The trade is official: Roger Clemens, one year, ~ 5 million. One thing that struck me during the Clemens press conference was that it was obvious that Pettitte, Biggio, and Bagwell are a huge reason that Clemens signed. I've tried to write about this before, but here goes: are Biggio and Bagwell getting older? Yes. Are they overpaid? Yes. Is Biggio a good defensive CF? No. Might Bagwell's arm fall off if he throws a relay home? Yes. Does any of that matter? NO. Well, yes, it matters a little. But is there any way we sign Pettitte or Clemens (or Kent last year) without having Biggio and Bagwell (maybe even Ausmus) on our team? I doubt it.

Baseball isn't all about what you do on the field. Biggio and Bagwell are class acts, well-liked, respected guys who play the game the way it was meant to be played. I just used way too many cliches in the last sentence, but today I don't care. Today we signed Roger Clemens, and you can thank Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell as much as you can thank Drayton McLane.