees.

As for Roger, is he really worth being almost the highest paid player ever for about 20 starts? IMO, no he isn't. However, I applaud Steinbrenner for spending the$$ unlike many of the other big league owners.

On a side note, I expect Yankees vs. Sox in the ALCS despite the Yanks' struggles thusfar. Should be fun.

I apologize if I was off-base in my post, but that was the impression I got from your original post.

As far as the Yankees mismanaging their money this year...what else is new? I actually think they have done a better job this year of managing their money than in years past. What big detrimental contract did they sign? They inked Pettitte for one year. Clemens? Sure he got a load of cash, but it's only for one year as well.

They traded away Randy Johnson and his contract. They didn't sign any other big name players. There were no Carl Pavanos. There were no Jaret Wrights. No Johnny Damons. No Kyle Farnsworths.

Lastly, who cares if Clemens is 45? If he keeps pitching like he has been pitching, who cares what his age is? If a guy throws for 3 straight years with an ERA of under 3 in his sixties, I'll sign him for a year. Obviously there is risk involved because of his age. But again, it's not like the Yankees are locking themselves into a long-term commitment with an unknown commidity/risk like Pavano or Wright. They are signing a guy who, despite some risk, has pitched amazingly for the past few years.

If Clemens sucks (which is not likely...maybe his ERA won't be 1.80 but even if it's around 4, that's still a plus for the Yankees) what have they really lost? $20 million dollars? Not all that huge of a deal to the Yankees, considering they've blown much larger amounts of cash on jokes like Wright, Vazquez, Contreras, Pavano, Farnsworth, etc. etc. etc. over the past 4-5 years.

Call it a panic move if you like, but the deal made all sorts of sense. Could the Yankees probably have paid him less? Yeah, I think so. It appears as if they were in a bidding war against themselves. Either way though, with money not being that big of a deal to them, there really is no downside to this deal. His risk is relatively small and his upside is tremendous.

[RocketsDWM]

I think pitching a month before he did the previous three years is a mistake though. An injury is almost inevitable (hamstring?)

[jbauer2485]

I think pitching a month before he did the previous three years is a mistake though. An injury is almost inevitable (hamstring?)

Schilling shouldn't be maintaining a blog, all that typing will almost inevitably lead to a finger injury.

[Yoda]

I think pitching a month before he did the previous three years is a mistake though. An injury is almost inevitable (hamstring?)

Jealous Red Sox fans are funny.

[mweir145]

I think pitching a month before he did the previous three years is a mistake though. An injury is almost inevitable (hamstring?)

Clemens pitched a full season every year prior to last year.

[Strasil42]

I think pitching a month before he did the previous three years is a mistake though. An injury is almost inevitable (hamstring?)

Clemens pitched a full season every year prior to last year.