FanHouse Matt Clement

Of the great Cubs rotation failure of 2004, everyone surely remembers Mark Prior and Kerry Wood's injury-induced implosions, but few think of Matt Clement. Clement wasn't battered by Dusty Baker the way Wood and Prior were, but he was a third key member of that staff that has been beset by arm injuries recently and today he's decided to retire rather than keep struggling with his shoulder problems.

After hitting 200 innings in back-to-back seasons in 2002 and 2003, Clement slowly tailed off, tossing 181 for Cubs in '04, then 191 for the Red Sox in 2005 before his career was derailed by shoulder problems in 2006. He hasn't pitched in the majors since, though he seemed to be making progress this spring in the Blue Jays camp. Still, when word came down that he was being demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas, he apparently decided he'd had enough.

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Toronto Blue Jays.

There's no team in baseball in a worse spot than the Blue Jays. They've had to contend with the megapowers in New York and Boston for years, watching their competitive payroll and over-.500 seasons amount to nothing more than third-place finish after-third place finish. No matter how much they have spent and how much they have won, it has never been enough to catch the Red Sox or the Yankees.

Dan Haren has been awful this spring. Adam Jones is raking, as is Chris Shelton. Michael Bourn has been a completely worthless hitter. Of the above players, two have stat-lines that matter, and two have ones that don't.

You see, judging spring training stat-lines in fantasy baseball can be helpful, but you don't want to get too caught up in it. After all, the games are meaningless. Most established veterans are just going through the motions in attempt to get their body ready for the real season. For them, the stat-lines are meaningless. Thus, I don't care that Haren has sucked thus far. I'd still draft him with confidence.

Let's take a deeper look at a when they matter, when they don't, and why.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Boston Red Sox
The shortstop battle between Jed Lowrie and Julio Lugo is heating up. Lowrie has six hits in sixteen at-bats with two doubles and a triple while Lugo has eight hits in fifteen at-bats with two doubles.

Lugo has made changes the Sox hope will help him recapture the power he showed before his arrival in Boston. He added muscle this offseason and, this spring, he slightly altered his batting stance.

Hitting coach Dave Magadan has been telling Francona he expects to see more power from Lugo this season.

There aren't enough positions on the field for both of these guys to play full-time and the DH spot is going to be occupied by David Ortiz. That can only mean one thing; a who's hotter at the moment platoon. No fantasy owner wants to hear that. This is one of those situations where what's best for the Major League team isn't so good for your fantasy team.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

After clinging to contender-ship for the past few years, it seems as though last season was a wake-up call to San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers. Trevor Hoffman will not be the closer this year, Khalil Greene is likely to be traded, and Jake Peavy is definitely going to be traded. Let's examine what triggered this.

The Padres can't hit, and they are not in position to develop an offense any time soon. They had been able to survive with little offense the previous three seasons because their pitching and defense -- teamed with their home-field advantage in spacious Petco Park -- was able to churn out those 3-2 and 2-1 victories enough times to stay competitive. That all went by the wayside in 2008, as significant time was missed by Peavy and Chris Young atop the rotation (they made only 45 combined starts after making 64 in 2007) and the rest of the starters were shaky all season. In turn, the team ERA ballooned from 3.70 to 4.41.

The Boston Red Sox are on their last legs. The Tampa Rays have taken over as "America's Team", the Citgo signs are catching fire, and the BoSox are about to be eliminated, barring another 2004 comeback occurrence.

So it should come as absolutely no surprise that a large number of folks who jumped on board the Beantown bandwagon four years ago are clamoring to get off now. How can I tell? Ticket prices at Fenway are fading faster than Matt Clement's career.

Premium seats that commanded upwards of $2,000 just a year ago are selling for a quarter of that price. A field box ticket that would have set you back $1,800 in the 2004 dream season defeat of the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, and $900 in the same series last year, now goes for $300 - just $25 above face value.

On Tuesday, Ace Ticket actually dropped prices below face value and, for the first time in 29 years, failed to sell out for a postseason game.

"Ticket prices," in the words of chief executive Jim Holzman, "have plummeted."

Boston.com even points out that it should be the economy, but it's not. And so the question has Red Sox "fans" searching for answers. Could it be a lack of angst? Could it be a serenity that exists among this fan base now? Or could it just be that when the team stops winning, all of these diehard, Sawx lifers start to disappear a little bit.

Let's face it -- one of the real joys of playing fantasy sports is the satisfaction of feeling smug, even superior, to the other folks in your league. Take, for instance, last season when a given owner tried to add Ryan Braun or Tim Lincecum prior to their call-up, only to find them sitting on your bench. There's no doubt that you felt pretty superior when they undoubtedly posted something like, "I can't believe he's already taken!" (Of course, this assumes a free agent world – otherwise, the same reaction would occur after you bid on that player weeks before anyone else did.)

On the other hand, this can go a bit too far sometimes. This year, I drafted Cameron Maybin, sure that I had myself a great combination of young speed and power – and then he got sent down by the Marlins, and it's far from clear when he'll be back in the bigs. I've stashed Colby Rasmus on a team where I have a bench that justifies it, even though it's not clear if he'll play before September.

Of course, this doesn't just apply to fresh young faces -- the savvy fantasy player can also pick up and stash a veteran who is out on the DL for a sizeable part of the year. Many folks have been holding on to Francisco Liriano for just this reason. (I'm of the theory that this is a waste since he'll be able to contribute very little when he does return.) But who else is likely out there on your free agent wire, potentially providing some free benefits to you down the stretch? Well, it turns out the Cardinals have a rash of pitchers with some prior success that should be hurling in the bigs sooner than later. Let's look at them and decide whether they are worth your bench space.

Cardinal fans shouldn't let go of their dreams of a pitching reclamation project making good just because Mark Mulder's comeback has hit another snag. Matt Clement is back on a mound after two years in the wilderness and all systems appear to be go.

Clement threw 73 pitches for the Palm Beach Cardinals yesterday, striking out five and walking none over six innings. Pitching in front of 707 people in A-ball is a long way from pitching in the major leagues but it's a big step forward for the former All-Star.

"I'm lucky. I don't want to get too emotional or caught up in it. It's one A-ball game, but there are people who said I wouldn't be able to do this again. I'm excited, but I'll be more excited when I'm in the big leagues."

I'm rooting for him. Baseball could always use more atrocious facial hair.

Clement's 2006 season with the Red Sox ended with shoulder surgery and he's been rehabbing ever since. His fastball topped out at 88 mph, much higher than he was throwing in March when his arm strength made his assignment to the disabled list a necessity.

Because he signed a major league deal with the team this offseason, Clement has 29 more days of a rehab assignment before the team needs to figure out what to do with him. Given Jason Isringhausen's questionable status, they'd probably love if he could close.

The St. Louis Cardinals must have liked what they saw in Matt Clement's medical reports, because they have signed the pitcher, who hasn't pitched since early in the '06 season, to a one-year deal.

"Matt is a very talented pitcher who has been beset by injury the last few years," said Cardinals Vice President/General Manager John Mozeliak. "Based on our findings from his rehabilitation last season and his recent physical, we feel that he can be a solid addition to our starting rotation and should have no limitations upon reporting to Spring Training."

The Cardinals might now be among the league leaders in injury issues in their rotation. Mark Mulder made three shaky starts late last season after being out for just over a full year after rotator cuff surgery, and Chris Carpenter was out for practically all of '07 and will be out for part of '08 after Tommy John surgery. So the Cardinals could either have a really good rotation in August and September or a really solid disabled list.

Looking for something to buy that Red Sox fan in your life for Christmas? Has your local memorabilia store run out of Papelbon jerseys, and you're at a loss for what to do?

Don't worry, my friend, for I have found the perfect gift for any Red Sox fan.

How about some game-used underwear? Worn by Manny Ramirez himself.

But why do that when you can give a sentimental gift that keeps on giving Manny Ramirez game-used underwear. Size Large. Of course.

Phil Castinetti of SportsWorld in Saugus has gotten his mitts on a rather large collection of All-Star undies and he's selling them on eBay.

It's seems too good to be true, but it is. You can bid on them right here.

There's also a worn do-rag of Manny's that Castinetti has put on sale as well. Of course, if the scent of Manny's nether regions don't do it for you, there are other players available as well.

Jason Varitek's underwear sold for $255 but that's no where close to what Matt Clement's tighties sold for: $430.

The buyer's ID was Clement30 so Matt either has himself a stalker, or he just paid a lot of money for his own underwear. Sorry, No Photos