Warning: The following two paragraphs are admittedly pointless. But I think it’s at least an interesting point of view.
Let’s say Roger Clemens picks his team June 1. That means the Astros, Roger’s most likely choice if everything else is equal, have two more weeks to show him they can make the playoffs with his help. In the approximately 24 starts Clemens would get on the season, he’d be about 54 runs above replacement (VORP of 80 last year in 32 starts) and the current Astros fifth starter, Fernando Nieve, is pretty darn replaceable. 54 runs is approximately five and a half wins, using the common 10 runs/win conversion.
Let’s say that the Astros need 94 wins to make the playoffs as the Wild Card or division champ. That’s a .580 winning percentage. Given that Clemens will bump their wins up by 5.5 as of June 1st (after 55 games), Houston only needs to play like an 88.5 win team (.550) without Clemens. Right now they sit at 22-16 (.579), 8 wins shy of the the 30 wins needed to play .550 ball. With 16 games left in the month, the Astros can give themselves a good shot at signing Roger and making the playoffs by playing .500 ball over the next two weeks. Given that eight wins will earn the 5.5 extra from Roger, each win the next two weeks is really like 1.7 wins. If I’m an Astros fan, I’m cautiously optimistic about the season.
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.