We meant to comment on the ridiculous article Mike Lupica posted last week about Roger Clemens, but Can't Stop The Bleeding beat us to it.
Lupica compares Clemens to Javy Vasquez and Kevin Brown, and Jose Conteras and Randy Johnson. He writes often about Clemens' salary - $28 million prorated; $1 million a start, etc.
The Yankees didn't spend high this week to go out and rent - or even buy - a top reliever like Eric Gagne, one who fits their current needs much better than he fits Boston's. Why?
Because they have already rented the most expensive high-rent pitcher in the history of baseball: Clemens. They are paying him $1 million a start and so far they have gotten three wins out of him
Hey Mike, do me a favor: tell me how much the Sox are paying Eric Gagne an inning. Here, let me do it: Gagne is going to get $2.35 from the Sox for incentives that he's not even going to meet (but they have to pay him anyway, in order to get his approval for the trade to take place); his salary for the next two months and other incentives add up to about $4 million. So yeah, you are paying about $6.5 million (not including luxury tax costs) for a set-up guy who might pitch, what... about 30 innings over the next two months?
Okay, let's say Clemens is getting $1 million a start, and lasts 6 IP on average; Gagne is getting paid $1.3 million per 6 IP. Who's the bargain?
And it was very opportunistic of Lupica to break on Clemens after his awful start in which he gave up 8 runs against the White Sox in less than two innings pitched. Of course, only three were earned. Lupica tried to make it seem like that was just a nice break for Clemen's ERA because of Cano's error, ignoring that Matsui/Damon (not sure which one) missed a very catchable ball earlier in that inning. In fact, Joe Torre was talking after the game about how the Yankees gave the Sox "5 or 6 outs that inning". Any pitcher, even the best of all time (and yes, we dislike Clemens, and yes, we think he used and still uses steroids or something similar - but you can't dispute his numbers), would have a tough time pitching when his team is giving the opposition five to six outs in an inning.
So we'll be opportunistic, too, and post this the day after another great start by Clemens. He gave up 0 runs and 2 hits in 6 innings against the Jays. Since July started, Roger has given up 2 or less runs in 5 of 8 starts (including 4 times of one or less runs), and the Yankees have won 4 of the 5 games.
We knew he was going to throw a great game last night. Roger is a prima donna, everyone knows that. He gets pissed off when his teammates make a few bad plays in an inning, and losses his cool/composure (as was the case against the White Sox); but when he's focused, and gets an early lead, he can still dominate most lineups.
Gagne is going to have to do a very good job in the 8th inning to prove to be a better investment than Clemens. If you had to spend that much money on two months from a suspected steroid abuser, I would think Clemens would be the smarter choice. Keep in mind that Clemens didn't cost the Yankees any prospects, either.
Editor's Note: A commenter named "Andrew" left us a note pointing out that Boston is supposedly only paying $4.5 million of Gagne's salary this year, including the incentives portion. That number does not include the luxury tax amount, which I believe brings Boston's total cost to around $9-10 million. But even without the luxury tax cost, the $4.5 million number = Gagne costs $900,000 per 6 IPs. Which is very comparable to Clemen's cost per start. So my main argument stands... Gagne costs as much as Clemens, and given that choice, I still believe Clemens is the smarter choice.
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SML, sorry about all the posts... I didn't think they were going thru. My bad. Just goes to show, don't mess with someone's idols...LOL
I go back and forth on Clemens. Yes, he's the best pitcher of all time... hard to argue that. He's at 350 wins in an era when 300 wins is going to become a very rare thing. Almost extinct, according to some experts. I was going to do a post earlier this year on whether Clemens could have won 400 games if he hadn't had been in Houston the past three seasons (he got very little run support, and should have won around 12 games a year there).
When he's focused, he's pretty hard to beat. But he's prone to emotional fits, in my opinion. That's not a bad thing. But sometimes he gives up on his team - after those errors in the Sox game, you could tell he checked out, almost like he was telling his teammates "Hey, if you guys aren't going to give your all to me, I'm not going to give my best effort, either".
Again, I'm not sure I would say that bothers me. I understand where Clemens is coming from. You should demand your best from your teammates, and let them know that anything less is unacceptable.
He doesn't spout off very much.
Really, the only complaint that you could have against him is that a) He might be on steroids, and b) he's a mercenary.
I've said on many occasions I don't care about A. I don't care about B, either - if players aren't shown loyalty by their teams (Clemens wasn't in Boston), then they should go get their money.
So why do I not like him at times? I don't have a legit reason, I guess. If I had to guess, I would probably say it's because he's originally a Red Sox, and there's always a chance (if they offer him enough cash) he'll be a Red Sox again. And that's why I kinda resist rooting too much for Clemens.
If you're a Blue Jays fan, you'd have some reason to dislike Clemens. His worst years were when he was in Toronto, so you have reason to think he robbed your team.
If Clemens is on your team, you love him. If he's pitching against your team or in your division, you fear or hate him....ask Mike Piazza (that would be another reason to dislike him... he has absolutely no regrets for throwing at his head and almost killing the guy).
As a former pitcher, I just sit back and watch what I wish I would have been with a combination of awe and envy.
Gagne's total possible Salary including incentives and all is: $9.85 million for the year. The Rangers have paid around 4 million of the base salary already. and are paying another 1.35 million in incentives already reached. The Red Sox are picking up the rest of his base Salary and have "bought out" the rest of Gagne's possible incentives for $2.35-2.5, depending on where you read. The point being, the Red Sox are on the hook for something along the lines 4.5 million not 6.5.
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the update. It's tough to get an actual reference for how much Gagne is costing the Sox - some articles I've read said, in a very general way, that "Gagne is costing the Sox $10 million with luxury tax added in". I admit that because baseball doesn't report the amount of money transferring hands, I'm just speculating that it costs $6.5 million - my math was the 2.35 in incentives (that's been reported as definitely being paid out), and half the base salary and other incentives of $8 million.
That being said, your number is probably as accurate as mine, if not more so. I will add an editor's note into the post to correct it.
I'm admittedly a Roger Clemens fan and not objective. But on the two occasions this year that I've seen Gagne pitch, I wasn't overly impressed. Gagne is just a very high paid mercenary to me that cost more in terms of price per inning and price of the trade than Clemens.
Clemens personality itself brings an intensity and raises the level of everyone around him. You KNEW he'd plunk someone after A-Rod was hit. You KNEW he'd be particularly nasty this game. And there's no comparison between Clemens and Kevin Brown. Brown basically just stole money from the Yankees when he signed with them. (BTW..his agent was Darth Vader himself...
Scott Boras).