Roger Clemens is back with the Yankees, and he couldn’t have picked a better time to announce it.
The Yanks’ staff has been decimated with injuries and sudden, acute bouts of terrible.
They have set a Major League record with 10 starting pitchers (and will introduce number 11, 26-year-old righty Matt DeSalvo, today against the Mariners) used already this season, one of whom gave up a record-tying four consecutive home runs, to the rival Red Sox no less.
And with the spectacular ineptitude of the starting rotation up until recently (is it any coincidence that New York’s recent mound renaissance has come at the hands of Texas and Seattle?), the bullpen has also suffered greatly.
An otherwise solid core of flamethrowers like Brian Bruney, Scott Proctor, Sean Henn, Kyle Farnsworth and even Mr. Sandman himself, the great Mariano Rivera, have been overworked to the tune of a 4.11 earned run average, ninth in the American League.
Now that the Rocket’s back in the fold, though, the rotation is beginning to take shape as one of the more formidable staffs in the league.
Picture this: When Clemens debuts at the end of the month, New York’s starting five should include Clemens, resurgent lefty Andy Pettitte, Taiwanese sinkmaster Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and possibly rookie phenom Phil Hughes.
Add in the fact that the Yankees have one of the most fearsome lineups $195 million can buy, and that makes for quite the scary scenario for the rest of the AL East.
Their starting nine is leading the league in average and RBI, is second in home runs and slugging percentage, and they haven’t all begun to click yet.
Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano, All-Stars all, are mired in deep slumps and the Yanks still lead in on-base percentage.
Imagine the kind of carnage they will produce once everybody starts hitting like they can.
This is probably one of the major reasons Clemens chose New York over his other two obvious choices: the Boston Red Sox and his hometown Houston Astros.
One of the main problems he’s had over the last two seasons in Houston is a lack of run support.
Seemingly every time he took the mound he would pitch a gem, only to become a hard-luck loser as his offense scuffled behind him.
With the Yanks’ modern-day Murderer’s Row, this will not be a problem.
Another reason he chose New York over Boston and the Astros is obvious: the Benjamins, baby.
New York will pay him four months of a prorated $28 million contract, which will work out to about a million per start. Nice.
With Clemens back in the fold, the rest of the league should be afraid, very afraid.
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