The Unlikely Timeline Of The Cliff Lee Saga

He's baaaack!

Here’s a timeline of what happened on Monday night after watching the New York Giants beat up the Minnesota Vikings:

11:37- the first headline on the ESPN score bar is that the Yankees were officially out of the running for Cliff Lee. Honestly I was happy. You probably think I’m the biggest dope in the world for writing that but let me explain; the Yankees have too many contracts that guarantee too much to guys who will be pushing 40 and won’t be producing the same stats as they did when they signed their deals.

A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixiera, Jorge Posada. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are all signed past the age of 37 and all will be making more than 16 million a season… yep you read that correctly, 3 of our 4 main infielders will be making 20 million plus while staring retirement in the face.

If we would’ve signed Lee to that 6 year, 138 million dollar deal it would’ve been another bad contract that we would’ve had to deal with down the line.

The thing is with this free agency class its so thin that guys like Lee and Carl Crawford are getting way too much money for their services and you wonder if they’re worth it (I didn’t mention Jayson Werth for the simple fact that Hellen Keller knows he got way too much money).

While Crawford is great on bases and in the outfield was 142 million really necessary for a guy whose career high in homers is 19, RBI is 90, a guy that has a career .296 average and a .337 on base percentage?

And in the case of Cliff Lee here’s some facts for you; he’s 32 years old with a lifetime 3.85 ERA. As great as he was with Texas in the playoffs he was 4-6 with a 3.98 ERA. I mean the guy is good but he’s not the superstar stud that his contract and hype are making him out to be… with that said…

12:02- ESPN reports that Cliff Lee has reaches an agreement with the Philadelphia Phillies.

12:05- the following exchange takes place between me and my buddy D.J. who used to play baseball at OSU…

Me- um… The phillies got Cliff Lee
DJ- it doesn’t matter they don’t have enough offense

(5 minutes later)

Me- dude the phillies got Cliff lee, they winning the World Series.
DJ- no they’re not. Their lineup is weak. Who’s gonna score runs for them?

(5 minutes later)

Me- dude the phillies got Cliff Lee
(at this point we’ve both had one too many shots and it becomes clear to him that I won’t shut up about the phillies impending world championship)

For everything that I just said about the Yankees not signing Lee an downplaying his importance as a pitcher, the last team that needed Lee was Philadelphia.

Look at their rotation for next year; Roy Halladay, Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels and whoever they decide to throw in there as the fifth starter.

And to think, these 3 weren't enough.

Thats arguably the best pitcher righty and lefty in the game with a horse like Oswalt and a former World Series MVP in Hamels as your top four pitchers in your rotation, this makes Miami’s big three look like a walk in the park.

This makes Philly the early front runner for the World Series in 2011. No team comes close to that kind of rotation, not even the pitcher happy San Francisco Giants. Four out of five days a week the Phils are sending out a win in the making. So what they lost Werth to free agency, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are still there and Dominic Brown is waiting in the wings to become their next offensive threat in the outfield.

All they need is two to three runs a game tops with this staff and they’ll be fine. In the NL East the only possible competition could be the Atlanta Braves but their offensive output could be a huge problem. The Reds, Giants and possibly Rockies could challenge them for the crown but I don’t see that happening.

Most importantly for the Lee himself was the comfort level in returning to Philly. It’s no secret how much he loved it there and was disappointed when he was traded last winter. As much as he loved Texas and was enjoying how much the Yankees were throwing at him, Philadelphia still has his heart, which led to him turning down an extra two years and 40 million from the Yankees. In the end it wasn’t about money it was about comfort and happiness and Lee is getting both.

12:40pm yesterday- I texted my boy Scully to congratulate him on his impending world title and to tell him I’m giving up on baseball this year. He reminded me that he still thinks the Giants have a better rotation in his opinion and that the Phillies still have to replace the bat of Werth.

That’s cool, unfortunately that’s hard to believe when staring Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels and now Lee. This is the team to beat at the current moment whether you agree with me or not. It’s the best collection of pitching put together in a long time and no one, not me, my buddies or even ESPN saw it coming. 2011 is going to be a long year for the other 29 teams in baseball. Oh well, at least the New York Giants are 9-4.

Raising Questions For Manager Of The Year

Ron Washington lost out on AL manager of the year without a peep from the media.

I’m about to do something I never do because of the sheer audacity and ridiculousness of the people that do this… I’m about to play the race card.

Seriously I hate doing this. So often we as African-Americans play the race card for minor instances and for reasons that make no sense. Recently in Washington the race card was played over the Donovan McNabb benching. That wasn’t a race issue, it was a stupidity issue (hi Mike Shanahan).

The issue I’m talking about took place this week during baseball’s award presentations, in particular the manager of the year awards. While Bud Black and Ron Gardenhire were both worthy of manager of the year awards they should’ve gone to Dusty Baker of the Reds and Ron Washington of the AL Champion Rangers.

Dusty Baker molded a young Reds team to a division title, but came up short in NL manager of the year votes.

Baker took a Reds team that hadn’t been to the playoffs in 15 years back to the postseason as champion of the NL Central division which they have been an afterthought in for the better part of this century. He’s molded a young Reds team into what may become a championship contender in a year or two thanks to a great rotation and young everyday players like Jay Bruce and Joey Votto.

The same goes for Washington. Washington took the perennial underachieving Rangers to the World Series riding a team of little known players, a talented but troubled center fielder who might be MVP, and one of baseballs best starters as well as a great mix of young arms like C.J. Wilson and Neftali Perez. Washington’s  trust in his starters and perfect use of his bullpen are what helped guide the Rangers to upsets of the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees.

So how do these guys finish second in manager of the year when they have had the harder jobs of the four managers and their teams actually made noise in the playoffs while Gardenhire’s Twins folded (again) to the Yankees and Black’s Padres tanked at seasons end.

They’re the managers of the two front-runners for MVP in their respective leagues, Joey Votto and Josh Hamilton. They’ve completely turned around two perennial doormats and have their teams primed for similar runs next year (in Texas’s case if Cliff Lee comes back). Yet for some reason voters still couldn’t find meaning in making them managers of the year when they clearly did better jobs than both Black and Gardenhire.

No disrespect to either of them, I’m not disrespecting them for their wins, which are rightfully deserved especially Black for making San Diego competitive. I just have a hard time gripping why both Baker and Washington were so undervalued for the jobs they did.

For all the outrage of Derek Jeter’s gold glove and the sabermetrics junk that’s behind it, not a single writer has questioned why Baker and Washington received the few votes they did in the Manager of the year races. It’s as if it’s just an afterthought that two men of color were possibly undervalued for their position even though their body of work was better than the actual winners.

Maybe I’m wrong in my assertion but to me it’s clear as day. Baker won his division, Black didn’t. Washington guided his team to the World Series, Gardenhire rode a great regular season and absolutely tanked in the postseason. I see who the winners should be but that’s my opinion.

I just wish someone else would say something. It’s odd that there is more outrage for a shortstop winning a gold glove because numbers say that his range is nothing like the other competition at his position even though he led the league in fielding percentage and had the fewest errors at his position. Yet no one finds anything wrong with two managers of color who did great things with their talent being so far behind in voters as compared to the winners who were white.

Outrage indeed. I never do this but somebody had to say something about it.