Sports Frog

Roger Clemens got rocked by White Sox bats yesterday, and was promptly booed off the field in the second inning last night by Yankee fans. This is the story that led both the national and local sports talk radio scene this morning.

While this is clearly not what the Yankees paid for, it is far too early to label him a bust. On ESPN Radio this morning, we were treated to Eric "The NASCAR Pimp" Kuselias and Doug Gottlieb. Now, I can normally tolerate Gottlieb because he knows his college stuff and his NBA, and he generally sticks to those topics. When he gets into baseball, and to a lesser extent, the NFL, he's a bit out of his league.

But Kuselias - despite desperately attempting to mask it by being contrarian and defending A-Rod (wow, really going out on a limb there) - is a monster Sawx fan. And it was therefore not at all surprising that Kuselias was arguing that Clemens was THE BIGGEST BUST IN ALL OF SPORTS for five minutes straight when I turned off my radio this morning. However, I was surprised, although in retrospect I should not have been, that when I turned on the radio again an hour later, he was still talking about this.

Roger Clemens has an 4.23 ERA and 1.32 WHIP, a K/BB ratio of over 2/1, and is striking out almost six batter per nine. In other words, he's not dominating, but he doing okay. I went down to Camden Yards to watch him pitch Saturday, and while he is clearly not performing like he did last season, there is nothing about him that looks broken. He needs to get his pitch speed up a couple of miles and hour and refine his location, but he's not a bust by any stretch (well, unless you're a Red Sox fan, apparently).

For a comparison, Kuselias might look in his own team's rotation where Curt Schilling's 4.20 ERA and 1.36 WHIP look very similar to the numbers of Clemens. Now, you can argue correctly that Clemens is getting paid much more per start, and that's true. But if you're going to criticize the Yankees for being able to spend until the cows come home, as the Red Sox President, General Manager, and Kuselias have all done in the past, then you need to shut up. Because you can't have it both ways.

If the Royals were paying this much money for Clemens, then maybe you could make a more reasonable argument, although you'd still be more in the wrong. My favorite part about all of this is that Clemens isn't even the biggest bust on his own team. I'd give that honor to Jason Giambi. And he certainly isn't looking like the worst signing of the year. That would probably go to the Boston Red Sox, for locking in 31 year-old J.D. Drew for five years for a .247 average with little power.

It's sad when the callers to the local sports talk stations (who simply believe Clemens is off the stuff this season) make more sense than a "professional" who's being paid well to do a job.