Monday, December 14, 2009
A short stay in Philly for Cliff Lee; Philly not worried
Cliff Lee is involved in a three-way way trade which would send him to the Seattle Mariners and bring Roy Halladay to the Phillies. Now when i first saw this I thought that it was kind of pointless for Philly to trade their best pitcher in the World Series and a Cy Young candidate from last year. Both Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay are phenomenal pitchers, but Lee is left-handed and Halladay is right-handed. I put some thought into the situation and came to the conclusion that although being a blockbuster trade and one of the biggest I've seen, it is honestly good for everybody. Cliff Lee would be the best pitcher on most rosters, but at the same time so would Halladay. Halladay fits the Phillies the best because his right-handed pitching will complement Cole Hamels left-handed pitching. The Yankees won the World Series last year because the Phillies didn't have a dependable right-handed starter. Roy Halladay will fill that void and the Phillies could easily go back to the World Series. This bothers me a little bit though. Baseball is beginning to turn me away since all the best teams sign the best players just because they have more money. Granted Florida is not the best of teams, but the city of Seattle is putting most of their money in acquiring Cliff Lee. Teams like Cincinnati and Cleveland don't have the money to make these moves which leaves me with no hope. I just don't think baseball is very exciting anymore.
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Max, Lee was aquired by the Mariners, not the Marlins. But even so, you are right on point with saying that big markets run baseball.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why the Halliday move was good for the Phillies is because Cliff Lee's contract is up next season. The Phillies did not want to have to get into a bidding war with big markets such as Boston and New York. The Phillies definatly had a shot of resigning Lee but at what cost? Lee will likely want a 5 year deal and he is over the age of 30. While Doc Halliday, who's contract is also up next season, is going to sign a 3 year extention with Philly, which is a much more reasonable investment for them.
I totally agree with you here. I remember back in 2000 when Ken Griffey Jr. came to the Reds from Seattle, but I can honestly not tell you another big name star to come to Cincinnati since then. I’ve seen a lot of good names leave like Adam Dunn, Danny Graves, Josh Hamilton (briefly), and Austin Kearns to name a few. They just don’t have the money to compete. I don’t expect them to have a world series each year, but it would be nice to see them in the playoffs or at least compete for a division title. The Reds haven’t finished 1st in the division since 1995. The closest they’ve come since then was in 1999 when they lost a play-in game vs. the Mets for a wildcard spot. I know the Reds have at least one a World Series in the past 20 year, but I just have no desire to watch them play anymore. I can barely watch them on TV half the time. The team would need a complete overhaul from the top office to the groundskeeper if they ever want to be successful again. It really is a shame considering they were the original baseball team.
ReplyDeleteI can see your rationale for trading Cliff Lee and acquiring Roy Halladay. But I must say that I was shocked to hear about it. In fact, Lee said that he was disappointed to be traded by the Phillies. However, he also must have conveyed that he wanted more money than Halladay, so I am sure that entered into the decision-making process.
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