The Rocket is heading back to New York, much to the chagrin of Red Sox (and probably Astros fans).Here's what I find interesting. It's May 6, the Yankees are 5 1/2 games back of the Red Sox, with more than 130 left to go. There's no way New York's starting rotation will be : Wang, Mussina, Clemens, Pettitte, and Igawa/Hughes when they host Boston, May 21-23. But they might have all the pieces in place for the series June 1-3 in Boston. Hughes' hamstring injury isn't as bad as they thought, and Clemens already says he's in pretty good shape. After that series, the two teams don't play again until the second half of the season, when they hook up just 6 more times (3 in New York and 3 in Boston).
This really makes the month of May critical for New York. So far, they've won 5 of 6, after going 9-14 in April. If they can keep Boston within striking distance, the games in June and in the second half could determine the division winner. But if they go into another funk, or suffer more pitching staff injuries, Clemens will earn $4.5 million dollars a month to help the Yankees play out the schedule in September. Either way, it looks like George Steinbrenner isn't going down without a fight.
2 comments:
I think this may be to the chargrin, but not the the surprise, of the Red Seox.
I suspect Roger asked them first. And they said, "Sure, for $2 million a month." Why would the Red Sox spend $19 million on someone they very well might not need?
On a side note, the title of youe next post should be "Time Wince-cum." Here's a guy who was dominating AAA, and everyone "knew" he was going to dominate the big leagues. He was picked up 10 days ago in all of my leagues. I'm glad all those smarty-pants owners got a 8.31 ERA and 2+ WHIP out of him.
He showed the stuff we expected, but he's going to have to locate better if he's going to be succesful on this level.
Don't forget that Phil Hughes had the same numbers after one start, then came within 8 outs of a no-hitter before getting hurt. Lincecum is just as talented, and while he may be inconsistent, his overall numbers will make you wish you had taken a chance. He's a healthy Rich Harden.
With or without Clemens, the Red Sox are still going to finish second to the Yankees, though I hope Yankees fans know that it's not Clemens who will be their savior. Certainly the stability will help, but it's Chien-Ming Wang who's going to pitch them to a pennant.
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