01-27-2022, 11:21 AM
Quote:In fairness, Clemens was also pretty good before his PED days.
If you look at Clemens's career, season by season, it's very weird. You can pinpoint the exact years he juiced. He had incredible seasons from 1986 through 1992. 7 truly great years that I assume weren't aided by steroids. Then he hit a wall in 1993 when he turned 30 and was very much human from 1993 through 1996. Then, when Boston was considering non-tendering him, he went to the Blue Jays in 1997 at age 34 and had maybe his best season ever. 21-7 with a 2.05 ERA and 292 Ks. Cy Young. Won another Cy Young the next year at age 35. He clearly hit the steroids hard in 1997-1998. Then he went to the Yankees and became human again. 14-10 with a 4.60 ERA at age 36. He won the Cy Young in 2001, which was absolute bullshit. Yeah, his record was 20-3, but he had a 3.51 ERA. Mussina, his teammate, had a much better season but voters were wowed by Clemens's record. Then he had a couple more somewhat decent seasons in NY. 4.35 ERA, 3.91 ERA. Nothing spectacular. Then he goes to Houston at age 41, goes 18-4 with a 2.98 ERA and wins another Cy Young. His age 42 season might have been even better. 13-8 with a 1.87 ERA.
It's like a roadmap of steroid use. If he didn't start juicing at age 34, he probably flames out right there and is either out of the game or just a middling number 3 or 4 starter. Or maybe they convert him to the bullpen. Steroids gave him almost another decade in the game with 2 more Cy Young awards at ages 38 and 41.