Josh Hamilton to see doctor about possible sports hernia - MLB

Josh Hamilton has played through a possible sports hernia for about two months now. And now that the season is over, he can finally get it checked out.

According to Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas, Hamilton will take about a week off before being examined by Dr. William Myers in Philadelphia. Myers previously performed surgery on Hamilton in 2009 to repair a torn abdominal muscle. He has yet to see a doctor for his most recent injury, which was originally described as a left groin strain.

“You’re always concerned when surgery is being brought up, but he had surgery in ’09 and bounced back and won the MVP,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “Maybe that will be the lucky surgery.”

Outside of the two-run homer in Game 6, Hamilton struggled to hit the ball with much authority during the postseason, batting .271/.289/.414 with .704 OPS in 17 games. The 30-year-old outfielder batted .298/.346/.536 with 25 homers, 94 RBI and an .882 OPS during the regular season.

Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.

Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.

“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”

Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.

Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.

“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.

Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.