MLB Notes

The Astros signing of Roger Clemens has been made official. He is expected to make a couple starts with the Round Rock Express before joining the club. Graham and I live just 25 miles south of Round Rock and are desperatly trying to find out which games he will be pitching. Rocket is scheduled to make his first start with the Astros on June 22 against the Twins. Ironically, just yesterday I purchased tickets for me and my pops to see the Twins on June 21.

I've heard alot of speculation that the real reason Roger sat out the first couple months is that he had tested positive for steroids and given a 50 game suspension. The theory is that with the whole Bonds fiasco already putting a black eye ont he sports, Bud Selig decided to keep this one out of the public, much like the theory that Michael Jordan was suspended by David Stern for a year. To be honest, I hate Clemens as much as I love conspiracy theories. After seeing The DaVinci Code, I'm convinced that not only is the Priory of Sion real, but that Tom Hanks himself is the new Grand Master. But this Clemens conspiracy theory has absolutely no ground on which to stand on. I think it's pretty irresponsible to accuse somebody of taking steroids with little to no evidence.

The Cubs and Rangers swapped Phil Nevin and Jerry Hairston Jr this afternoon. This should give the Cubs a viable (maybe?) 1st baseman until Derrek Lee returns. Graham will have more opinions about that than I would. I'm not sure how this helps the Rangers. Nevin had a $10 million contract, but the Rangers are picking up a portion of it. It's not yet known how much. So maybe it's just a cost cutting move, because I don't know where Hairston is going to play. I suppose it does give them some flexibility in dealing one of the outfielders. We'll have to stay tuned to see if it's just a precursor to another deal.

The Royals fired GM Allan Baird and hired Atlanta's assistant GM Dayton Moore. If you're going to pull an assistant out of an organization Atlanta is the one to do it from. Moore's going to have his work cut out for him though as long as the Royals remain under the same ownership. I can't imagine why anybody would want that job.

Here is an intersting rumor about Alfonso Soriano and the Angels.

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