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Late Hits
Over the course of the season, Ed Walsh will be scouring the Web to bring the latest news, polls, and commentary about the Boston Red Sox to these pages.

Blog Index
May 24, 2007
Clemens is a bust

Newsday reports that the next stop for Clemens will be New York.

Based on what I witnessed Wednesday, I'd be quite surprised to see Roger Clemens start next week against the Blue Jays.

For cripes' sake he walked in a run. His WHIP was a whopping 1.88. His Eastern League ERA is 5.08. That is not major-league ready, if you ask me. That puts him in the same class as Sidney Ponson - who the Twins designated for assignment (which means "gave up on").

Now, let's also remember that this was the minors. No offense to the Sea Dogs, but the Rocket should have dominated.

Instead he struggled. His command weak. He apparently had some velocity - hitting the gun at 88-91 mph. 91? I can already see Big Papi drooling.

All that said, I can guarantee he'll be in a Yankee uniform against the Sox on the first weekend of June.

Speaking of uniforms, I wonder how many different uniforms Clemens has donned over the years. There are his home and away jerseys for college, of course the Red Sox (and minors), the Blue Jays (and minors), the Yankees (and minors), Houston (and minors), All star teams (and, err, OK so no minors) and the Olympics. Am I missing any?

It's no wonder Clemens needs all that money. Imagine the amount of closet space required to store all that.

Damn, tangent. Sorry.

Back to the outing.

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick calls Clemens second minor league start "spotty."
The scouts were talking up a storm about Clemens. Most say he simply doesn't have the stuff; at best he's a five-inning pitcher.

Five innings? This is all the savior of the Yankees is going to muster?

I'm no mathematician, but let's attempt to break it down monetarily.

Clemens is due about $18 million for the season. That equals about $1 million per start. That's $200,000 an inning. If the average inning is say 16 minutes (and Clemens only pitches 1/2 of an inning) that's a whopping $4700 a minute.

I'm in the wrong line of work, obviously.

And it is also just as obvious that the Yankees are truly desperate.

Now I toggled between the two games (Dogs vs. Thunder/Sox vs. Yanks) and I was only impressed by one thing Clay Buchholz. I'm not alone the Boston Herald writes how the young prospect out performed Clemens.

Buchholz has major league stuff. He'll go deep into games. And at 22, he has amazing potential to be something truly great. Only time will tell, but when you out-pitch a future Hall of Famer, surely you're on the right track.

After witnessing Clemens outing I look forward to seeing Buchholz again.

Posted by Ed Walsh at 09:42 AM

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