What lessons can investors learn from the return of Roger Clemens to the Yankees next week, possibly against the Boston Red Sox? Plenty.
Like great investors, great baseball executives know where to find value. On the face of it, spending lots of money on a 44-year-old pitcher seems like a poor investment. But this isn't just any player. Clemens has already won 348 games, along with seven Cy Young Awards, making him one of the best to ever play the game.
The Yankees are going to pay him an astounding $4.5 million per month for four months work. That works out to about $9,000 per pitch regardless whether they are balls or strikes. Sure is nice work if you can get it, but is Yankee owner George Steinbrenner going to get his money's worth from Clemens? They have to reach the postseason, period.
The Bronx Bombers faced a double-digit deficit to the Red Sox last weekend, before rebounding slightly. They've been forced to start a record seven rookies in the team's first 42 games, so adding Clemens surely will be a welcome injection for the decimated starting staff.
Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman harped all winter how his goal was to shed salary and build for the future while of course having to win the World Series now. And the Yankees did dump the vastly overrated and overpaid Randy Johnson and traded disgruntled outfielder Gary Sheffield to Detroit for prospects.
Cashman has kept his word. But with the team hovering under .500 almost all season thus far and $40 million bust Carl Pavano seemingly headed for season-ending surgery, Clemens became the obvious answer to help a team which hasn't won a championship since 2000. That's eons in Steinbrenner's world.
In his first Yankee stint, from 1999-2003, the Yankees reached the World Series four times, winning twice. Clemens continues to amaze. And the Yankees are praying his powerful right arm has another dozen or so wins in it to get the Pinstripers to the postseason for a 12th straight season under manager Joe Torre. If that happens, there's no doubt once October comes who will start the opening game of the playoffs. It's how Yankee soap operas almost always play out.
Only then, will the team know if it made a good deal for the future Hall-of-Famer.
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