UPDATE: Phillies GM denies report of accidentally including prospect in Hunter Pence deal - MLB

UPDATE: Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com contacted Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr,. who issued a strong denial of the report:

“There was no mistake,” Amaro said. “If someone said that, they are misinformed because it’s absolutely, unequivocally wrong. It’s false.”

10:37 a.m. ET: Well, this is something.

As you may recall, the Phillies acquired Hunter Pence from the Astros in 2011 in exchange for Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart, Josh Zeid, and Domingo Santana. Santana was a player to be named later in the deal, but according to Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle, it looks like the Phillies traded him by accident. Seriously:

Less than two months after they picked George Springer from the University of Connecticut, the Astros sent Pence and cash to the Phillies on July 29, 2011, for Cosart, Singleton, Zeid and a player to be named, which ended up being Santana. In spring training, a Phillies official admitted that Santana wasn’t actually supposed to be on the list that was given to the Astros to pick from to satisfy the final piece on Aug. 15, 2011.

You see, the Phillies obviously confused their “Don’t Trade Under Any Circumstances” prospect list with “Yeah, Go Ahead And Trade These Guys” prospect list. Common mistake.

Santana, a 21-year-old outfielder who was ranked as the Astros’ No. 8 prospect by Baseball America over the winter, is batting .292 with nine home runs and an .853 OPS over his first 62 games in Triple-A this season. Not only does this trade look potentially really bad for the Phillies, but it’s also embarrassing.

(Hat-tip to Eye on Baseball for the link)

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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.