http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2255775 Can you go home again? The Boston Red Sox will certainly leave a plate at the table if Roger Clemens decides he wants to finish where he started. The Red Sox, where Clemens played his first 13 seasons, have contacted Clemens' agents, the Hendricks brothers, to express their interest in the future Hall of Famer, The Boston Globe reported. When told of the Sox interest, Clemens, who was not offered arbitration by the Houston Astros, was said to have reacted positively, according to the paper. "We had an internal discussion," Sox CEO and president Larry Lucchino told the paper, "and concluded we should make an initial call to let the Hendricks brothers know we were open to discuss Roger's return if he should have interest in the Red Sox in 2006. "Nothing further." Clemens, if he chooses, can re-sign with the Astros after May 1.
This would piss me off. McLane + Purpura would catch hell for letting Roger go. On the positive side, this would REALLY piss of the Yankees and their fans. That would be nice.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=2107170&postcount=131 As posted in that thread: I don't see this happening, but it is interesting that the Red Sox have contacted Ausmus. And the bit about Brad and the Stros still being apart on negotiations. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/12/11/red_sox_discussing_clemens/ Lucchino makes call to Hendricks brothers By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff | December 11, 2005 The Red Sox have communicated with Roger Clemens's agents, the Hendricks brothers, over the past few days to express their interest in the future Hall of Famer if he elects to play in 2006. Clemens, who was not offered salary arbitration by the Houston Astros, was informed of the contact, and sources close to Clemens said the pitcher reacted positively to the scenario of a return to Boston. ''We had an internal discussion," said Sox CEO and president Larry Lucchino, ''and concluded we should make an initial call to let the Hendricks brothers know we were open to discuss Roger's return if he should have interest in the Red Sox in 2006. ''Nothing further." The theory among those close to Clemens is that if he still wants to pitch, he would return to Houston May 1, the earliest date he can re-sign with the Astros. That way, he can monitor spring training, and the first month of his son Koby's progress; Koby Clemens is a catcher in the Astros organization. But he has surprised people with his decisions before. In an interview with the pitcher during the playoffs, Clemens spoke fondly about Boston and the many friends he still has in the area. ''Here I am, still pitching," Clemens said in October. ''Debbie and I were looking forward to the day where we could just go up to my old neighborhood [Framingham] and just hang out with some of our friends up there. Maybe go to a few games at Fenway. Same in New York. Just grab five or six of your close friends up there and go out to eat and see a ballgame. ''But here I am, still pitching." Clemens is 341-172 lifetime with a 3.12 ERA in 672 games and 4,502 strikeouts. Last season, he went 13-8 with a league-low 1.87 ERA and likely would have won his eighth Cy Young Award had Astros hitters supported him better. He is 100-55 with a 3.19 ERA in 199 starts at Fenway and 53-22 with a 3.55 ERA in 101 starts at Yankee Stadium. At 42, Clemens still pitched 211 innings and made 32 starts, striking out 185 and walking 62. He was bothered by back and hamstring problems late in the season and into postseason. The Astros feared Clemens's salary ($18 million last season) would likely increase in arbitration and the team would not be able to offer more than $15 million. Another Sox link for Clemens would be Boston's offseason addition of his former teammate, Al Nipper, as bullpen coach. Clemens and Nipper remain close friends. Sox pitchers Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett have idolized Clemens, and Tim Wakefield is a holdover from Clemens's tenure with the team, which ended after the 1996 season. The Sox also have had contact with Clemens's Houston batterymate, Brad Ausmus, about coming aboard as a backup to replace Doug Mirabelli. Ausmus, who is from Connecticut and has a home on Cape Cod, is still negotiating with the Astros and would prefer to remain in Houston as a starter, but so far the numbers haven't worked to his satisfaction. Clemens probably won't decide his future for some time. He should be in shape after playing for Team USA at the World Cup in March, which may influence his decision. He had a unique schedule with the Astros, who allowed him to spend a lot of his non-pitching days at home. The Red Sox allowed Tom Seaver a similar schedule in 1986. Any team that signed Clemens would have to make those concessions. While Clemens returning here is a long shot, what the Red Sox have done is to make sure they're not left out of what could be a public relations coup. The Red Sox and Orioles spoke again yesterday about a possible Manny Ramírez-for-Miguel Tejada swap, though nothing appeared imminent. Orioles owner Peter Angelos, quoted in yesterday's Washington Post, didn't completely discount the possibility of moving Tejada to another AL East team, saying, ''It all depends on what you get back in return." However, Angelos sounded turned off by the three years and $57 million remaining on Ramírez's contract. ''I'd find it difficult to justify a $20 million salary per year for anybody," Angelos told the paper. ''The economics of the game don't support that type of salary for any player."
Honestly how can we be mad? He already pulled one of the biggest sell out moves by "unretiring" from the Yankees. And of course Boston already considers him a huge sellout. I've considered him a sellout since he said he wanted to move closer to his family in Houston and then signed with Toronto. At least we had him for some time, that's my perspective.
Agreed. That, and the Astros aren't waiting for him. Folks: if Rocket wants to pitch in April, he won't be able to do so in Houston. C'est la vie.
My thoughts exactly. If there's one thing consistent about Clemens, its that he's loyal only to one thing and that's himself. If you've got the money, he's willing to be a mercenary for you. Also, he's the kind of guy that really likes the high pressure environments like New York and Boston. He's a great guy and I appreciate what he did for the Astros, but this realy isn't surprising. The guy clearly loves to play baseball still and is still looking around for opportunities.
Now that I think about it, I bet one thing really holding Clemens' decision back is the status of Ausmus. He probably wants to play everyday (or max for a catcher), but the 'Stros want to bring in someone to share time. It's just funny that the Sox are looking into Ausmus and Roger at the same time...kind of tells you something.
The Astros did all they could to get Clemens back. I don't see how the organization can be blamed for whatever happens. The Rocket wanted to play big league hold'em and feels he has a winning hand. I think the Astros will be alright. Sooner or later age will catch up with Clemens, and it very well may be this up coming season. ~ Kountzer ~
dude how can you blame McLane & Purpura roger was not ready to make a choice to play they can't wait forever.
^^^ ture. if we did offer him arbitration and he still didn't make up his mind until january or whenever, that's money tied up we can't use to get this team better. they did the right thing in not letting one player run our entire off season. we have to move on, if he comes back, welcome back roger. if you do decide to go elsewhere....what else is new. i love him as player but he has some serious loyalty problems. i'm not going to blame boston on him, they forced him out said he was washed up. but he did **** on the yankees, which doesn't bother me as a guy who hates the yankees and everything they stand for, but he didn't treat them right. overall, i wouldn't be surprised if he goes and plays for someone else. he'll say because the stros didn't offer him arbitration it was a slap in the face to him..blah,blah,blah. he is the guy who didn't want to make up his mind, and wants to play for a contender, but if we tie up $20 mil. in arbitration and then he decides he doesn't want to come back, we lose out twice. we lose roger and an opportunity at adding someone else to get us better. if we don't offer arbitration, we may lose roger but at least we have the opportunity to get someone else to make the team better. the astros had to do, what they did. roger forced their hand and they had to move on and not let his decision to come back or not command our entire offseason.
if we didn't want the money tied up in him.. then we better spend that money elsewhere.. otherwise you might as well have let it stay tied up in him
Dear Roger: Please sign with the Red Sox so the media coverage can die off. I'm sick of it. Just go to Boston, grab one last huge payday and retire there. Don't let the door hit you. Thanks for two awesome years. You did your part by leading the team to the World Series. The Astros did their part by paying you a huge amount of money and granting you special privileges nobody else ever had. It was very nice while it lasted but all good things come to an end. Dear Tim Purpura: Please make a major move so the media will forget about Clemens. You obviously made the right decision on his arbitration, so now go out and do something productive, even if it means trading Lidge for Tejada (or something like that).
I'm almost as worried about losing Ausmus as I am about Clemens. Ausmus isn't a huge bat but he's a great catcher who's done a lot to make our pitchers great.
You and Hakeem are wrongly assuming that it is impossible to increase the payroll. Drayton should have done this in my opinion because Clemens is such a draw.
^^^ that's the problem. drayton has rarely opened up the checkbooks to make a run at a title he did a couple of years ago. but i just don't see him doing it because he just doens't do it enough. mclane is tight with his pockets and there isn't going to be anything to change that. i would love to have clemens back and a big bat in the lineup, tha'ts the ideal situation for me. and it is still possible.
Even if you fault McLane, that's not a reason to fault Purpura's decision. Purpura's moves are held hostage by McLane's decisions in terms of payroll and how much he's willing to dish out. If McLane wasn't going to expand the payroll, then purpura made the right move. Of course that assumes that Purpura actually does something now with the money he saved. Otherwise, this was just really dumb.
