The Baseball Desert

Friday, June 25, 2004

Regular Roger

Not content to be one of the most dominating pitchers of his era, Roger Clemens is proving that he likes to wrap his milestones together in nice little round-numbered bundles. Last season Clemens' 300th career win also coincided with his 4,000th career strikeout, and last night's win against the Pirates was his 10th of the year (making him the first pitcher to reach the figure this season), the 320th of his career, and just for good measure he also threw in career strikeout # 4,200.

Clemens' team also hit the headlines elsewhere yesterday by signing Carlos Beltran in a three-way deal with the A's and the Royals. All three teams stand to benefit from the deal - Beltran's bat should help the Astros make a serious run at a World Series title, the A's got the closer they need so badly and the Royals got some fine prospects. Jayson Stark argues that, although Royals' GM Allard Baird was pretty much forced to trade Beltran, he actually got the best out of the deal. As Baird himself said:

"I feel good. I hate to lose Carlos Beltran. That's not easy. ... But I feel like we got maximum value for a rare player."

However, Dave Pinto begs to differ.

Only time will tell who's right...