Comments on: Going back to Philly: Cliff Lee chooses Phillies over Yankees and Rangers

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:01:57 +0000

“I want to see how the Philly fans are going to spin this when many of them were talking about CC and his money and contract length.”

I for one was not saying a darned thing about the contract CC got. I think it was a smart move to tie him up for that long by the Yankees. Sure it’s easy to balk at any long term deal like that, but if your team can afford to do it, any fan would be crazy to complain imo. I love me some CC, he’s a stud pitcher. So that’s what i’ll do, I’ll be crazy happy about getting Lee back, but reserve the right to complain later if his abilities diminish greatly.

By: bleedgreen

bleedgreen — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:21:34 +0000

There was no way the starting rotation could get better unless it was with Lee in it. Thats a fact. The only thing they could do to improve further is get Greinke as a #5.

And you talk about Rollins? He was hurt most of the year, and the wrist surgery was to remove a cyst, not because anything was ripped/torn/broken.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:37:05 +0000

Why because it’s the truth or because everything I posted above has been posted about the Yankees during this “saga” with Lee by non Yankee fans?

By: edog623

edog623 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:36:34 +0000

The Yanks are too old? What about Philly? All 4 infielders and 2/3 outfielders in their 30s. Their best “young” position player is Utley (31, 3 years older than Cano), Howard is older than Teixiera and is an all or nothing strikeout/HR type, and Rollins, at 32 just put up a season where he batted .243 (27 points worse than Jeter’s career worst this year) with 17 steals (fewer than Jeter) and just had wrist surgery.

He likes Philly, we get that, but they’re not younger or more talented until you hit the starting pitching. Their rotation is better now, but only because of Lee.

By: bll4492

bll4492 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:03:13 +0000

You’re a loser…….. If you are going totry and insult someone, spell it correctly.

your adj \yər, ˈyu̇r, ˈyȯr\
Definition of YOUR
1: of or relating to you or yourself or yourselves especially as possessor or possessors , agent or agents , or object or objects of an action
2: of or relating to one or oneself
3—used with little or no meaning almost as an equivalent to the definite article the

you’re\yər, ˈyu̇r, ˈyȯr, ˌyü-ər\
Definition of YOU’RE
: you are

By: goveiac

goveiac — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:59:15 +0000

That’s so bush league…..

By: goveiac

goveiac — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:56:59 +0000

I have never been happier. As a lifelong Jays fan, there is very little that brings me as much joy and heartfelt appreciation then seeing a team other than the Yankees or the Red Sox make big name acquisitions, especially when those two teams are in the hunt for specific players. Not that I would walk across the room to piss on the teeth of the Phillies if they were on fire, but its nice to see the AL East (easily the toughest division in the bigs) not get overblown by big Yankee paychecks or huge Red Sox signing bonuses, keep it a bit more competitive so my Blue Birds can reign supreme once again.

By: kcfanatic

kcfanatic — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:46:10 +0000

I like that Lee went back to the Phillies, but makes me wonder about collusion between the player and the GM. I wonder if this was staged last year to get prospects to trade for their pitching staff knowing that they would sign him in his free agent year.

I know that it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but that is earily similar to a story told here in KC. Jeff Montgomery was a top of the line closer, and the GM was trying to trade him for prospects in his contract year to a contender. The Royals would get prospects, Jeff would have a chance to go to the playoffs. There was a behind the scenes agreement that Jeff would resign with the Royals in the off-season. The trade didn’t pan out, but the idea was there and has been told by Jeff on local radio. I’m sure he’s not the first player that that has almost happended with.

By: bleedgreen

bleedgreen — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:15:34 +0000

If they don’t trade Cliff Lee, they don’t get Roy Oswalt, period. It still would have been a great line up with Lee, Halladay and Hamels (Who was an unknown at the end of 08), but adding Lee in there? Shit son… do they even NEED a 5th starter?

By: stanfa

stanfa — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:06:29 +0000

we don’t want him.

By: stanfa

stanfa — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:03:36 +0000

hey pisano, to cheer you up maybe you can be the phillies 5th starter. they’ll still play .800 ball.

By: stanfa

stanfa — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:46:15 +0000

we know you’re hurt. it shows in your message. get over it. go on with your life if you have one. your team is aging and won’t be a factor next year. perhaps you should take up lawn bowling.

By: stanfa

stanfa — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:28:56 +0000

pisano, we know you’re hurt. it shows in your message. get over it. go on with your life if you have one. your team is aging and won’t be a factor next year. perhaps you should take up lawn bowling.

By: goforthanddie

goforthanddie — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:44:43 +0000

I guess he realized once the contract hits 9 digits, exact numbers don’t matter. Good on him.

By: macjacmccoy

macjacmccoy — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:36:09 +0000

Damn I just feel sorry for Jeter I bet even he would have picked the Phillies over the Yankees if they offered him a contract.

By: deep64blue

deep64blue — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:09:04 +0000

He wasn’t going to sign for this last year – that’s what he made clear and why the Phillies traded him, now he knows what he’s missing and was ready to sign.

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:02:46 +0000

Finally a decision. At least now the Yankees and the Rangers can move on to other business. BTW if I’m Roy Halladay I’m not a very happy camper just about now. Sure Halladay’s a year older, but you can’t tell me this agreement with Lee isn’t going to get under his skin. Arguably a better pitcher than Lee over a longer period of time and they are paying him less money ($4M per year less) not including the giving Lee more years. I want to see how the Philly fans are going to spin this when many of them were talking about CC and his money and contract length. If this were football just about now the so called experts would be saying we have the making of a “quarterback controversy”. Only it’s a pitchers controversy. While the Yankees are out of the Lee race, it would be a mistake to count them out of the race for the World Series. The Yankees have a way of coming back more often than not.
Congratulation to the Phillies they “picked the pockets” of both the Rangers and the Yankees. But since all the teams still have to play 162 games and no one wins the World Series in December the final chapter of what will be the 2011 baseball season hasn’t been written yet. Keep in mind the Phillies offense isn’t quite what it was in 2010 with the loss of Jason Werth. Then there is Ryan Howard who at 31 is already starting to see his numbers fall off.

By: philcommander

philcommander — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:18:15 +0000

As a Phillies fan I can’t wait to give this man a standing ovation next year. Maybe he just wanted to go where the fans are the most passionate about their teams. We will boo you out of town if you don’t give your all…but if you give us your all you will be the toast of town. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose…just give us your all. I think Lee ‘gets’ Philly…and thats why he stayed.

By: sfgiants1

sfgiants1 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 07:22:52 +0000

Go Giants!!!

Now that’s the # 1 pitching rotation. Timmy beat Lee twice on their way to a WS ring.

By: cktai

cktai — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:42:20 +0000

I have to admit that 154M for 7y a 32yo Cliff Lee is overpaying him, especially since he is unlikely yo be worth 20M+ for the last few years. However 100M for 5y sounds very reasonable. Classy move by Lee to give such a huge favourite team discount.

By: jcfromdallas

jcfromdallas — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:41:49 +0000

The man’ taking his best shot at a World Series ring…period. The Yanks are too old with not enough pitching and the Rangers aren’t that talented. The Phillies will rule the NL; too bad for the Mets. Wonder what they’ll do???? PS: I’m a Yankees fan but those are the facts.

By: gt929

gt929 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:25:25 +0000

I’m a Ranger fan and really wanted him to resign with them, but I’m not gonna say them grapes was probably sour anyway. It just had to be about where he thought he had the best chance to win. (Hope he’s wrong!) He surely shot down the arguments that no one leaves much money on the table, and that the union won’t let players take less. I do have to admit that I’m glad it wasn’t those big Yankee bullies that took our lunch.

By: mtner77

mtner77 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:23:10 +0000

“At least the Yanks can go out and get King Felix now.”

Good Luck with that!

El Gato signed last spring with the M’s through 2014. If he had ANY interest in becoming a Yankee he simply would have waited a year and would have been in the same situation Lee is in now. And even the Yankees’ do not have enough prospects or cash to pry Felix loose. So when do you figure the Yankees’ will get him? April 2015?

By: iamthedoublestandard

iamthedoublestandard — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:21:41 +0000

Slow your roll bro. It’s the best rotation in name only. Talk to me this time next year. There’s no ‘best’ anything till they take it all. And with the names involved they’ll have to do it convincingly. Easy there cowgirl.

By: edog623

edog623 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:15:24 +0000

Why is this being seen as a good move by Amaro? It looks to me like a miscalculation that cost Philly the 2010 World Series. They traded for Halladay and immediately ditched Lee under the assumption that they couldn’t resign him. Now it seems he was willing to take 30-50 million less than his market value to pitch for the Phillies. Isn’t this a whole situation a misread of where they stood with Lee? They traded Lee, went a season without him and came up just barely short of a World Series berth (against the team that did have Lee) and then realized their mistake and signed him as a free agent. Looks like they never needed to let him go in the first place.

By: oneshot386

oneshot386 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:10:47 +0000

ANYONE WHO THINKS THIS IS NOT THE BEST ROTATION IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL, IS EITHER VERY JELOUS OR JUST A COMPLETE IDIOT. hahahahahahahahahaahahahah he just turned down the biggest offer in the history for a pitcher to be apart of the GREATEST ROTATION IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL. THE PHILLIES REALLY ARE THE CLASS OF ALL OF BASEBALL.

By: oneshot386

oneshot386 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:05:37 +0000

POOR YANKEES FAN, YOUR A LOSER!!!

By: hossenfefer

hossenfefer — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:46:49 +0000

so as a Ranger fan you would rather have a pitcher that “might” be able to beat the best teams in the NL (and who exactly is that anway?).over a guy that absolutely owns the best team in the AL. You know, the league your favorite team plays in? That’s pretty backwards. I assume you’re just upset you lost a top 5 pitcher. As a Twins fan, I’m just happy he went to the NL.

By: jhorton83

jhorton83 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:45:36 +0000

Holy mother of crap. You have to hand it to the Phillies for pulling out this kind of shocker. Nobody was even mentioning the Phillies as being in on this. Now you have a rotation that includes Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rotation like that. Should be fun to watch.

By: Reflex

Reflex — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:37:02 +0000

Gotta say, I’m impressed. What I want to know is: Did they give him a no-trade clause? He repeatedly said during the season that he’d sign where he had some security because he was tired of the moving.

Phukyuk – You got four more seasons before you get your shot at Felix. Enjoy the wait.