vivalaultra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RVZd-F6f_Q This one's also good.

That and the fact that he threw about 20-25 pitches an inning on average. He made 19 starts and went over 5 innings in like...10 of them and over 6 innings in 5 of them. Having 87 pitches thrown in the 4th inning is not going to bode well in the monstrous AL East.

It was entirely different the last 3 years. Clemens was in the National League. He didn't have to face Designated Hitters. The Astros' bullpen over the last 3 years was top 5 in baseball. The Yankees' bullpen isn't that great. They're expecting him to come in and be as good as he was in Houston. In honesty, he'll probably pitch about 115 innings, win about 10 games and have a 4.50 ERA. I wonder why when Clemens came back to the 'Stros in 2005 and 2006, they didn't flash a message on the video screen at MMP and have him stand up from on high and announce his return.

Notice it says nothing about October...cuz the Yankees ain't gonna be playing in October, yo.

I know that Clemens is, perhaps, the best RHP of the last 200 years, but, he's 43 years old and has had hamstring problems the last couple years. He averaged 6 innings a start last season in the NL. In the AL, with the DH and the overall superior offenses, I can't see him having too many starts over 5 innings. I thought the Yankees were already having problems with their old starters not being able to go more than 5 innings and then having the BP come in and blow everything. Maybe now the Astros can cut Roger's useless son from their AA team.

In the three years that Clemens was in Houston, he never had arm troubles, but he did have quite a few problems with his hamstring. Haven't the Yankees had about 85 hamstring-related injuries this year?

The contract was for $22 million, but it was prorated for 6 months. He made $11 million out the door. I could see the contract being for $44 million prorated, so he makes $22 million.

It had to be more than $20 million. He made $22 million last season. I doubt he took the paycut. Well, people in Houston are gonna be pissed. I'm not. The Astros' rotation is looking pretty decent w/o him and if he wants to go to the AL East and make 80 Brazilian dollars to pitch 120 innings of 4.50 ERA ball, good for him.

Hmmm...

The final tally in St. Louis was 13-0 'Stros. Pujols, Rolens, and Edmonds all went hitless. Matt Albers pitched 7 1/3 innings of 3 hit ball. The Cardinals only got 3 singles all day. Hunter Pence hit his first major league homerun in the 7th. It was a grand slam. Good win today.

Even more bad news for the Cardinals. In the midst of a 9-0 blowout at the hands of my Houston Astros, I just heard that Chris Carpenter, who was on the verge of coming back, is now scheduled to have arthroscopic elbow surgery next week and will be out at least another three months. Not even a trade for Jeff Weaver can help them now, methinks.

Watching the Cardinals play right now, it's clear that they're just...not very good. They're being shut down by Woody Williams. They have one hit through 4 innings. Adam Wainwright isn't looking even 1/10th as dominating as he did out of the 'pen. Preston Wilson is batting leadoff. It was funny, though. There was a conversation between Astros' broadcasters Bill Brown and Jim DeShaies about how the Cards spent the offseason. Bill Brown talked about how the Cardinals FO brought in Jack Nicklaus and Bill Parcells and some other winning personalities to try to motivate the team into not resting on their laurels. JD responded, "Gee...maybe instead of doing that, they should've signed some free agents or made some trades or something. I bet it was cool for the team to see those guys, but the Cardinals...they're just not very good. They weren't very good last year!" And it's true. The NL Central, she hath gone topsy-turvy!

The bar that Hancock was at right before the crash was owned by former Cardinal and current broadcaster Mike Shannon. They had security video of the crash on some website. It's not like...graphic or anything. Looking at it, you can see Hancock's headlights come speeding right towards the tow truck and then they just disappear. It doesn't look like he slowed down at all.

I think Pettitte's on the outer fringes of being a HOFer now and, even if he pitches another couple years, will still be a relative longshot. He has good numbers, granted, but not blow away numbers. He's only a 2-time All-Star, never won a Cy Young, only been in the top 5 for Cy Young voting 4 times in 13 years, only won 20 or more games twice. He's got a 98 on the HOF monitor, but only a 31 on the HOF standards. He's an interesting case, though. And after the no-doubt HOFers retire-Clemens, Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz, Martinez, Johnson-there's the 'fringe' guys-Schilling, Pettitte, et al. I don't see too many pitchers coming up that will have careers like the guys in the former group, so pretty soon some of the 'fringe' guys are going to have to get in.

I concur, Guiseppe.

Five Goodest Albums of 2007 thus far: 5. Bright Eyes Cassadaga 4. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver 3. Peter, Bjorn, and John Writer's Block 2. Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha 1. Elvis Perkins Ash Wednesday Word to Big Bird.

I think that I'm going to have to stop the 'Josh Hamilton=GOD' talk and start up the 'Hunter Pence=GOD' talk. I don't watch the Reds regularly, but Josh Hamilton's starting to look a little like a guy who's never played above A ball. Maybe it's the 'Anybody that gets put on my fantasy team immediately starts sucking' effect, but it just looks like pitcher's have started figuring him out a little bit. Comparing the Cards/'Stros, the way both are playing and the way the Brewers are playing, I might have to rethink my original assumptions. However, I agree the the 'Stros look closer to turning things around than the Cards. The Cards have been playing shitty ball for the majority of the season. The Astros starting pitching, surprisingly, has been quite good (tied for the ML lead in quality starts) while both Wainwright and Reyes haven't been hot shakes and Kip Wells has been bad. If Chris Carpenter either doesn't come back soon or comes back and isn't that good, the Cards could be in big trouble. I don't buy the Cubs. I definitely don't buy the Pirates. I'm not sold on the Reds. I'm starting to come around a bit on the Brewers. I still think that the 'Stros offense will start clicking and if/when Clemens comes back, I still envision a 90 win season. Ah, unbridled optimism.

The 'Stros are only doing marginally better than the Yankees. If I were Clemens, I'd be heading up to Milwaukee in June.

Not even for a certain first ballot Hall of Famer pitcher that will be making a decision about where he'll pitch by the end of this month? Do the Yankees even have a rotation spot available should Clemens, for whatever reason, decide to go back to the Bronx? Pettitte, Mussina, Wang, Hughes, Igawa...who would get Das Boot?

Don't count out the Astros yet, the Reds have a habit of not playing add on, and then the bullpen comes in and it's a new game. They look to be adding on pretty damn well tonite.

Well, a rookie sinkerballer, an umpire with a high strikezone, Brian Moehler, and a cold Astros' offense make this a night I should've spent making sweet, sweet love to a beautiful woman.

Nah, dawg, you're cool.

The Marlins should go to San Antonio. I mean, they have to do SOMETHING with all that San Antonio Diablos merchandise they printed up when it looked like the Saints were moving to SA a couple years ago. Then, stick the Diablos in the NL Central and move the Pirates to the NL East where they belong.

To follow up on the dumb nicknames, I was just looking at a Brave's blog-Is there really a group that calls themselves 'Wickman's Wicker Baskets'? Oy vey.

The Langer Hands? Good Lord. That's why I always hated watching home Braves games; the fans have some dumbass names for fan club's-"Chipper's Chippendales", "Francoeur's Franks", "Langer Hands". Come on, guys, put some thought into it!