The Roger Clemens discussion is a good one for major league baseball and a necessary one.

Clemens is the ultimate hired gun.

First, wait for teams that have a chance to win to begin looking for help in the pitching department where there is always a need. Then leverage yourself with as many teams as possible and rake in the cash.

Clemens has made a very nice living at this since he first played the waiting game with the Astros in 2004.

With the Yankees joining the fray this year, the legitimacy discussions of this hired gun plan take on an added impetus.

There are numerous and divergent opinions about the Clemens-type deal and what it means to baseball.

Does the arrangement where a star player joins a team well into the season violate the concept of “team?” Is such an arrangement different than trading for players late in the year when losing teams become sellers?

Then there is the agreement in the Clemens deal that he will only be with the team when he is pitching. Otherwise, he is home or wherever he wants to be. Clemens has maintained, as so many athletes have when needing a reason for some move (remember Michael Jordan), that he wants the time with his family when not starting.

Thus, the two concerns regarding the Clemens arrangement. One is the idea of loading up with hired guns midway or later in the year when the players have not yet played during the season.

Second, does allowing such a player to show up only on the days he plays contort the idea of a team that grinds out a season to make the playoffs?

Astros manager Phil Garner, an old school player himself, angered Clemens last week when he said of Clemens’ time with Houston under the hired gun rules, “What sort of happened was we’d turn on the TV, and he’s playing a golf tournament, so it evolved to be more than just seeing his family.”

That is a direct shot to the bow of the Clemens empathetic family justification for setting his own rules.

Clemens responded by saying, “There’s not one time that I was away from my ball club, my team (note the tug to the fans’ team empathy), that during the game I was out on the damn golf course.”

Notice the precise wording of Clemens. He was never playing golf “during the game.”

That is probably true since most games are at night and he plays golf during the day.

One thing is clear. Clemens has created conflict within baseball, both at the player and the management level.

This discussion needs to be played out by fans and players. The level of dollars available to players who want to play just part of a year is substantial and will grow as older players seek a Clemens deal.

The very concept of team may be changing. The decision to allow that to happen should be a conscious one, not one that just happens.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.