Bonds vs Clemens in court: Which case will have more govt idiocy?

I thought federal prosecutors did less than a stellar job in Barry Bonds' steroid-use related trial. But, given that, in the second day of the Roger Clemens trial for perjury in his Congressional testimony about steroids, this isn't even close.

Getting a mistrial on prosecutorial misconduct for not once, but twice, violating the judge's order not to introduce anything related to Andy Pettitte's wife testimony to Congress? After Judge Reggie Walton said any of her testimony was inadmissible?

That all said, it raises this question: Does the government think it will be that hard to win without Laura Pettitte' testimony?

Apparently so, Les Carpenter ventures:

The jury, made up of 10 women and two men, does not seem to be knowledgeable about baseball. Many said they knew little about the game in jury selection and therefore probably know little about Pettitte. It has long been believed in baseball circles that the deeply religious Pettitte would be a brilliant witness against his friend and former teammate Clemens because he is considered so trustworthy. But a jury that does not know Pettitte wouldn’t be as swayed by his words. The government needed to bolster Pettitte’s credibility as much as it could.

But, if the case is really that thin, shouldn't it be dropped like a hot potato? Is there Congressional pressure to "see it out"?

Clemens subpoenas Congress

Oh, this is going to be good for plenty a punch line and more.

Roger Clemens, the clown price of white steroid users, has subpoeanaed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee over alleged stonewalling of documents.

There's irony here 15 ways from Sunday.

We have:

• Roger the Dodger pretending to have the law-abiding high ground;
• The committee claiming that it couldn't turn over the requested documents because of legislative vs. judicial branch separation of powers;
• A guarantee of this itself going before a judge, with yet more posturing by both sides.

Hell, Andy Pettitte could unretire and re-retire from the Yankees half a dozen times before this plays out.

Pettitte is NOT a Hall of Famer

Jayson Stark gets this one right. Andy Pettitte is NOT a Hall of Famer.

The biggies that Stark notes on the sabermetric scale:

• Pettitte finishes his career with a WHIP of 1.36.
• Pettitte gave up 1.04 hits per inning. Now it's true there are nine Hall of Famers who served up more hits than they pitched innings. Unfortunately, none of them has appeared in a box score in 65 years (since Ted Lyons in 1946).

Beyond that, Stark notes that he had only two "big" years, 1997 and 2005. Those were two of the only three years he was below 1.25 in WHIP.

And, to me, that's the career breakoff for WHIP and HOF admittance, unless a pitcher has some other great stats. And, while Pettitte's 117 ERA+ beats my minimum of 110, it's not eye-opening.

So, who is Pettitte? Baseball-Reference lists Jack Morris as second-most similar through age 38. Hard to argue with that, and, that should be the final note on how close to the HOF Pettitte is.

Stark has the last word:

(C)ome 2015, our job as voters won't be merely to look back just at those epic nights in October. It will be to judge the entirety of Pettitte's career.And when that time comes, I expect the words at the top of this column will still be swirling in my brain:
The greatest No. 3 starter of his generation.

That sums it up.