UPDATE: Hendricks squashed the rumor.
The big story this morning: Walt Jocketty and co. met at length with Roger Clemens’s agent Randy Hendricks yesterday. Other clients’ of Hendricks were the main topic, but Roger’s name came up. Unlike this winter’s Barry Bonds rumor, Jocketty isn’t denying interest.
The Cardinals have some extra money after missing out on various pitching targets this winter. Clemens is quite a longshot, but it’s certainly fun to speculate. This is the single move with the largest possible impact for St. Louis. Adding 100 innings of the Rocket would probably improve the Cardinals by 3-4 wins, based on PECOTA’s projected WARP. And Murray Chass just stopped reading this post.
Aside from Clemens, the Cards could pursue Carl Pavano, Jon Lieber, or Brad Penny. Penny is the possible impact arm and of course would draw much more interest if he’s available. His overall impact would probably be similar to that of Clemens, but the bounty is to be paid in prospects. Colby Rasmus, Jaime Garcia, and Chris Duncan could be targets of L.A.
