What's the deal with Clemens?

[1crazycanuk]

He sucks! :evil: I read somewhere that you should give a pitcher at least six starts so I will but he's 0-4 already and crappy on another of my teams too. I thought this guy was good???

[cplake]

There are certain players that I don't feel should ever be dropped and one is Clemens. He's a stud. He's one of those 100% guys (all 5 years are keepers).

It sounds as if your season is still in the early stages. If so, things will definately be looking up for you in regards to his performance. He was dropped in one of my leagues and picked up shortly thereafter. He was badly underperforming for the dropper, but went 12-3 for the guy who picked him up.

I think patience is the key for great players who are underperforming.

Good luck! :D

[1crazycanuk]

Thanks cpl. Yeah, you're right. Good cards on all five years. And I'm sure he will perform better. Waiting for him to do so is the hard part. haha

[Outta Leftfield]

I've had Clemens four or five times and never had a bad year from him. Sometime he goes through a bad stretch though, which can last four or five games. If that happens at the beginning of the season instead of in the middle, it can look like he's no good. The hitters are so high-powered that anybody is going to get rocked some of the time.

Results are going to vary, though, based on the defense behind him, the parks he and his opponents are in, and just the luck of the rolls. One year I had what turned out to be his "worst" season, 1989 (3.13 ERA; 1.22 WHIP) and he went 23-8 with a 2.71 ERA. Another year, he had that same season and went 14-18 with a 3.54 ERA. That's still a good season--my guys just didn't hit for him so he didn't win much. But the ERA is going to vary a lot, even with the same season. He might even post an ERA over 4. But he's always going to be fundamentally a good pitcher. If he's really not going well and you feel the need to free up some cash for other needs, you might consider trying to trade him. Other owners might well take him even with a bad record because they know he can't really be bad.

[ccangerame]

I think we have learned the hard way that you never cut the Rocket- You are getting 300 innings for 9 million- that is how I have come to look at it. He will run streaks but generally is a horse. I have had him on a couple of teams and once made the mistake of cutting him loose to shore up many problems and that backfired on me when someone in my division picked him up and he pitched with a vengance towards my squad. I would say the only way to trade him is to know exactly what you are getting back. As I type this I just put him on top of my draft card - let the games begin

[1crazycanuk]

Good advice guys, thanks. So far Roger is getting rocked by lefty batters so I'm betting I got his '88 card. And I play in Tiger stadium too. :(

[Jablowmi]

I picked up Rocket midseason for an average team I had at the Kingdome. We had been 7-9 with a 5.05 ERA/1.49 WHIP at Fenway through 144.1 IPs (20 games). At the Dome, he was 12-3 with a 3.96 ERA/1.27 WHIP in 150 IPs (21 games). Clearly, he turned it around and is worth the wait, even with a "bad" card.

Hershiser? Well, that's a different story......

[yak1407]

Therein lies the rub with pitching, in general.
Whereas with a hitter you can sometimes get confirmation of which you have through injury, for example, the chance of finding out which pitcher you have with triple sixes is remote.
I, for one, am still struggling with my pitching staff with guys that were supposed to be pretty solid doing nothing (Gullickson).
Plus the game is probably slanted towards the hitters.
In a normal game, your stud pitcher gets a chance to feed on on the bottom of your batting order. But there are no soft outs in this game. So it is very easy for a pitcher's numbers to be skewed.
I haven't tried Clemens yet, but that's because I tend to avoid the big ticket pitchers.