Roger Clemens: what do we do?

There's all sorts of talk right now here in Boston about whether or not the Sox will (or should) attempt to sign Roger Clemens some time this year. This is a painful subject for me personally. Like many who became baseball fans during the '80's, I loved Roger Clemens. He was my favorite player as a child. As time went on and he became lazy with the Sox, I grew to dislike him. Many people bash Dan Duquette for claiming that Clemens was washed up, but look at his numbers in his last couple years with the Red Sox. They weren't that good. Not "washed up", but not really good. But, he left the Sox, got in shape and became great again. Hence my extreme dislike for him

He's in a great position right now. Teams want him, and not just any teams- it's the teams with the most money to spend on him (Sox, Yankees, Astros and Rangers). And they all understand he won't sign with any of them for a while. He claims he wants to come back to a competitive environment and I think this is true- he won't play for a loser. However, let's not fool ourselves- he wants to get paid. If no team offers him more than $5 million he will not come back. Whatever team wants him will have to pony up the big bucks. That's just the way it is.

So should the Sox sign him? My heart says absolutely not. But, you don't win a World Series making decisions with your heart. Can he help this staff? Sure, only an idiot would say otherwise. Is it worth the money? That's a harder question to answer. I think it would be nice to keep him off the Yankees, but is that reason enough?

We also can't fool ourselves into thinking we'd be getting the best pitcher in the league. Look at his numbers before he signed with Houston and switched leagues- they weren't that great. They weren't awful, but it's obvious that his numbers the last couple years are skewed because he pitched in the National League. It's much easier to have an ERA under 2.00 when you get at least one guaranteed out every time through the order. Also, it was obvious that he had slowed down toward the end of last year- so it may actually be a good thing that he's going to sit out a while.

So should the Sox sign him? I don't know. I don't want to say yes, I'd feel like we're selling our soul or something. But there's no doubt he could help, especially if they suffer injuries to the starting rotation. He may also help young guys like Papelbon, who is very similar to a young Clemens. I just can't get over the fact that he's an ungrateful jerk who stopped trying for the Sox. When we talk about the greatest traitors in history I list him above Benedict Arnold and below Judas Iscariot (come one, betraying our Lord and Savior is far worse than betraying Boston). And no, I'm not bitter.