Bringing in a hired gun

Whether you are George Steinbrenner, owner of the N.Y. Yankees, or George Finkelstein, owner of the Fantasy team Daffy Duck's Fowl Balls, Roger Clemens has essentially become a hired gun for the final four months of the season.

Steinbrenner didn't mind shelling out a pro-rated $28 million contract for what amounts to about 22 regular-season starts -- at best -- in hopes of pushing the Yankees toward another World Series championship.

How much were you willing to pay for the services of The Rocket in your Fantasy league? After all, he's no spring chicken anymore. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this column on the 23-year anniversary of his major-league debut with Boston in 1984, against Cleveland. Two of my co-workers weren't even born then.

Then again, he has a pretty nice resumé: All-time AL strikeout leader, 20-game winner six times, five strikeout titles and seven-time Cy Young Award winner.

Peter Madden, our managing editor in Fantasy, is in two AL-only Head-to-Head leagues where Clemens went for an exorbitant amount. The league with a $150 FAAB sold Clemens for $147, whereas the other league with a $100 budget saw The Rocket go for $66.

In all of the leagues I've participated in this season, Clemens was allowed to be drafted. My cohort Eric Mack drafted him in our AL-only Rotisserie league and he'll finally be able to take him off his bench. I took him in an NL-only draft -- and I might as well have drafted Emack, since I'll get as much production out of him.

Clemens will pitch for Class A Tampa on Friday, before moving on to pitch for Double-A Trenton on May 23. If he still needs work, he would then line up to pitch on May 28 for Triple-A Scranton. If all goes well, that means he could start June 2 at Fenway Park against Boston, the team that drafted him 19th overall in the 1983 amateur draft.

Last week, Clemens was officially "purchased" in many Fantasy leagues. Interested in his average price in all of the mixed and AL-only leagues that use a $100 FAAB?

I think you'll be surprised to learn that in AL-only leagues, he went for, on average, $64. Some even bid their entire budget, while a few even won him for $5 -- the lowest price. The median (the salary directly in the middle) was $66, just over the average.

In mixed leagues though, where the talent is much greater making him less valuable, Clemens went for only $21 on average. His high was $97 and his low was $1 -- obviously in leagues with some owners asleep at the wheel. The median in mixed leagues was $12, well below the average. That means there were more owners that bid lower than the average than higher. It also means a few crazy bids brought the average up at the end. By eliminating the top five and bottom five percent, the average drops to almost $19, but the median remains $12.

But remember that in Head-to-Head leagues, you're looking at about a month's worth of playoffs, so cut September out and you are left with three months of Clemens' starts. That equals about 17 appearances. So in an AL-only league in which Clemens went for $64, owners will be paying about $3.75 of FAAB money per regular season start. He had 18 starts with Houston last year -- and only six wins. That's $10 per win.

Granted, he is now in the Bronx, where they get runs more often than cheap panty hose. In Houston last year, Clemens suffered from a lack of run support. The Astros scored only 4.29 runs per start for him. With that number, 364 pitchers had better support than The Rocket.

Clemens' 3.52 k/bb ratio in '06 was even half a point better than his career average. He's not going to go much deeper than six innings (something he did only six times last year), so he will be reliant on the Yankees' bullpen, which has been horrendous this season. This bullpen leads the majors right now with nine blown saves in only 12 save opportunities. Scott Proctor is the only Yankees reliever with more than five holds and he ranks 27th in the majors. Next best? Their setup man Kyle Farnsworth with four. The Yankees closer, future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, has only three saves this season. How many of Clemens' leads can they protect?

I don't doubt that Clemens will be able to hold up his end of the bargain. Just looking at last season as a barometer, he allowed more than two earned runs only three times in his 18 starts. He allowed one run or fewer in 10 starts. Expect him to come out of the gate strong too. Last year, he didn't allow more than two runs in his first seven starts, posting a 2.09 ERA.

Only the Red Sox are outscoring the Yankees offense right now. Outside of Derek Jeter (.375) and Jorge Posada (.365) who are atop the AL in hitting, their other stars are struggling -- especially of late. Bobby Abreu has only two hits in his past 22 at-bats and he's hitting only .236 with one homer. Robinson Cano has nine hits in his past 63 at-bats, hitting just .237.

Even Alex Rodriguez, who started the year on an incredible tear, is just 2-for-17 over the past few games and he's hitting only .277 with just one homer in May. Don't be too afraid, but Chris Shelton hit .286 with just one homer last May after his 10-HR, 20-RBI April in '06.

I don't believe we're looking at A-Shelton or anything like that, but I thought I'd give you that tidbit to e-mail A-Rod's owner in your league to shake him up.

And don't underestimate what Clemens will do for the rest of this staff. He's already taken to mentoring Phil Hughes in Tampa and Kei Igawa will also get some advice. I think of the Cy Young season Jake Peavy is having in San Diego and I see the face of Greg Maddux on the bench dispensing tips.

So, Gonos, answer the question: Is Clemens worth spending $64 in an AL-only league or $21 in a mixed league? When you consider that in AL-only leagues, the list of available players that could affect your team the way Clemens will, you'd have to think 64 percent of your FAAB money was probably a decent buy. There are no rookies that will produce like he will, and you have that assurance going in that he will dominate, unlike with a rookie. In mixed leagues, there will always be players you can grab for $1 or $2 later this season, so $21 seems like a cheap buy. I'm surprised that number wasn't much higher to be honest.

And if Steinbrenner likes Clemens enough to give him a boatload of cash, then you can't go wrong! ... Then again, he also liked Ken Phelps' bat.

Going around the diamond ...

Looking for a rookie pitcher to add to your stables before the hype gets out of control? Luckily, this one pitches for a bottom-feeder. He has a 5-2 record with a 2.05 ERA in Triple-A. He has 57 strikeouts with only nine walks in 52 2/3 innings. For those math-challenged readers, that's a k/bb ratio of 6.33, which would place him in the top five in the majors right now behind four relievers. He would actually be leading all starting pitchers. The problem with him is that his team is preaching patience with him and they're trying to allow him as much time as possible to dominate each level.

The best thing Andy Sonnanstine has going for him is the fact that the Devil Rays' starting pitching staff has three starters with ERAs above 6.50. It's just a matter of time before Sonnanstine replaces Jae Seo, Casey Fossum or Edwin Jackson in that rotation. He took a no-hitter into the sixth against Richmond on Monday. He and Seth McClung combined for a two-hitter.

Sonnanstine has given up just six earned runs over his past 40 2/3 innings (1.33 ERA) in six starts. He leads the International League in innings, strikeouts and wins. The 24-year-old righty is owned in only one percent of CBS SportsLine's leagues right now.

Don't look now but Boston has 24 steals already this season. That's almost half the number they tallied all of last year. Julio Lugo has set the pace from the leadoff position with 11 steals. Remember when everyone was down on Lugo this spring in your Fantasy drafts? "The Red Sox never run." ... "Manager Terry Francona will never send Lugo." And you might think that since the Red Sox offense is starting to pick up even more lately (they lead the majors in runs scored in May with 80), that the steals will start decreasing. Not true. Only three teams have more steals than Boston's 12 through two weeks of May -- that's the same amount they stole in all of April.

Lugo is on pace for a career high in steals (49), RBI (90) and a second-best personal mark in runs scored (90). He still needs to boost that batting average, but it's not hurting you too much with numbers like those in other categories.

Miguel Tejada is officially a different player than the one you drafted in March. The former 34-HR/150-RBI shortstop has only two homers and 18 RBI. He's on pace for eight homers and 76 RBI. His slugging percentage is just .397 so far. Marcus Giles, Yuniesky Betancourt, Randy Winn and Ichiro Suzuki all have a better slugging percentage than the O's No. 3 hitter. He told the Baltimore Sun that he changed his swing last year to hit for a higher average. Don't be too discouraged though, since he usually heats up as the summer goes on. Actually, I might use that as a selling point after he has a two-homer game and move him in a trade.

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