Marcus Stroman to make first major league start for Blue Jays on Saturday - MLB

Sportsnet’s Barry Davis reports that Blue Jays prospect Marcus Stroman will start for the club against the Royals on Saturday afternoon. It will be his first start in the major leagues.

Stroman, 23, was called up from Triple-A Buffalo on May 3 and contributed out of the bullpen, allowing 10 runs (nine earned) with a 4/1 K/BB ratio in 6 1/3 innings. The Jays optioned him back to Triple-A on May 18 and he made two starts. Against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Louisville Bats, Stroman allowed seven runs in nine innings.

Stroman was rated the #27 overall prospect entering the season by Baseball Prospectus.

The Blue Jays have designated pitcher Bobby Korecky for assignment to clear up a roster spot for Stroman.

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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.