Ah yes, 1989. Kenneth Branagh’s version of Henry V was in theaters. Milli Vanilli hit #1 three times. And Roger Clemens finished the season with 17 victories, to give him 95 in his brief big-league career.

The Rocket’s entry in The Scouting Report: 1990 is found on page 45. Here are some of the highlights:

Roger Clemens is still among the premiere pitchers in baseball, but his performance has steadily declined over the past four years as he makes the change from complete power pitcher to sometime power pitcher… Arm and shoulder injuries have caused Clemens to dabble in forkballs, sliders and sidarm pitches… Despite his arm problems, Clemens made all but one of his starts and again pitched more than 250 innings [he topped 250 IP four straight years, from age 23 to 27]… He isn’t afraid to knock a big hitter off the plate to establish his territory… He is the workhorse of the Boston staff and one of a few franchise players in baseball.

Clemens led the AL in pitches thrown (4,243), pickoff throws (295), and caught stealing (17), and finished second to Nolan Ryan in strikeouts (fanning 230 at age 26, finishing 71 behind the 42-year-old Ryan).

The Rocket followed four years of steady decline with 21 wins and a 1.93 ERA in 1990, which should have been good enough for his third Cy Young Award. Unfortunately for him, that was the year Bob Welch managed to win 27 games. A quick look at how Clemens and Welch did in 1990:

       IP  H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9  ERA ERA+
RC  228.1 7.61 0.28 2.13 8.24 1.93 211
BW  238.0 8.09 0.98 2.91 4.80 2.95 126

I wonder how many times in the past 40 or so years a pitcher has won 25+ games while striking out fewer than 5 batters per 9 innings. Still, it’s hard to feel too bad for Clemens, who does have seven Cy Young Awards and an MVP to his credit.

Factoids about Clemens:

• Was born in Dayton, Ohio (not, as I’d assumed, Texas).
• Has struck out 200+ batters in a season 12 times.
• Has never struck out 300 batters in a season.
• Has finished among the top 10 in ERA 13 times in his career; 11 of those were top 5.
• Has finished among the top 10 in wins 12 times in his career; 11 of those were top 5.
• Higher SO/9 at age 41 (9.15) than in any season from ages 26-31 (ranging from 7.51 to 8.86).
• Worked 10 complete games at age 23, 18 at age 24, and 14 at age 25.
• Top comps for career: Tom Seaver, Greg Maddux, John Clarkson, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, Lefty Grove, Randy Johnson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Plank, and Bert Blyleven. Maddux and Johnson will be in the HOF, Blyleven should be in it, the rest already are.

Sure, his kids all have names that start with “K” and he sometimes gets confused with a bat in his hands, but the guy has been one heckuva great pitcher. Baby, we won’t ever forget your number.