Philly fan’s thoughts on Cliff Lee’s trade to the Texas Rangers
Unfortunately, the Phillies are not running away with the NL East and hardly resemble the team that took the field in Game 6 of the World Series in new Yankee Stadium. When did it all go wrong?
After steadily progressing from a team out of the playoff picture at the 2006 trading deadline — which saw outfielder Bobby Abreu and late pitcher Cory Lidle traded to the aforementioned Bronx Bombers — all the way through the 2009 postseason, which unfortunately ended the Phillies’ shot at the first back-to-back World Series Championships in franchise history.
But GM Ruben Amaro wasn’t going to stand pat with his team. Early in the offseason, he upgraded the third base position by signing former Phillie Placido Polanco and letting Pedro Feliz and his World Series-winning RBI sign with the lowly Houston Astros (hello, Ed Wade).
This was supposed to be the best Phillies team of all-time. Since that salary dump-turned-revitalizing trade of Abreu and Lidle, the Phillies only got better, never worse. Then word came out that the Phillies were once again shopping for Roy Halladay. When I heard that the Blue Jays didn’t need Lee in the trade, my heart skipped a beat. You mean we get Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay? They’re only the two best pitchers in the entire league. The Yankees are going down in ‘10!
Then it happened. The all-time “YES!–wait, what?” moment. The Halladay trade was actually a three-team deal that included Lee going to Seattle for three low-level minors prospects. Since we had already pretty much known that getting Halladay was a done deal, losing Lee became the first negative blow for Phillies fans in four years.
Time out.
(Quick heads up. I never had the opportunity to fully express myself on the Cliff Lee-Roy Halladay-prospects three-way deal. Didn’t like it at the time and am still not quite over it. But before I slam the whole idea of this trade, let me get one thing absolutely straight: I love Halladay.)
Ok, time in.
Cliff Lee is to Phillies fans as Kelly Kapowski was to Zack Morris. No offense to Roy Halladay — who may be a better pitcher — but we loved Lee. The dude was our fall-back date to the prom when Amaro’s initial push for Halladay bogged down last summer, and he didn’t disappoint. Just like Jim found out when he took Michele (from band camp, if you will) to the prom in American Pie, Lee was the pitcher the Phillies should have wanted all along. He went 7-4 during the regular season, but his postseason was the stuff of legends. Lee went 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA and won both his starts in the World Series against those damn Yankees.
Funny how the Lee trades had such polar opposite effects on Amaro’s reputation. Bringing him aboard at the trade deadline in ‘09 made him the front office man of the year, while trading him away made him a villain in the eyes of most Phillies fans. Hard to argue with his logic — Halladay is the master — but Lee endeared himself to the city and his teammates unlike anyone really before him. Logic doesn’t win ballgames, and Amaro will face the heat if the Phillies don’t make the playoffs this year. Or worse, what if Halladay isn’t the same dominant pitcher in the playoffs?
But I guess when you can trade the starting pitcher that won both of your team’s World Series victories, you gotta do it, right? Amaro wanted Halladay, and Lee was once again the second choice. The Phillies farm system needed some restocking, but why at the expense of an uber-dominant one-two punch of Halladay and Lee at the front of your rotation? Need prospects, deal Cole Hamels and his 2008 trophy case. That’s what I would have done.
Let me ask you one thing before I let you go. Do you think the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would have traded Cliff Lee for prospects after back-to-back World Series appearances? I don’t think so either.
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