All Things Bubba

Today is Chinese New Year. It's the Year of the Rat.

Which reminds me...McNamee claims to have the goods on Clemens:

Brian McNamee has given federal investigators bloody gauze pads, vials and syringes he said he used to inject Roger Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001, a lawyer with knowledge of the case said Wednesday.

McNamee, Clemens’s former personal trainer, hopes that DNA and chemical tests on the materials will support his contention that he injected Clemens with those drugs, the lawyer said. The disclosure came a day after Clemens gave a sworn deposition to Congressional investigators Tuesday.

Clemens’s lawyer, Lanny A. Breuer, responded that McNamee “apparently has manufactured evidence” and was “a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens.”

Yeesh. That's weird. Who keeps bloody gauze pads for seven years? Was he planning to sell them on eBay or something? Nope:

McNamee, a former police officer, decided to save the evidence rather than discard it, the lawyer said. “He was always concerned that if he ever got caught, he would be the most vulnerable and people would throw him under the bus,” the lawyer said.

Kind of paranoid, but given what's happened, maybe not. Though I would think McNamee would be in trouble for not turning this stuff over sooner. He says it was out of lingering loyalty to Clemens. It was only after Clemens played that tape that McNamee decided to produce the evidence.

This is getting weirder and weirder. Clemens could be in big trouble. OTOH, bloody gauze and used syringes aren't really proof. McNamee could have put Clemens' blood and some incriminating PEDs on the gauze himself.

Geez, Roger, you should have just fessed up. You'd have been fine if you just told the truth.

In other news, there's finally some talk about Craig Wilson. The Mets are rumored to be interested in signing him to a minor league deal. He was awful last year, but I really think it was his bad shoulder that was to blame. He was a solid player for the Pirates for years, but his numbers fell off a cliff last year.

And Curt Schilling has a serious shoulder injury.

Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling will not have shoulder surgery for what appears to be a partial tear of his rotator cuff, despite the recommendation of the doctor who operated on the shoulder in 1995, and will follow the more conservative course recommended by Sox medical director Thomas Gill, after the club and player agreed to submit to today's recommendation by an outside medical expert.

Even without surgery, the 41-year-old Schilling is not expected to be ready to pitch until at least the All-Star break, according to several sources familiar with his condition.

Apparently, Schilling and the team disagreed about whether he should have surgery. If he has surgery, he has no chance of playing this year. At his age, it could be the end of his career.

He'll be replaced by Clay Buchholz in the rotation.