Clemens' suitors line up as Rocket Derby begins

	Roger Clemens pitched the Astros into the World Series last year. Is he up for an encore? Brian Bahr/Getty Images
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Sometime in June, maybe. Or it might be in July, shortly after the All-Star break, Roger Clemens is expected to come back for one more try at another World Series ring. With which team, that's the question.

He's trimmed his list to four possible teams, each of which will toss several million dollars -- $10 million for what amounts to a half-year is as good a guess as any -- and all sorts of perks at the seven-time Cy Young winner. Here are the bidders and their odds of landing Clemens, if he chooses to come back.

Houston Astros (5:2)

Why he will choose Houston: He lives 15 minutes from Minute Maid Park. His kids go to school in Houston. He means more to that town than oil right now. (He's more reasonably priced, too.) The Astros will offer a so-called "freedom clause," so Clemens won't have to travel with the team. He won't have to be with the Astros, in fact, other than when he's pitching. That's a huge advantage from a hometown team.

Competitively, the Astros could be better than they were last year, when Clemens helped take them to their first World Series. The offense is much more dangerous than it was in '05, when the Astros scored one run or fewer in 10 of the Rocket's 32 starts. With him in the rotation, they'd have as good a staff as anyone in the National League.

Personally, his buddy and workout partner Andy Pettitte is in the last year of his contract with the Astros. Clemens is close with owner Drayton McLane, and the Rocket is a great fit with down-home guys like Roy Oswalt and fellow Texan Lance Berkman. Plus -- and this is a big one -- Clemens' oldest son, Koby, is a third baseman in the Astros' minor leagues. A late-season call-up so father and son can play together in the bigs is a nice little carrot.

Why he won't: As alluring as they may be, the Astros simply don't have the cachet of the Yankees or the Red Sox. They don't have the following. They don't have the tradition. For Clemens, winning a World Series with the Astros in his final year (if this is to be his final year) would be awesome. But winning it in New York or Boston would be epic. It would be legendary. It would be historic.

Bottom line: The Astros are first in line and have met with Clemens' agents. They'll offer him a ton of money (they paid him a record $18 million for a full season in '05, and general manager Tim Purpura already has said Clemens is probably due a raise). Still, they've said that they don't want to get into a bidding war with the Yankees or Red Sox.