The Holtonian

My theory on Roger Clemens

OK, so being a cards fan I've watched Clemens come into my division and try to derail the Cards winning ways. Luckily he hasn't had much luck against the birds, really Oswalt last year and the year before has been the bird killer, as he has the best fast ball in the NL central at least, and possibly the entire NL... that's debatable.

So here's my theory of the whole Clemens thing, as most of my baseball thoughts its out there but has a fraction of sensibility.

Clemens approaches the rockets and says, "Look if I play for anyone else I upset my fans here in TX, which I don't want to do. Plus I like you guys, my son's coming up in your organization, maybe I can get a job in the org when I retire, so I don't want to do you guys wrong. We got pretty much the same team as we had last year to make a run at it this year."

He goes on, "What we'll do is I'll sign on for my usual 22 million, prorated. I'll hang around till the trade deadline and do my best to make us contenders and take down those nasty red birds. However, if trade deadline approaches and we're floundering due to injuries or just lack of fire power and its looking like a playoff run is improbable or at least a WS is improbable then you'll trade me to the Sox or the Yanks and reap all that you can from them bettering your team for next year and beyond. And I get a chance at one more ring."

So that's my theory, because lets face it the Astros didn't get better over the post season. They needed severe offense upgrade to compete not only in the NL but especially in the WS. The only player the Astros got was Preston Wilson a .264 lifetime batting outfielder who won't make that big of an impact.

Oddly enough both the cards and the astros best shot for the WS as of late was 2003 when the Cards went full steam into the post season with everything but one key player... Carpenter. The lack of the number one pitcher hurt them as they ran out of pitching by the time the WS showed up... also ran out of offense as well. The Astros that year had Beltran who that year was on fire, they too were missing one key player, Pettite. Since then both teams have gone down a bit through losses of key players and injuries.

So thats' my thoughts on Clemens. I think if that was the plan, and not something I just made up, then it would be a genius plan. Especially since it could rob some good players away from the Sox or Yanks... granted the Sox have more to give than the Yanks who are running low.

I think it will be a Red Sox White Sox AL Series...and a Mets Cards NL series. My prediction would be (if the cards add no offense before the trade deadline) Mets vs White Sox in the WS, white sox in 6. Injuries to Cards or Mets players could obviously hurt that prediction, especially to the Mets who have a good string of bad luck. Cards right now are doing well, but a couple of the guys are battling through some pain and they need some offensive help to protect pujols.