How Can Yankees Fans Live With Themselves?

Well, I'm still here basking in the glory that is Cliff Lee returning to the Phillies, now more than 24 hours after the news shocked the baseball world and sent Phillies Phans around the globe into an absolute tizzy. I've read just about every story on every major media outlet, every blog post from a Philly blogger, everything I could devour since Tuesday's big announcement, and it looks like I'll be taking at least one more day before focusing on what is still missing from this Phillies team before we can pencil in another World Series championship for the Fightin Phils.

Today, my focus is on exactly how all this happened. I mean, ultimately, Cliff Lee had an awesome time in Philadelphia in 2009, he loved the team, the players, the coaches, the stadium, and he loved the area in general, including the home he bought in New Jersey when he was traded to the Phils a couple of years ago, which he never sold even after leaving the team for Seattle, Washington, and then Arlington Texas in the middle of the 2010 season.

But, having lived in New York City all through the past baseball season, I can't help but think that the Yankees fans themselves literally played a big part in why Cliff Lee walked away from 34 million more guaranteed dollars offered by the Yanks to sign a shorter-term deal to return to the city of brotherly shove. For those of you who don't live in the area and/or don't follow post-season baseball like I do:

According to a report in the USA Today on October 26, 2010, while the American League Championship Series was being played in Yankee Stadium, the wife of Texas Rangers ace Cliff Lee was reportedly not happy with how the Yankees fans treated her while she was sitting in the visiting family section at the Yankees' new stadium in the Bronx.

Kristen Lee said there were ugly taunts. Obscenities. Cups of beer thrown. Even fans spitting from the section above.

“The fans did not do good things in my heart,” Kristen says.

“When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it’s hard not to take it personal.”

Well there you have it. The comment about the fans "not doing good things in my heart" really sticks out to me for some reason. Does that sound like a woman who would want her husband to turn down $24 million a year to play in the city they both loved, in favor of committing to two more years at around $23 million a year in the city whose fans "did bad things in her heart"?

Is it truly possible that Yankees fans are such fucking pigs that they literally chased away the only chance they had of Cliff Lee coming to play for them?

What must Yankees fans be thinking about themselves right about now?

Coming Home

Brian Cashman: You're fired!

Cliff Lee is coming back to the Phillies. Seriously!! I know it's not really "home" at all, but it sure feels that way for the Philly fans, who never for one second wanted to see Lee leave after the 2009 season. And apparently, Cliff Lee never really wanted to leave either, or maybe he just didn't realize it yet. The word is that Lee is signing a 5-year, $120 million contract with the Phils, who have surprised everyone by besting the Yankees and the Rangers who were believed to be the only players in a two-team race for Lee's services. There is so much to be said about this and I'm sure I'll have plenty more -- over the next half a decade in fact now -- but my initial thought is more or less like all the other long-suffering Phillies fans out there:

Euphoria.

I mean, the most amazing part of all this isn't even about Cliff Lee specifically, to me anyways. I've written a little about this before, but the most incredible aspect to all of this is that over the past five or six years, Philadelphia has actually become a place where free agents in baseball actually want to go play. All growing up in Philly, the total opposite was true. I'm not sure I can remember a single big signing that any of the major sports franchises in Philadelphia made. Well, I guess there was Moses Malone in the early '80s. But really, that's about it. It was always New York, or LA, or Chicago, or somewhere else. If anything, Philly was known for making young players into big stars and then being the place where they left from to go chase the big money that the Philly teams either couldn't or wouldn't pay them, typically in one of those cities mentioned above. It was horribly frustrating as a kid, believe me, watching these guys turn into your heroes, the guys you wanted to be like, and then eventually always knowing they were going to leave for the big money grab. Having to watch them usually just travel 90 miles up Route 95 to the Big Apple made it even worse, but in general, you always knew around the corner that these guys were on their way out, and it was simply never a question of the team coughing up the big bucks to keep them, or to sign some other big name player to take their place. Philadelphia simply never used to be that place that anybody ever went "to take their talents", to use LeBron's phraseology. It just never happened, and the Phillies were perhaps the biggest example of all of this phenomenon. What big-name pitcher or hitter ever signed with the Phillies in the '80s or '90s? Why would you? They didn't pony up the big cash, and even though the city has easily the greatest, purest sports fans on the earth bar none, the team was also the losingest franchise in all of sports, and the Phils had more last-place finishes during my childhood than any other team. They were the Pirates before the Pirates were the Pirates, believe me. Nobody great ever wanted to play baseball here, and with good reason.

But all that has changed now, a combination of new ownership, brilliant general managers, an incredible farm system, the best new ballpark in all of baseball, and a whole lot of success that big names actually want to be a part of. Just think about the last few years. When Brad Lidge was on the market after being run out of Houston following the infamous Albert Pujols post-season home run, out of nowhere the Phillies were there to scoop him up, and a year later the guy was putting the cap on a perfect season by striking out the Rays' Scott Eyre to bring the city its first World Series in 28 years. That year as well, the Phils went out and signed then 28-year-old Jayson Werth, who contributed greatly both at bat and in the field to the past few years' success in the city. When Cliff Lee was being shopped by the hapless Indians the following summer, you had your usual rumors out of New York and Boston offering ridiculous money, but then out of nowhere comes the Phillies to pick the guy up, and boom, fast forward three months and there is Cliff Lee completely befuddling the perennial all-star Yankees lineup twice in front of the world in the World Series, the first back-to-back pennants in the Phillies' gillion-year history as a franchise.

After that season, new Phillies GM Ruben Amaro approached Lee about resigning him, and got the word from Lee's agent that Lee was definitely looking for a long-term megadeal a la CC Sabathia's $168 million beast of a deal with the Yanks that past offseason. Amaro let the Lee camp know he was looking more for a 4- or 5-year deal, and when the Lee camp balked, Amaro sadly traded away Lee to the Seattle Mariners for prospects, taking those savings instead and signing AL pitching powerhouse Roy Halladay, who happily came to the team after making it very well known for weeks that Philly was where he really wanted to play more than anywhere else. Yes, more than the Yankees, more than the Red Sox, both of whom were, again, offering up more guaranteed money in terms of more years on the deal. But, amazingly to Phillies fans, Halladay wanted to come to Philadelphia, and was willing to accept a 5-year extension at a hefty $20 million a year, an amount that fit into the Phillies' burgeoning budget after having sold out every game for four year straight in their new stadium. I mean, can you imagine? A huge star like Roy Halladay, and he actually wanted to play in Philly, even to the point of accepting less guaranteed dough than he could have gotten elsewhere? Have you ever??? It was just unheard of to us old-school Philadelphians, believe me. Add in a trade for outfielder Raul Ibanez as a new power bat in the Phils' scary lineup, and Phillies fans around the world were just in awe.

Enter the 2010 season, with Halladay on his way to another brilliant season that would lead eventually to the second perfect game in major league postseason history. And as the trading deadline approached, it looked like the Phils' rotation was still one man short of total dominance. So as last year's trading deadline approached, when longtime Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt was announced by the team to be on the market, once again it was the Yankees and the Red Sox at the forefront of the rumors, with some Angels and Cubs sprinkled in for good measure as per usual, but then wake up one morning and the word is that it was once again Ruben Amaro and the Phillies who had made the huge coup, nabbing Oswalt from under the Yanks' and Sox's noses, and somehow getting the Astros to agree to pay close to half of Oswalt's salary on the remaining two years of his contract. Again, Oswalt was publicly thrilled to be coming to a team like the Phillies (can you imagine??), and his performance here last year showed it, as he was perhaps the best pitcher on the team in the second half of the season, nearly unhittable in most of his starts and winning over the city's fans quickly and completely.

When the Cliff Lee saga really heated up at the end of 2010 with his Texas Rangers making the World Series and losing out to the incredible pitching staff assembled by the San Francisco Giants, who had bested the Phillies and our amazing pitching staff fair and square for the NL pennant, everyone knew this would be all about the Yankees. Yes, the Angels were rumored, the Red Sox had made an early offer in the process, and of course the incumbent Rangers were doing all that they could without deliberately mimicking their mistake from the A-Rod contract that that team had finally just gotten completely out from under. But the Phils weren't really even mentioned, and, I mean, how could they? With a payroll last season of just over $140 million, would the team really ever be willing to kick in that much more money for this guy? Of course not, and could you blame them, after all the huge signings of the past few seasons for this team that was historically a place nobody ever wanted to come, and a place that never wanted to pay anyone who was willing to play here? No way. So you didn't hear a single Phillies fan in the world bitching about us not taking part in the Lee sweepstakes, and ultimately, with what has happened so far in this offseason, with the Red Sox signing two big hitters and the Yankees being basically shut out of the big free agent market (no, Derek Jeter does not count) for what seems like the first time in ages, it was obvious that Lee would simply be able to name his price, to pick any number out of a hat, and the Yanks would have to agree to it, and agree to it they would. Word was that the Rangers had offered Lee a six-year deal somewhere around $120 million, and that the Yankees had recently upped their offer to add a seventh year, coming in at a total of approximately $154 million. No other offer was even close to that amount of guaranteed cash, the Rangers were not willing to go there, and on Monday afternoon word out of Yankees' GM Brian Cashman was that the Yankees were officially not going to up their offer any further, not something you usually hear from this Yankees management over the past several years. It was a bit of a bold move by Yanks' GM Brian Cashman, taking a tough stance on a guy that the team absolutely, positively had to have, at any and all costs, period.

And suddenly, this morning. I woke up and immediately in the car heard the news on one of the local sports radio stations. Baseball fans around the country were dismayed, and New Yorkers were appalled -- both Yankees and Mets fans, believe me. Cliff Lee was coming back to the Philadelphia Phillies! And the most amazing part of it? He had signed for just five years, one less than the Rangers' offer and two years less than the rumored offer from the Yankees. The guy actually left $34 million of guaranteed money on the table in New York to come instead back to Philadelphia, to pitch in the best stadium in the country and in front of the best fans in the world. Brian Cashman's last-minute hard-line ploy had failed, and failed in a big, huge way, and Lee had turned him down in favor of less money from a big rival in a nearby city who had had some big success against his team already over the past couple of seasons.

And make no mistake guys -- the reception this guy will get in Philadelphia, the good will he will experience here, will be totally unparalleled by anything Lee could have ever even have hoped to experience in New York. Believe me, I have lived in this city for a long time now, I've had Yankees season tickets, I've been to the Mets' dump stadium several times, and I can tell you without hesitation, New York fans are spoiled, and they're not even close to real sports fans in other cities that have to try a whole lot harder and wait a whole lot longer for success. In particular in the Bronx, these fans of course like to win, but a guy like Lee would never be loved even for one second -- not even if he were to pitch the final out of a no-hitter in Game 7 of the World Series -- like he will be adored for every moment he will be in Philadelphia. Especially after Lee's performance back in 2009, to be returning to the city of brotherly shove will make these Phillies fans absolutely apoplectic for the guy, period. We love him in Philly, every one of us Phillies fans love the guy and could not believe we had to let him go. And Phils' GM Ruben Amaro has come through again in a huge way, using the Nationals' recent signing away of Jayson Werth, freeing up $14 million a year from our payroll just like that, to help afford the new $24 mil a year for five years for Cliff Lee, while at the same time getting basically exactly the deal he would have offered Lee back in 2009 to stay here to begin with, but which back then Lee had rejected in the hopes of signing an even larger deal. One which, if he had wanted to, he still could have signed with Brian Cashman and the Yankees, like, yesterday. Literally.

The bottom line? Cliff Lee wants to play in Philadelphia, far more than he wants to be in New York. 34 million times more to be exact. With Lee, the Yankees would probably have as good a chance as anyone of bringing Lee the first World Series title of his career, and even re-signing with the Texas Rangers seems a similar outcome -- how do you argue that after his Rangers just made the World Series with him this past season? And yet Lee opted to take millions and millions of dollars less in guaranteed money -- albeit a mil or two more per season than his other offers, as is obviously going to be the case in a shorter deal -- to return "home" to Philadelphia, to the greatest ballpark in the game today, and to without a doubt the most ferociously devoted, caring fans anywhere on earth. The Phillies ownership knows it. All of us fans know it. And, apparently, Cliff Lee knows it too. How Brian Cashman justifies his total strikeout in this offseason is way beyond me, but he is definitely gonna have a lot of 'splainin to do to somebody in that organization, and suffice it to say these are not happy times in the Cashman household in Darien, Connecticut.

Roy Halladay. Cliff Lee. Roy Oswalt. Cole Hamels. It just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

Move over Yankees, and move over Red Sox. There's a new team at the free agent party in major league baseball these days. And they're coming for you in a big way in 2011.

Not Dead Yet

Kudos out to Roy Halladay who gutted his way through a first-inning groin injury -- that he told no one but his manager about and then insisted on going back out to the mound for six tough innings of 2-run baseball -- to nab his first win of the NLCS and an absolutely crucial victory for the Phillies on the brink of elimination in Game 5. To the rabid Phillies fans watching the game, it was very obvious just from the look on Halladay's face while he was out there and even in the dugout in between innings early in the game -- where Halladay was barely able to sit down without significant pain -- that something was wrong, and in a way it was a relief to hear about the groin injury in manager Charlie Manuel's end of game presser, indicating that this is not the new status quo for the Phillies' ace but rather just (hopefully) a temporary physical ailment. But for him to go out there and give the team six quality innings and to pitch through the pain like he did, this is the stuff that Philadelphia is made of, and the fans will not forget.

As big as Halladay was in the Phillies nabbing the win and sending the series back home to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the real story in Game 5 wasn't Halladay, nor Giants ace Tim Lincecum who took the tough loss after another solid pitching performance himself, but rather the Phillies' bullpen, easily thought to be the one glaring weakness on this team. After a scoreless 7th inning from Jose Contreras and J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson came in needing to hold on to a slim 1-run lead while facing the Giants' tough 4-5-6 hitters of Buster Posey, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross in the 8th inning -- the three guys responsible for mostly all of San Francisco's offense in this entire LCS series -- and Madson responded to the pressure by promptly setting down the side in order, throwing fastball after fastball by the heart of the Giants' lineup as he mowed down the most menacing players on the opposition like they were children with pitches that registered around 90-92 on the radar gun but looked more like 150 or 200 to this experienced eye. Honestly I do not recall the last time Ryan Madson (or any Phillies reliever, for that matter) came into a game late and struck out the side like this, but it provided a huge lift to the team and to their fans who I can personally tell you were not ready to pack it in for the season just yet. By the time Jayson Werth added his NL record 11th postseason home run with the Phillies in the top of the 9th inning, the team's spirits were high, and my nemesis Brad Lidge was perfect to close it out in the 9th.

So, the anatomy of each of the 12 historic comebacks from 3-1 down in 7-game series in MLB history begins exactly the same way -- with a win by the down team in Game 5 -- and that's what we're looking at here in the NLCS. And unlike the Yankees, who (1) have to win the last two games of their ALCS series on the road at Texas, and (2) who still have to face their opponent's #1 starter and known Yankee killer in Game 7, the Phillies have a somewhat easier rode ahead of them. No more road games, no more silly west coast time zone, and most of all, no more Tim Lincecum in any meaningful way in this series. Right now it's just about winning Game 6, which will feature Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt's shot at redemption after taking the loss in giving up a 9th inning run in Game 4, going against Sanchez who the Phillies already touched up but good in Game 2 of this series, the only game where the Phils' lineup was really able to come together and do their thing. Here's hoping we get not just one but two Game 7s this weekend in what could shape up to be an incredible weekend on both the baseball and the football fronts.

team to rally from a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series. The Red Sox were the last to do it, in the 2007 ALCS against Cleveland.

Zombie Alert

I hate to stir up mass hysteria or anything, but I am pretty sure Cliff Lee is undead. I mean, the stony look on his face while he just goes out there and throws strikes by people is unlike anyone I can ever recall. He must be undead, it's the most sensible explanation for how someone could not just get the results Lee gets on the mound but more particularly do it how he does it. I don't ever recall someone with such ice in their veins in a huge spot over and over again -- I know I posted that video of the ridiculously blase basket catch in last year's World Series against the Yankees -- but Monday night's Game 3 of the ALCS in New York was a perfect example of the country's most famous zombie in action.

Do you realize the Yankees had just three baserunners in 8 innings against Cliff Lee last night? That Lee struck out 13 batters out of the 24 guys he mowed down on the night? You do realize this is the all-time all-star Yankees lineup we're talking about here, they of the Derek Jeter / A-Rod / Mark Teixeira / Robinson Cano / Jorge Posada and I could go on and on? Cliff Lee, even with all the spotlight in the world on him and the highest expectations one could have, he still performed.

And the thing that gets me most of all with him is he doesn't make you chase bad pitches. He doesn't set you up with three lowballs and then fire one in way high out of the strike zone to make you swing and miss. He doesn't even necessarily "paint the corners" like a Greg Maddux did so impeccably back in his heyday. Cliff Lee just throws effing strikes. You know he's going to do it. You can't just take the first pitch like so many other pitchers allow a good contact hitter to do. If you do, you'll just be behind in the count every time you get up there, which is not where you want to be against Lee. In two-hitting and shutting out the Yankees on Monday, Lee threw 122 pitches, 82 of them for strikes. I used to point this out all the time here on the blog last year when Lee was pitching for the Phillies, but this guy throws at least 2/3 strikes every time he goes out there. He just challenges every hitter with his perfectly-placed fastball, and he moves on to the cutters and the sliders once he gets ahead in the count, and the guy is deadly accurate. Forget pitching around certain guys, or being sure to avoid the top part of the strike zone against the cleanup hitter, forget all that stuff. Cliff Lee the Undead just goes out there with that same stoic look on his face and the same stoic approach to every hitter he faces: just throw it by them. Cliff Lee gives new meaning to the phrase "mowing 'em down", he really does.

I watched my own team's #1 pitcher throw a frigging no-hitter earlier in these playoffs, and I also watched Tim Lincecum throw a masterful 14-strikeout 3-hit complete game shutout of the Braves in Game 1 of this year's NLDS. But Cliff Lee's performance on Monday night at the Yankees is quite simply the most sensational pitching performance I have witnessed in the last few weeks.

With AJ Burnett slated to pitch tonight for the Yankees in Game 4, there is a very real chance that the Yankees are down 3 games to 1 in the ALCS with two more games still to play in Arlington to end the series. That is a horrible situation for the Yankees, not so much because they have to win three straight games, but because it means that under the best case scenario, they will have to beat Cliff Lee again to go back to the World Series. And this time it will be in Texas.

Nobody has really given this Rangers team a real chance to win the AL pennant (myself included) all season long, until perhaps today. For the first time this morning on the way into work, I found myself speculating about the possibilities. It's actually a pretty amazing story, albeit one I haven't even considered for one second until just today: Cliff Lee pitching against the Phillies in the World Series, the team that traded him after he dominated for us in 2009 and went and got Roy Halladay instead. Halladay vs Lee in Game 1 of the World Series....that one's gonna be even better than Halladay vs. Lincecum twice in the NLDS here.

Speaking of which, Game 3 of the NLCS kicks off at 4pm ET today, and as I mentioned yesterday this is a much bigger game for the Phillies than Game 1 was. Although winning today is certainly not crucial to either team, with Cole Hamels pitching today and Joe Blanton slated for tomorrow, clearly the Phils' best chance is to win with Hamels today and then take the pressure off for Game 4 on Wednesday.

The Tiger, and the Trade

OK ok, enough with the emails and blog comments. Quickly I will give my opinion here on the whole Tiger Woods fiasco, and then on to more important things, this week's trade of Roy Halladay to the Philadelphia Phillies in their attempt to become the first National League team ever to appear in three consecutive World Series.

First -- Tiger. There's a reason that I haven't really mentioned this here before, and that's because, generally speaking, I just don't see what the real story here is. I mean, yeah it's another man in a position of extreme power, influence, fame or riches who it turns out is a raging pig-ass immoral bitch. Tiger isn't anywhere near the first, and he'll be nowhere near the last. Sure it's always a little disappointing to see a guy knocked down from the top of the world like this, but again, I am at this point far beyond the point of surprise when it comes to the illicit sexcapades of anyone with a modicum of recognizable success these days. It's more or less just like baseball players using steroids at this point -- I just assume that any man who again occupies any position of power, influence, fame or riches is in fact cheating on his wife. Repeatedly. And often it's with totally freaky-deaky people like hookers, porn stars, transvestites, minorities or others somehow different from the person involved, etc. It's just the nature of the beast.

Basically, what it comes down to is that men are weak, in particular men who have 18 billion pounds of pussy thrown in their face every single waking hour of every single day. It's real easy for me to sit here with my feet up on my desk and claim that I would never, ever cheat on my wife. And I believe it too. But throw a hundred hot pieces of ass at me every single day I am alive, all of whom would do basically anything I wanted them to do at any time, any position, in any way whatsoever, and have them be not only willing but really begging to get it on with me, and you just can't say in a vacuum what you would actually do in that situation. It's the sad truth about the way men are. And that's not intended to be any kind of an excuse. It's just a realistic observation about what I see in the world today. I doubt that Tiger set out to marry Elin but then immediately fuck as many other bitches as he could find. I bet for a while he believed he would stop womanizing along with his decision to get married. But it's just so much pussy, all the time. It's wrong as hell what Tiger has done, and frankly I cannot believe how reckless he has been with the voicemails, the sexts, etc. he has sent, but in the end this just shows that Tiger is no different from most other mega athletes, famous people or incredibly rich people in the world today.

I should also mention how much more this sort of thing seems to be happening since our own acting president got busted chasing blowies instead of fighting Osama Bin Laden back in the late 90s. I've said this a million times but I'll say it again now -- the worst result of the Clinton presidency was not the breakdown of oversight and regulation of areas that are in need of such oversight and regulation, and it wasn't even the lack of attention placed on very real enemies that were quietly amassing forces to launch attacks against our country. The worst result of the Clintons (and I do mean both of them, because Hillary staying with that pig for her own personal gain is just about as bad and unthinkable as what Bill did in my view) was the loss of morals that that entire regime based on lying, cheating and selling out set as an example for Americans -- really, for humans -- all around the world. When people see the acting leader of the greatest, most properous nation in the history of the earth fingering his fat young interns with cigars, splooging all over the White House, accepting millions of dollars to free outright serial-killing criminals in his last days of office, and going before Congress and before the cameras and outright lying under oath, this has a severe and long-term effect on morals of everyone alive. And I definitely blame the Clintons as a significant factor in the seeming growing habit of the rich and famous acting with absolutely no morals whatsoever, giving no respect whatsoever to the lives of their wives, children, other loved ones or the millions and millions of people who look up to them.

The last point I would make about the whole Tiger rigamarole is just how funny it is that men will cheat on any chick, no matter how hot she is. I mean it's great being a man, really. Elin, the hot, young blond thing that she is, gets cheated on a million times by Tiger Woods. He goes to hookers, porn stars, even Perkins waitresses for crying out loud, just to avoid boinking her one more time. Christie Brinkley has had like four husbands cheat on her hot ass. Frigging Hugh Grant cheated on Elizabeth Hurley with a transvestite hooker for crying out loud! You ever wonder why women paint their fingernails and toenails, have every hair painfully ripped from every nook and cranny of their entire bodies, color their cheeks, their hair, their lips, outline their eyes, extend their eyelashes, and get fake stomachs, fake tits, fake lips, eye jobs, chin jobs, elbow jobs, and I could go on and on and on? Because it's true what they say: for every super smokin hot chick you can show me, I can show you a man who is tired of fucking her. It's just the way we are as men.

Now on the real business of the day, which is the trade of Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay to the Phillies. In a nutshell, this looks to be a three-team deal that essentially involves the Phillies sending former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee to Seattle, along with top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek and another top prospect to the Jays, in exchange for the Phils receiving Roy Halladay and the Mariners' two top pitching prospects. There are various reasons for the Jays and the Mariners to do or not do this deal, but I'm only concerned here with the Phillies's motivations, which in this case relate to securing an appropriate long-term commitment from a staff ace. Here, Cliff Lee had indicated that he would be looking for a 5- or 6-year deal similar to the one signed by CC Sabathia with the Yankees before the 2009 season when Lee's current contract is up after the 2010 season, and the Phillies as a franchise prefer to keep starting pitching contracts to fewer than four years -- a strategy which I strongly agree with, as long as you can effectively continue signing good pitchers for shorter agreements over time. Halladay, however, had already indicated an extreme interest in signing a long-term deal with the Phils, among other things due to the team's spring facility's location just a few minutes away from his family's Clearwater, Florida home, and he has since done so, negotiating a 3-year extension with an option all at roughly $20 million a year in connection with this trade.

So what the Phils are getting out of this trade in a nutshell is swapping out Cliff Lee, who was going to pitch in Philly for just one more year and then would have left the team as a free agent since the Phils already knew they were not keen to giving Lee the deal he is looking for to make his millions now, and bringing in Roy Halladay instead, for the next four years instead of Cliff Lee's one year. As I said consistently all through last season, I believe that, even with as great as Cliff Lee pitched in Philadelphia, Halladay is still that much better overall of a pitcher. His career numbers are slightly better, and he is that much more of a workhorse than even Lee has been in his time in Cleveland and Philadelphia. And in contrast to Lee's shaky 8-9 beginning to the 2009 season in Cleveland, Halladay has been one of the most consistent pitchers in the game, finishing in the top five in the AL's Cy Young voting in each of the past five seasons. Halladay throws about 8-10 complete games a year, he goes deep almost every single night when his GM hasn't totally messed with his psyche by promising him a trade to a contender and then not following through with it, and the guy is absolutely awesome at all aspects of pitching in the major leagues. But Cliff Lee has been awesome as well, and ultimately again this is not a deal that says that Halladay is a far better pitcher than Cliff Lee. Instead this deal says that Halladay can be a Phillie at a "reasonable" price for four more years after 2010, whereas Cliff Lee is only staying there for one more year at most and then he will be gone to more lucrative waters (located in the Bronx, New York most likely).

The big question right now I think is how the people of Philadelphia will react to this deal. It does seem that Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro has made a shrewd long-term decision for his team, locking up one of the greatest pitchers in the game today for the next five seasons instead of retaining a slightly lesser pitcher for only one more season. But that's not necessarily how the Philly fans are going to react to it. Cliff Lee, even in his short time in the City of Brotherly Love, was beloved by the hometown fans. He came in at the midpoint this season and immediately took over the mantle that had been held by Cole Hamels in the Phils' run to the championship back in 2008. He pitched so good for his first several starts as a Phillie that he was the absolute talk of the town, and that only magnified with Lee's incredible shutdown performances in the 2009 postseason. The Phanatics love this guy, and now he's gone, seemingly swapped for a roughly equal talent in Halladay, but not someone who has done anything yet for this city like Lee already had. Shipping Lee off unceremoniously like this as part of this three-team deal is not necessarily going to make Ruben Amaro a beloved figure in the city, at least not until Halladay goes nine innings in his first three starts for the Phils in 2010.

And then there is the small aspect of Amaro giving up top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek to Toronto as part of this deal. You may recall that talks for the Phillies to acquire Halladay before the trading deadline last season eventually stalled out because of the Phillies' refusal to include Drabek in the deal. So, back in June Amaro turned down trading Drabek for Halladay, acquired Cliff Lee and kept Drabek instead. And now here we are some six months later, and Amaro is giving up Cliff Lee, getting Roy Halladay and giving up Kyle Drabek to the Jays after all. This, in addition to giving away the other top prospects the Phils traded away to Cleveland to acquire Cliff Lee last season when the Halladay deal eventually broke down. So to all those out there who say this deal is a slam dunk, I think that is a silly position. It seems like Amaro made a short-term decision in acquiring Cliff Lee last season without really thinking through (or knowing about) Lee's future contract plans, and now Amaro is trying to undo that trade and go back to the deal he had wanted all along for Halladay, except that now he has to give up Kyle Drabek as well to get himself back to where he preferred to have been last summer anyways. Only time will tell how good this deal really is, although my suspicions are that the Phillies would not be giving up Drabek to make this deal happen if they truly thought as highly of Drabek as they have led others to believe over the past season or two in Philadelphia.

Catchup

Whoa. A week sure flew by in a hurry. I meant to say something about this in advance, but I have been pretty much out of pocket and not even online much for the past couple of weeks. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest one pretty much includes Hammer Wife and I having another baby a couple of days ago. So I haven't really been working, and I really haven't even been on the grid at all for the most part.

But I've still been keeping in touch with what's going on in the world, and frankly I would've probably had a ton to write about if this had been a normal past week for me. So with that I will leave you today with some random thoughts on the things that have happened in the world of sports since last we spoke. As always, in no particular order.

For starters, Plaxico Burress has got to have the worst big-time lawyer in the world. This guy somehow managed to get two years in real-life prison, out in 20 months for good behavior (fat chance), simply for carrying a weapon into a New York nightclub without it having been registered in New York. Now, the gun was registered in the state Plax purchased it in, mind you, and he had been through the interview process and answered all the questions associated with registration of such a gun, but the law in New York says that all concealed handguns must be registered in the State of New York in order to be possessed in the state.

Now don't get me wrong -- what Plaxico did was bad, and more importantly, it was clearly a crime under the laws of the State of New York. All that law requires is possession of a gun, and that gun not to be registered in New York, and you are guilty of violating the law. Period. And Plax clearly satisfied both elements of this relatively clear crime. Yet Plax's "lawyer to the stars", Ben Brathman, first decided to take the unusual step of Plax testifying as part of the grand jury hearing to determine whether or not Plaxico would be indicted for illegal possession of a handgun. Normally a defendant is not at all involved in the grand jury process, but I guess Ben Brathman thought he might be able to win some leniency from the grand jury in some form by presenting the mitigating circumstances of Plaxico's situation. Unfortunately, all the mitigation in the world doesn't change the fact that Plax carried a gun not registered in New York into a nightclub in New York, and the grand jury quickly voted to indict as seemed obvious to everyone but Plax's big-money lawyer. Brathman's follow-up strategy of talking tough on beating the charges and in plea negotiations with the Manhattan DA also totally failed, as Brathman again tried to deny the fact that violation of New York's unregistered gun law carries a mandatory statutory prison term of 3 1/2 years. So why is the DA going to agree to Plax doing no jail time when it is clear as a bell that Plax violated a state law, and that law clearly stipulates a 3 1/2 year minimum jail term for any violation?

In the end, Plax will serve two years in NY state prison. All because he bought a gun, registered it in the state of purchase, and then carried it with him into a nightclub in New York City one night. He never intended to use the gun and certainly had not intent to harm or injure anyone in any way, and again he had registered the gun he was charged for. And yet he's getting two years in jail.

I certainly hope he didn't pay Benjamin Brathman too much up front for his "expertise". If I'm rich and famous and I'm charged with a crime in the future, I wouldn't even consider talking to Brathman about my case.

Staying in the NFL for a minute, there's always Brett Favre. What can you even say at this point? I mean, clearly he is a selfish, self-centered individual who cannot see what others can see about him. Favre hasn't been a good quarterback for years, literally, and the havoc he has caused for three or four different NFL teams over the past several seasons with his complete unwillingness to decide on his future by any deadlines he or potential suitor teams have set is nearing legendary levels at this point. But you know what? At this point I am through being pissed about Favre and his magical ego tour. I'm actually interested and excited to watch how he plays this year, especially on a team that I consider to be pretty mediocre overall in Minnesota. They're not bad by any means, but Favre has really made his bed at this point, and now the whole country is going to be watching him weekly, with most of them probably rooting for him to fall flat on his pretty face.

And speaking of people who fans will love to hate this year, my Eagles' acquisition of Mike Vick is still in the forefront of my mind. In the end, I think I have a similar feeling to the Vick situation as I do about the whole Favre debacle -- as I have discussed previously, what Vick did is reprehensible to be sure. And I'm still embarrassed as all getout that it's going to be my team -- my Eagles -- who Vick will be suiting up for all through this season. But as I wrote about previously, I don't really have any problem with Vick getting signed by somebody, and in my heart I know Vick deserves the second chance after 23 months in prison and 32+ games suspended if an NFL team is willing to put up with all the shit that will surely go along with employing him. And, as with the Favre situation, at this point I am more excited than anything else about seeing just what the crazy mind of Andy Reid comes up with as far as where and how to play someone of Mike Vick's athletic caliber. Will McNabb and Vick both line up behind the line and make defenders guess who will get the snap from center? Will Vick line up as a wide receiver or tight end as has been rumored of late? Will Vick even have set plays run for him to come out of the backfield with the potential to bust through some holes? There are just a whole lot of ways Vick can be integrated into this offense, and I can foresee people tuning in just to see what the Eagles do next with him on the roster.

Before I go today, I would be remiss if I did not mention Your World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, who have continued trucking along and at this moment sit at a season-high 22 games over .500, thanks in no small part to what has become at this point an indisputably strong starting pitching rotation. The first nice surprise has been Pedro Martinez, although if you've followed P-Mart's career along then I suppose his performance thus far for the Champs hasn't been that out of character. Basically, just as I've been saying here for over a month now, P-Mart has become a decently solid 5- or 6-inning starter. He will probably never sniff the 7th inning again in his major league pitching career, but he's usually good for 5 or 6 innings, getting himself into trouble maybe twice and giving up 2-4 earned runs. But he seems to have sufficient stuff to avoid the big meltdown innings and getting rocked early most of the time, which has been helpful for the Phillies at the bottom of the rotation and hopefully will continue to do so.

But the real story with the Phillies success this year, and in particular in the second half, lies in two other pitchers, both of whom were tangentially involved in the possible trade talks for Roy Halladay just before the trading deadline. First, you've got J.A. Happ, the 26-year-old phenom making his first attempt at being a starter in this, the third season where he made at least one appearance for the major league club. Happ is you recall was required by the Blue Jays as part of any trade for their ace Roy Halladay, and Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro had even offered up Happ as part of a 4-player proposal, which Blue Jays' GM J.P. Ricciardi rejected because it did not also include #1 Phillies pitching prospect Kyle Drabek. Well, the rest is GM legend history as Amaro then opted to keep both Drabek and Happ, and to trade a few other lesser prospects for Indians' starter Cliff Lee instead. More on Lee in a minute, but Happ has continued on being just tremendous since narrowly missing being traded thanks to the Jays' GM being outmaneuvered by Amaro. Since the Phillies kept Happ and acquired Cliff Lee on July 29, J. Happ is 4-0 for the Phils, three of those wins on the road including wins at wildcard-fighting Atlanta and Chicago plus a 7-0 shutout win at home against the wildcard-leading Rockies. In those four starts, Happ has pitched 29.2 innings, or well into the 8th inning on average per start. And in those 29.2 innings? Just one home run and four total runs allowed, for an awesome 1.26 ERA this month. Simply put, the guy has been a total pimp for us and this is why myself and so many other Phillies fans were thrilled with Amaro's move keeping Happ and not giving in to the Blue Jays' ludicrous demands for Halladay instead.

Meanwhile, Cliff Lee's performance since he came to Philly instead of Roy Halladay on July 29 makes J. Happ seem like Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams in the 1993 World Series. If there was any doubt about Ruben Amaro's genius in this, just his first year as a General Manager of a major league baseball team, after letting Pat Burrell and his 12 home runs so far in 2009 go to the Rays and picking up Raul Ibanez in the offseason, picking up an effective Pedro Martinez for peanuts a couple of months back, and then managing to keep both J. Happ and Kyle Drabek in making a big trade before the trading deadline, then what Cliff Lee has done in Philly has got to ice it. Now in five starts for the World Champions, Cliff Lee is 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA. No that's not a typo. Lee has pitched 7, 7, 8, 9 and 9 innings in his five starts so far for the Phils, giving up a total of 26 hits in those 40 innings -- none of them home runs -- and a grand total of three earned runs. In 40 innings. He's also pitched 39 strikeouts compared to just six walks during that time period, so this is a guy with the total package of impeccable control and awesome power across the board. And you know what the best part is? During this same time period (since July 29), Roy Hallday has gone 2-4 with an ERA of 4.40, giving up 8 home runs and allowing opposing batters to hit .324 against him. I knew this whole thing was going to blow up in Ricciardi's face, toying with his ace's emotions like he did by publicly broadcasting his desire to trade the starter to a contender, and then turning down some very powerful offers including top prospects plus guys like J. Happ and leaving Halladay high and dry with a losing team for the second half of the season, but it's good to see someone's ineptitude come home to roost once in a while. But hey I'm not complaining -- Ricciardi's big gaffe was Ruben Amaro's gain, and I have to admit as a Philly sports fan it feels good for once in a long while to be the team that took advantage of someone else's ineptitude instead of the team getting taken advantage of.

OK that's all for now. I may have some more this week but next week on Monday I should be back and better than ever on my regular posting schedule as things begin to return a little bit back to normal in my home and in my life.

The Proof

Cliff Lee's line from Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia as Your World Champion Philadelphia Phillies took on the Colorado Rockies:

7.0 innings, 6 hits 1 ER, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts. 112 total pitches, 78 strikes, 34 balls.

That is now one run given up by Cliff Lee in 16 innings with Philadelphia, beating currently the top two teams for the wildcard to start his career in the city with the best farm team in the nation off with a bang at 2-0.

And you see, this is exactly what I was talking about last week when I described what a huge, huge win this trade was for us, even compared to the deal proposed by the Blue Jays for Roy Halladay. I said it before and I'll say it again now: Roy Halladay is a better pitcher than Cliff Lee. If he had come to Philly, he'd probably have pitched two complete game shutouts or something, and had 19 strikeouts instead of the mere 15 that Lee has come up with so far. But you know what the Phillies' record would have been in those two blowout performances by Halladay?

2-0.

And that's exactly my point. What ultimately matters is winning games for the Philadelphia Phillies, and we ended up with a guy who has the same record that Halladay would likely have had here in Philly through two games. So for no change whatsoever in our overall wins, we got to keep J.A. Happ -- yesterday's complete-game shutout guy for the Champs -- by trading for Cliff Lee instead.

Oh yeah. And top pitching prospect Doug Drabek, both of whom were being required by the Blue Jays in exchange for Mr. Halladay.

Ruben Amaro, once again I salute you. I thought Raul Ibanez was grand larceny, but damn if you didn't go and top yourself in acquiring Cliff Lee.

Four Hitters

No, I'm not going to write about four different baseball players with great prowess at the plate today. I'm talking about four-hitters, with a hyphen in there, as in four-hit complete games thrown by pitchers. Because the Phillies have had perhaps their biggest week in starting pitching of all season just now, even coming off of losing 4 out of 6 games.

First was Cliff Lee, who came out in his first start as a World Champion Philadelphia Phillies player last week and pitched an absolute gem, a four-hit complete game shelling of the wildcard-leading San Francisco Giants on the road in Cali. As I wrote about last week, this was Lee's first appearance as a Phil, first appearance in the National League in fact, and he absolutely shined, helping making Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro look like a genius for landing this guy while somehow managing to keep both upstart 25-year-old J.A. Happ and his 7-2, sub-3 ERA, as well as the #1 pitching prospect in our easily league-best farm system, Doug Drabek.

Well, Wednesday night was a special night for many Phillies fans, as the team has returned home after its West Coast mini-roadtrip, and Wednesday was the first chance for the Phillies fans to see J.A. Happ pitch since Amaro offered up Happ in exchange for the Blue Jay's Roy Halladay but then nixed a counteroffer from Toronto that included both Happ and Drabek. So, despite Happ's 7-2, 2.93 ERA, 1.15 WHIP start to the season, we almost lost him there, but then our GM opted to keep him, trading instead for the reigning AL Cy Young winner and keeping Drabek and Happ in the process. For us Phillies fans, this is like a second chance at life with Happ. Happ has been a stalwart for us since joining the start rotation about halfway through the first half of the season, and as fans who appreciate our team in a way that no other city could understand, we are thrilled to have Happ still on our bench after flirting with trading him away in a deal for a megastar.

So Wednesday night was Happ's first start since almost being dealt to the Blue Jays, and unlike Cliff Lee, that start happens to be at Citizens Bank Park and in front of the highly appreciative hometown fans. The guy got a massive ovation the minute they called his name during the introductions in Philly, and another when he took the field and starting warming up for the top of the first inning. And what did Happ do with all that adrenaline and good feeling going his way to start this game? He did nothing short of completely obliterating the half-a-game-back-in-the-wildcard Colorado Rockies, serving up another 4-hit gem, this one a complete game shutout. Not only was this Happ's first complete game of the season -- and I believe of his short career as a major league pitcher -- but it was also easily his best overall performance ever as a starter, with a final line of 9 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 10 strikeouts, and just 2 walks.

And boy did the crazed Philadelphia fans take notice. In the 8th inning, the World Champions' coach Charlie Manuel got Ryan Madsen up in the bullpen as Happ crossed the 100-pitch mark. With Happ scheduled to bat in the bottom of the 8th already, the observant fans in Citizens Bank Park immediately knew what this meant, and they stood up to show Happ what they thought of his effort on the night, and of having him still in the rotation after what he showed us in the first half of the season. This turned into about a 5-minute standing ovation for Happ all through the last couple batters of the 8th and then a riotous cheering as Happ walked off the mound. But then suddenly, in the bottom of the 8th, there was Happ striding out of the dugout and into the on-deck circle, and the fans went wild knowing Happ would be coming out to go for the complete game shutout in the 9th. When Happ slammed a double in the bottom of the 8th, it was all gravy for the fans who were already priming for another three outs from their 25-year-old phenom.

With 110 pitches already thrown on the day, Happ trotted out happily to the mound for the 9th, to once again a standing ovation from the crowd that this time would last for the entire inning. 17 pitches later, the fans roared their approval as Happ fired a 94-mph fastball for a called third strike to end the game. As a Phillies fan, this was about as much fun as I've had watching a regular-season game as I can recall in the recent past.

Now for Thursday afternoon's game, bring on the Rockies for the rubber match. Bring on Aaron Cook and his 10-3 record for the 59-48 Rockies. And most importantly, bring on some more of that Cliff Lee!

The Trade

I'm calling it. The World Champion Philadelphia Phillies' acquisition of starting pitcher Cliff Lee from the Indians is a slam dunk. Here's why.

It's simple, really. I'm not trying to say that Cliff Lee is just as good as Roy Halladay -- in my view, it just doesn't get any better than Halladay's combination of control, power and stamina -- but when you look at what we need, what we got, and what we gave up to get it, I am a big fan of this deal, even in comparison to what the over-greedy Blue Jays' GM was allegedly requiring in exchange for his star pitcher.

In a nutshell, the Blue Jays' latest offer to trade us Roy Halladay required us to give them 7-2, sub-3 ERA third-year upstart pitcher J.A. Happ, #1 pitching prospect Kyle Drabek, and our #1 position player prospect Dominic Brown. We rejected this offer, indicating that we would consider parting ways with our top outfield prospect in Brown, and one of our two youngest up and coming star pitchers in Happ or Drabek. But not both. The Blue Jays would not move off of their stated requirements to obtain our best young pitcher, our #1 pitching prospect and our #1 outfield prospect, so we ended up turning our attention elsewhere to see what else was available.

And just look at how much less we got reigning AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee for instead. For Cliff Lee -- plus right-handed batting outfielder Ben Francisco -- from the Indians, the Phils gave up 18-year-old single-A fastballer Jason Knapp, right-handed starter Carlos Carrasco whose 6 runs in 6 innings failed to wow Blue Jays scouts this past weekend in central Pennsylvania, catcher Lou Marson, and shortstop Jason Donald. Now to be sure, a package of four young promising prospects is a great deal to offer for essentially just one Cy Young winning arm to add to our rotation. But it's what isn't included in this deal that's at least as important as what is.

First off, there's no Kyle Drabek. So we will get to keep the 21-year-old son of former major league Doug Drabek, also the #1 rated pitching prospect in the entire Phillies' farm system. And by the numbers, Drabek's minor league career is about as good as it could be at this point, as the kid is 11-2 right now through two different teams in 2009, sporting a 2.78 ERA with a complete game and two more 8+-inning performances in 18 games started. On the stamina and control side, Drabek is averaging nearly 7 innings per start in 2009, and has given up well under a hit per inning in pitching to a very impressive 1.15 WHIP so far this year. He's also compiled 123 strikeouts in his 129 innings pitched, or again nearly a K an inning, balanced against just 2.6 walks per 9 innings pitched. In all, keeping Drabek has a real value for the team that has -- far and away -- the best farm system in all of baseball, and it is fully reasonable given the plethora of home-grown stars playing nightly at Citizens Bank Park to expect that the fans in Philly will get to see Drabek up close and personal for a long time starting later this year or perhaps in 2010.

Also, another player not included in the Cliff Lee trade but who the Jays were insisting be included along with Kyle Drabek in any deal for Roy Halladay is J.A. Happ. Happ was stuck into the rotation to plug a hole shortly before the All-Star break this year, and he has been nothing short of amazing in his brief time back up with the major league club, pitching to a 7-2 record with an ERA that has risen to 2.97. In 13 stars with the Phillies so far this summer, Happ has pitched an average of just over 6 innings per -- not bad for a 26-year-old kid -- in compiling another impressive WHIP of 1.16, the best on the team so far in 2009. So here is another real deal of a player -- more than just a random prospect -- and the Phillies now get to keep him in the rotation, in addition to priming Drabek for the major league roster at some point in the near future, and now adding Cliff Lee as well.

So, if the Phillies had accepted the Blue Jays' last offer for Halladay, our starting rotation would have consisted of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer, and Pedro Martinez. As bad as Martinez surely is going to be, it's hard to be too excited at this point about wizened old Jamie Moyer either, as neither one of them is likely to ever see 90 on the radar gun again as long as they both shall live, and that result would leave me seriously questioning the bottom of our rotation, especially heading into a short playoff series. But now look at our rotation after the Cliff Lee deal -- it's Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer. That rotation is flat-out better top-to-bottom than what we would have had even with Halladay in there in my view -- remember, no matter how overpoweringly awesome Halladay pitches, he can still only win once every four or five games, tops -- and to boot we also get to keep Drabek and have him up hopefully helping to anchor the staff for years to come starting in 2010. And we also pick up Ben Francisco in the deal as well, even further showing just how much better the Cliff Lee trade really is for us than getting the ultimately more skilled Halladay for the huge price being asked of him.

What's more, the players we are giving up in the Lee trade -- in stark contrast to what the Jays were requiring for Roy Halladay -- are mostly players who were not likely to get a shot anytime soon in Philadelphia in any event. Jason Knapp is 18 years old and in just single-A ball -- still a good couple or few years away from even sniffing the major leagues, and that's assuming he continues to progress from this point as it is -- plus right hander Carrasco, catcher Lou Marson -- a good player but one who is not likely to steal any time away from Phillies' catch Carlos Ruiz who knocked in a crucial run in the deciding game of the 2008 World Series, plus shortstop Jason Donald who is not likely to even touch the turf any time while Jimmy Rollings is still kicking around in Philly. So although these players represent some good young value to the Indians, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro did a good job in offering up players that have far more value off of our team than they do on our team.

In all, this was a great, great move for the Phillies, who already didn't need to add someone of Halladay's caliber in order to make their way back deep into the playoffs. Cliff Lee is a great addition to our starting staff, which was pretty much one solid pitcher away from where it needed to be, and getting to keep J.A. Happ in the deal ensures that Lee then fills that one-pitcher need instead of simply replacing it for another void that would then need filling as well. And nabbing Lee instead of Halladay also enables us to keep our #1 pitching prospect and our #1 outfielding prospect within the confines of the major leagues' best farm system, both of whom are likely to advance well given the tremendous success of farm players on the major league roster in Philly over the past several years.

I know a lot of Philly fans were going crazy about us paying whatever price was asked for Roy Halladay, but in looking at the deal we did make, I just can't help but notice what a great move it seems to be. There's little doubt at this point (was there any already even before this deal?) that the Phillies are now the clear team to beat in the National League.

Two straight World Series appearances? For the Phillies? I still may have to see it to believe it!