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Flashback Draft: Bonds vs. Clemens
Suspend disbelief and imagine you're the GM for Minnesota in 1983. You have the 1st pick in the draft, and, 18 year-old Barry Bonds and 20 year-old Roger Clemens are available from Arizona State and Texas. Knowing what you know now about the legendary careers these abrasive characters would go on to have... Which one would you have drafted?
Bonds became the best hitter in the post-WWII era and probably the 3rd-best of all time. He has 668 HR, 1,964 runs, 1,764 RBI, 502 SB and 2,114 walks (vs. only 1,393 strikeouts). From '90-'03, he finished in the top-5 for the MVP 11 times. He won the award 6 times and has done so 3 years running. He also has 8 Gold Gloves to his credit. His teams never won a championship but have played in 9 playoff series. During those Bonds posted a .945 OPS (about 10% worse than his career average).
Clemens is certainly the best pitcher in the past 25 years and is only rivaled by Tom Seaver in the post-WWII era. He has 315 wins, a 3.18 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and 4,131 Ks. The Rocket won 6 Cy Youngs (plus one MVP in '86). From '86-'01, Clemens finished in the top-6 for the award 10 times. He was on the World Series champion Yankees in '01 and has pitched in 18 playoff series (mostly w/ the Yanks). His lifetime postseason record is 11-7 w/ a 3.47 ERA (about 9% worse than his career avg).
Making this even more compelling is that, if the season ended today, these two old-timers would win this year's MVP and CY awards. Bonds, 39, is getting on base 70% of the time. Clemens, 41, is 5-0 w/ a 1.95 ERA. Of course they're both unbelieveable, but if I had to take one to build my team around for 20 years... It would be Bonds. His brilliance is in the lineup everday, and that simple fact would force my hand to draft him over any starting pitcher. Ever.
PS: The Twins selected Tim Belcher w/ the 1st pick of the '83 draft. He went on to win 146 games in the Bigs. Clemens went 19th '83 to Boston. Bonds went 6th in the '85 draft to Pittsburgh.
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sunappraisers must be smoking some good stuff wherever he/she is from. Bonds has NOT been improving, but has actually remained stagnate. 50 homeruns?? well that may be true, but remember, when Barry hit those 73 homeruns, the majority was in a ballpark custom built for him (now AT&T Park)...not to mention how in his hay-days he was playing in the National League east, which is not known to be a homerun division (the parks are considerably larger). Bottomline is this...look at Clemens 15 years ago, and look at him now...hmm a lot bigger...plus in the late 80s and 90s...when he was getting bent over and raped by the Oakland A's...he was just another on-par pitcher...but now he's pitching with sub 2.0 era? coincidence?? I think not...Steroids has NOTHING to do with hitting ability...Barry has always had the bat speed, always had the homerun power..and he's even doing it now on one bad knee and a bad elbow...plus, like TRUE professionals say..if Barry took steroids..why isn't he faster, stronger, and more easily healed?? As for Clemens...he's in his 40's and still pitching high 90's?? Still winning 10+ games a season?? Highly evident that if he's not roiding..he's on SOMETHING...by the way....Canseco has never tested positive neither...fucking morons
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Whatever's said about Barry Bond's steroids should probably be whispered about Roger Clemons.......There is no way he is clean either....just no one has looked or doesn't want to see the evidence in his career and the coincidences involved..... For example, look at Clemons from 1993 thru 1996....he was a pitcher washed up and Boston unloaded him.....not coincidentally, a teammate of Roger's on his last two years with the Redsox was none other than Jose Canseco a known/admitted steroid user/pusher.....Also take note that the two played together in Toronto in 1998 and also note that Rogers career managed to take flight after 1996....so not unlike Barry's late career lift....Roger's had the same 'unusual' lift as he became older.....Facts are Rogers numbers improved after a 4 year slide in the mid 1990's ....his improvement came after a 'coincidental' known steroid person was his teammate....Both have never tested positive.....both have similar 'unusual' athletic feats at stages when historically and physically a player should be in decline......???? Just interesting info to pass on for consumption....... :-)
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i'll take clemens, he's been good he's whole carear. bonds as hes getting older he's getting better (guess why??)
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BONDS NUMBERS ARE STERIOD NUMBERS. YET HE COULD SLEEP AT NIGHT KNOWING HE'S CHEATING BASEBALL. HE IS PATHETIC TAKING CREDIT FOR ANYTHING HE IS DOING SINCE HITTING 73 HOME RUNS. LOOK BEFORE HE STARTED TAKING STERIODS. THE MAN NEVER HIT 50 HOMERS. THEN ONE BLUE MORNING HE BANGS OUT 73. GIVE ME A BREAK. HIS NUMBERS STARTING WITH THE 73 HOMERS SHOULD BE ERASED FROM THE BOOKS AND NOT RECONIZED. CLEMENS IS PURE NATURAL ABILITY. LOOK AT BONDS BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES OF STERIOD USE. AND IF YOU THINK ANYTHING DIFFERENT THE WWF IS REAL FIGHTING
5/7/07 6:00 PM
Bonds has been much more valuable over the course of his career than Clemens. A great position player is always more valuable than a great pitcher, so for me, Bonds is the easy choice.