Astros Will Not Rule Out Signing Clemens

Ari, if they signed Clemens it would simply be a ploy to put butts in the seats. Nobody in their right mind could think he can be productive. Everybody saw what happened last year with the Yankees and what a tremendous waste of money that turned out to be.

He done. Go head pay him some more money.

"The Astros need to rebuild? What do you think they did in the offseason? Tejada, Matsui, Bourne, Erstad, Chacon,Valverde, Geary, Brocail, Villarreal, and Blum."

Are you kidding me? Most of those guys are way over 30, and almost all of them are past their prime. They're a bunch of under-achieving vets (with the exception of Tejada who's on his way down).

Now Tex I'm not sure if you know the baseball definaition of rebuild but the usual concept is to restock the farm system, not tear it apart.

Tex,
While I applaud your enthusiasm, I don't think Ed Wade would agree that you're "rebuilt." He wants to win now and he's smart enough to know that they need more pitching.

Winning builds chemistry, if the Stros can deal with all of Miggy's baggage they can deal with their hometown prodigy. And while a lot of people want to act like he sucked last year, his signing just happened to coincide with NYs resurgence. And even though his ERA was up, 4.18 isn't really getting racked in the AL. If he can stay healthy, he automatically becomes the second best SP on the Stros.

"If Sampson is still pitching horribly we should just call up....oh....damn it."

Hahhahahahahahahaha! my thought exactly. Tex I applaud your thoughts. But the uys you mentioned are vets and are around to try and keep up with the young brewers and stacked cubs.

I think the obvious thing here that I haven't seen anyone mention is that McLane said the Astros would like to see all the legal problem cleared up before they would bring Roger back. Hence, Roger now has a reason to drop his suit againt McNamee other than just quiting. He can say he's dropping it in hopes of coming back to pitch this year and for no other reason (in other words, he's still "innocent"). Roger and McLane are friends, even if he doesn't pitch for the 'Stos this year McLane is trying to help him out, give him alternatives and plausible deniability, etc...

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That is very shrewd. It begs this question:

Is McLane willing to sacrifice the well-being of his baseball team to help out Roger? Unfortunately for all the Astros fans out there, I think the answer is yes. McLane seems to be willing to put his friendship with Roger over (1) the well-being of the team (he will NOT help them, whatever he offers in terms of improvement over Sampson, he will be a huge distraction) and (2) over the desire of his fans (I have a couple of good friends from Houston who loved Roger until this whole fiasco started and now they can't stand to even talk about him - they feel betrayed. I suspect this is the consensus feeling down there since most people tend to be reasonable and logical).

The Astros definitely didn't rebuild last offseason, they are in total win-now mode. They probably have 3 decent arms in the minors that might be able to help this year - Nieve and Paulino (both recovering from injuries but should be healthy by the all-star break) and Norris (doing well at AA).

I think Clemens could still be very effective in the NLC. He was dominant 2 years ago and, as others have said, pitching in the ALE (facing a DH) is way different from pitching in the NLC. Just look what happened last time Clemens moved from NYC to Houston. He's a 6-inning starter, but he would be much more effective than Sampson, Backe and Chacon.

The big question is team chemistry. But for the most part, the Astros are a veteran team and I think the players would be fine. If the Astros do want to go this direction, I think it would be wise to talk to Berkman, Oswalt, Lee, and Tejada and at least gauge their opinions on the potential addition of Clemens.

clemens is washed up now, he can't even pitch half a season anymore. i think signing him would be a bad move

on the topic of rebuilding the stros...why should they rebuild when they're playing so well r/n? like tex said, they're one of the hottest teams in the league, so what reason is there to dismantle the team just so they can get younger? they are a playoff contender right now. after a few solid drafts the farm system will be respectable again, just give them time. i'd rather see a decent time fight for the playoffs every year while rebuilding the system through the draft than a team of rookies we put together from dismantling the current group of veterans play terrible while rebuilding the system

and those of you who said most of those guys are past their primes are probably right...but if that's the kind of production we can get from old washed up ballplayers then i'll take them over any rookies anyday. you can argue that miguel tejada is the best shortstop in baseball right now not named hanley ramirez. check the stats folks, they're playing well.