Clemens Has Power Rating on the Rise

Among his individual goals are 300 victories and 4,000 strikeouts, but Roger Clemens has one other thing in mind:

“I came in as a power pitcher and I plan on going out as a power pitcher,” Clemens said Friday at the Edison Field news conference where the New York Yankees announced a $30.9-million contract extension with the five-time Cy Young Award winner who will try to register his sixth consecutive victory when he faces the Angels today.

The Rocket has been displaying his familiar octane since leaving the disabled list on July 2, having recovered from a groin pull. He was the AL’s pitcher of the month in July with a 5-0 record and 1.91 earned-run average, pitching again, as Manager Joe Torre put it, like Cy Young. He has struck out 47 in the 56 innings of nine starts since leaving the disabled list.

“He has the look and focus in his eyes again, and that can be intimidating to the opposition,” Torre said. “He can move you off the plate and he can thread a needle.”

Clemens has 256 career victories and 3,599 strikeouts, and he asks Yankee media director Rick Cerrone to keep him updated on where he is on the all-time lists because it serves as motivation and “I want some of the mementos. I like to look at those lists and the names of the guys I’m passing during the off-season, and I get a little smirk on my face.”

The contract extension seems to assure Clemens of making his final run at 300 as a Yankee. If he pitches through the first option year in 2003, he will be 41, but there is one goal that probably will elude him.

Actually, the goal is that of his son, Koby.

“He sees the Griffeys [having played together in Seattle] and he wants me to stick around long enough so that he can bat against me,” Clemens said, smiling. “I don’t see that happening. He’s only 13.”

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The Angels, as oft chronicled, will be asking their impressive array of young pitchers to shoulder a burden as they pursue the wild card down the stretch, but Manager Mike Scioscia feels the media emphasis is misplaced.

Scioscia, of course, is trying to relieve some of the pressure on his pitchers--and, perhaps, on General Manager Bill Stoneman for failing to make a more aggressive pursuit of veteran arms during the off-season--but from the start, he says with validity, this is a team constructed on offense.

“I would have done cartwheels to see a pitcher of the Mike Mussina or Brad Radke caliber walk into the clubhouse at the trade deadline, but it was a limited market and we had limited bullets to trade,” Scioscia said.

“People focus on our pitching, but the bottom line is that we’re a team built on offense, and we made the decision to try and become even stronger offensively [with the addition of Ron Gant]. I’m not dismissing the pitching, but at this point the real issue is that we have to stay consistent offensively.”

In other words, a veteran-less, injury-riddled and basically untested rotation will be leaning heavily on the $13.3-million Mo Vaughn and associates, particularly with closer Troy Percival on the disabled list and an uncertain contributor over the final six weeks.

It’s the Big Bang theory, and the Angels have had to believe in it since April.

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The deadline fire sale has left the Baltimore Orioles using 23-year-old Ryan Kohlmeier, just up from triple A, in the closer role.

“Same circus, bigger tent,” Kohlmeier said of the jump.

“Yeah,” said Manager Mike Hargrove, “but the lion has bigger claws.”