The Case for Roger Clemens
- Reid Maus
- Jan 4, 2018
- 3 min read
You’re not in Matrix but you might hinder yourself useless to some Déjà vu. Second up in this series of making cases for players on the ballot? “The Rocket” Roger Clemens. If you haven’t already done it, I wrote about Barry Bonds yesterday ( Article here ) and no I’m not going to tread too heavily over the same arguments I made for Bonds. As Clemens and Bonds are in pretty much every way similar to each other besides their positions.
They both hold claims for being the best at their respected crafts, in terms of on-field productions. Both complete assholes according to most reports, though I never met either one. They were both hall of fame talents before they allegedly started taking the juice. Let’s briefly recap the arguments I made for Bonds, so we can get into the real fun, celebrating Clemens stats.
If the Dayton, Ohio, native, Clemens, had never used steroids and put up the same numbers, then the Rocket would have found himself in Cooperstown quicker than Apollo 11 left Earth’s atmosphere.
But the unfortunate probability is that Clemens took steroids, so hypotheticals go where they should stay, in the dark. Clemens actually went on record in 2014 article with Sports Illustrated saying that he thinks steroids don’t improve performance. This is same guy who “doesn’t remember” throwing the bat at Mike Piazza, when Piazza was running down the base line.
So the question isn’t about his stats, it is about the morality of allowing him in. But to be honest that isn’t all that much fun, so let’s drop our jaw with the career that Clemens had.
An MLB record seven Cy Youngs is just the first eye-catching, sobering reality of how much you didn’t achieve in your baseball career, or softball, I’m all about equality. Two pitching triple crowns, two World Series titles, eleven all-star appearances, and seven era titles (five more than Nolan Ryan.) Actually let’s dive into that a little more. Clemens and Ryan are eternally linked for their pitching styles, but to be honest, Clemens is head and shoulders above Ryan.
Though Ryan was certainly more of a strikeout artist, Ryan and Clemens sit one and three respectively on the all-time strikeout list, Clemens was the more well-rounded pitcher. Clemens never once led the league in walks allowed, Ryan did so eight times, all in the “prime” of his career. When it comes to sabermetrics, Clemens beats Ryan around every corner. Clemens WAR (wins above replacement) 139.4, Ryan 83.9 (less than Mike Mussina.) ERA+, which averages the pitchers in the league so that an “average” pitcher will accumulate around 100, Ryan’s career is 112, while Clemens 143 (Clemens led the league eight times in ERA+, Ryan just twice.) Now my goal isn’t to bash on Nolan Ryan, as he is truly one of the most dominating pitchers of all-time. He led the league in strikeouts four different times in his 40s for Pete’s sake.
Just, it’s easy to draw parallels between Ryan and Clemens, and when you take a deep hard look at their stat pages, Clemens is the better pitcher. Hell, for over kill let’s throw a few more simply stats out there. Clemens is third all-time in pitching WAR, ninth all-time in wins, third all-time in strikeouts and is number one all-time in WPA (win probability added.) The hall of fame monitor which is an algorithm that measures how likely you are to be a hall of famer, based on the averages of other hall of famers. If you score a 100 on the monitor than you are likely to be a hall of famer…Clemens score is 332.
Now similar to Bonds the argument isn’t whether Clemens is good enough. It is whether or not it is morally just to allow admittance to Clemens. The hall has already proven that it is okay with cheaters getting in. Gaylord Perry very openly used an illegal pitch, the spitball. The hall also allowed Bud Selig to get in, who had knowledge about the rampant steroid use in baseball. It also let in Cap Anson who was the standing force against letting African Americans play in the MLB for over half a century, and Fergie Jenkins who was caught with drugs by the police, so morality can’t be the issue. For decades ball players, such as Willy Mays, used “greenies” or amphetamines, which were used to help players play better. Dare we call these “Performance enhancing drugs?”
The hall is a damn hypocrite.
Will Clemens get in this year? No.
Will he in the future? Maybe.
Would I vote for him? Hell yeah!
Comments