Ok, so all Yankee fans, rejoice. Your savior has come back to you now at the time of your greatest need. Your pitching is decimated to the point that you had illusions of seeing Carl Pavano anchoring your rotation. You entrusted three very inexperienced players with valuable rotation spots. You thrust your rookie phenom into the spotlight when it seemed that everything else failed.
Now, you give us the biggest PR move ever. You bring out Roger Clemens, during a game and have him announce his return to the pinstripes since leaving in 2003 for retirement (also known as Houston).
Lets look at the positives of the deal:
Now, dont get me wrong, this is a great pick up for the Yankees because he is still very serviceable and will be able to give them a very good outing every five days. Also, Boston's quick start and fantastic push in the beginning had two great outcomes for the Yankees. It got Cashman hungry to go back to the old ways of throwing cash and it made Boston get heady by thinking that they didnt need to sign Roger and dropped the urgency that the Yankees clearly possessed. The Yankees were also able to be put in a position to throw the most amount of money in this deal because clearly they were the ones that were most starved for help in the rotation.
Now the negatives:
How sad is it that they have to announce his return ala WWF style by asking everyone to turn their attention to the owner's box. Roger was definitely uncomfortable and gave the worst good guy speech in front of a crowd that would've literaly exploded for anything. This was the biggest desparation move of the century and ignites the discussion that there is real worry amongst Yankee brass about this team competing this year. Granted, playing in New York is the toughest, it is clearly something that drives the owners of this town to spend and spend until they put out a winner. Lets not even forget to mention that the Yankees are showing signs of weakness that they have never resonated since the early 90's. Their old tactics arent working for them and their new tactics will take time. And to bide time, they decided to splurge now and worry about the rest later.
Regardless of what your opinions are on this deal, the only real winner is Roger Clemens. Here's a guy who will get paid at 45 to do what they pay 29 and 30 year olds to do. Imagine what Johan Santana is thinking right now as he is being outpaid by a guy who is almost 20 years older than him. There's no question that he came back, not for competition BUT for the money.
Lets be real here, Roger has plenty of cash, yet he knew as his agents did (Hendricks brothers) that the Yankees were the ones that were going to shell out the cash and they had to squeeze now while they saw blood. The Yankees were desparate. Roger's value to the Yankees might have dropped had their starters began to make a run. So, they struck when the iron was hot and cashed in. As your agent, that is the right thing to do but again, they are only instructed to do as they are told by their player. Roger made the final decision to come to the Yankees. The Red Sox were offering him about 4 million less but on paper, had the better team. If he stuck true to his word that he was going to go to the team that had the best chance to win, then i suppose you could make a case for the Yankees but purely based on records alone, he could've went to the Red Sox. But since the Red Sox didnt show him the green, he went the other way.
Its not rocket science (i kill myself sometimes) to figure out that Roger has been about making money all his life. No one can ever doubt his skills. He was slighted by the Red Sox and Yankees the first time when he tried to angle for more money so went to Toronto and that anger fueled him to some of the best numbers ever. That then got him to the Yankees and allowed him to make the money and the championships. Now, he is just toying with MLB. He gets to fly when he wants to. he can show up when he wants to. Hell, if he told Joe Torre to jump up, i bet all Torre would do is say how high.
This is high comedy and highway robbery. But hey, its Roger and its worth every penny!
