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Roger Clemens Might Be A Scoundrel And Other MLBullets

By Brett Taylor

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Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens testifies about allegations of steroid use by professional ball players before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens testifies about allegations of steroid use by professional ball players before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Getty Images

It's hard to imagine, after two wins like that, but there is an entire other universe of baseball being played right now...

  • Roger Clemens' perjury trial is underway, but for some reason it isn't capturing the national attention that Barry Bonds' perjury trial did. It appears that the approach is going to be to paint Clemens as a "scoundrel," who shouldn't be given credit for palling around with an upstanding citizen, who also just happened to use HGH, like Andy Pettitte. I'll confess, I, too, have trouble getting into the Clemens case. I'm not sure if it's a matter of having become so cynical about the PED issue, or if it's simply a matter of Clemens not being quite as compelling as a "villain" as was Bonds. Either way, the trial will go on for a little while, and it will at least make for modestly interesting courtroom drama.

  • Ryan Zimmerman, who hasn't played since Friday, just got the results of a shoulder MRI, and Nationals manager Davey Johnson says those results were "not favorable." Yikes. It sounds like a DL stint is in the offing for the Nats' talented, but injury-prone, third baseman.
  • Some sources think MLB got screwed by the recent Dodgers sale, by virtue of its procession through bankruptcy court: "[P]ersons with knowledge of the situation, who don't wish to be identified because of confidential issues regarding the sale, claim that only in the last few days did MLB receive detailed financial information about the purchase agreement." In other words, MLB is being kept out of the loop from something it had previously been intimately involved with.
  • There is some serious drama unfolding in the Baltimore Orioles' organization with respect to minor league pitcher, Dontrelle Willis. The formerly-very-good lefty has had battles with anxiety issues, and he recently left his AAA team without the organization's permission. The Orioles responded by putting Willis on the restricted list, and now he's upset that he can't sign elsewhere. Willis' camp believes he did, in fact, have permission to leave the team, and that Baltimore GM Dan Duquette is just grinding an ax.
  • Mike Pelfrey is believed to have a tear in his UCL, which would require season-ending Tommy John surgery.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation, and a Contributor here at Bleed Cubbie Blue.

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