Of the great Cubs rotation failure of 2004, everyone surely remembers Mark Prior and Kerry Wood's injury-induced implosions, but few think of Matt Clement. Clement wasn't battered by Dusty Baker the way Wood and Prior were, but he was a third key member of that staff that has been beset by arm injuries recently and today he's decided to retire rather than keep struggling with his shoulder problems. After hitting 200 innings in back-to-back seasons in 2002 and 2003, Clement slowly tailed off, tossing 181 for Cubs in '04, then 191 for the Red Sox in 2005 before his career was derailed by shoulder problems in 2006. He hasn't pitched in the majors since, though he seemed to be making progress this spring in the Blue Jays camp. Still, when word came down that he was being demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas, he apparently decided he'd had enough.
In the end, Clement retires as almost a perfect picture of mediocrity. He went 87-86 in his nine-season career, and his ERA+ of 96 indicates that his career ERA is just at tick below average. He had a couple very good seasons, namely 2003 in Chicago and 2005 in Boston, and a couple bad ones (he lead the league in walks with the Padres in 2000). Really, he had a perfectly average career; just good enough for people to care when he retires, but always in the shadow of someone else. You know: the exact sort of career that every baseball fan would love to have.
