Cliff Lee will remain a Phillie as the window on the Dodgers' waiver claim closed today. Lee responded by allowing three home runs in a no-decision against the Diamondbacks this afternoon. When asked by Zach Links yesterday, 68% of MLBTR readers thought the Phillies should have let Lee go. But, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com outlines two scenarios explaining why the Phillies held onto Lee. In other news involving teams from the NL West:
- The Dodgers have been busy wheeling and dealing the past week turning over 20% of their roster with their recent trade acquisitions. Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times writes about how the Dodgers are being forced to mesh and develop its own chemistry in the season’s final two months while battling for a playoff spot.
- The Rockies rearranged the duties of General Manager Dan O'Dowd and Assistant GM Bill Geivett this past week, but the Denver Post's Troy Renck believes the switch seems convoluted unless it leads to a major overhaul in personnel, especially in the drafting and development of better starting pitching.
- The Rockies placed struggling left-hander Jonathan Sanchez on the 15-day disabled list with left bicep tendinitis. Sanchez was acquired from the Royals for Jeremy Guthrie last month, but Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area tweets the real get for Colorado was salary relief to the tune of $1.1MM.
Missed your chance, Rube.
All the Phillies had to do was get a piece in return and let LAD take on the $90M owed to Lee. Mistake.
Thank god the dodgers didnt pull the trigger on this… i would have rather seen them go after gonzalez…..
Not… happening…
Exactly.. That is 1, for SURE 150m dollar contract that isn’t going to be gotten cheaply. he is well worth his deal.
Want someone worth the contract and performing close to AGone? I mentioned it before LA, Go get Morneau from the Twinkies.. Cost ya 14m next year, GG defense and:
.272 Avg
.332 OBP
.465 .SLG
.797 .OPS
All after over coming a really slow start.
Despite his contract, Morneau wouldn’t make it through the AL.
The Orioles would probably take him in a heartbeat, even with all the money.
The Dodgers fans have to be delighted to see this.
As a Phillies fan, it’s hard to see the continued misses by Ruben Amaro who seems almost delusional, and clueless about how to build a baseball organisation.
I don’t think Phillies will get back into contention until they’ve parted ways with Amaro and brought in a GM who’s got some plan, a sense of direction.
The Cliff Lee deal was a no-brainer, yet Amaro somehow couldn’t part ways with a star player, I think somehow it’s an ego thing for Amaro, he doesn’t wanna make deals where Phillies are giving up big time players. He always wants to be the guy who trades for the big names.
You can’t be a Phillies fan. No way you give up Lee. Good luck with Victorino and Blanton. There’s a reason why they were let go.
Why on earth would you want to hold on to Cliff Lee in the latter parts of his contract? When another club comes in and for some reason offers to take on the last years of his over valued contract, when he’s also has started to decline a little in performance, then you should seize that chance.
Can afford the contract want to contend next year. We’ll be fine.
6IP 5H 2ER 5K, I think we’re okay with Blanton
He did well for Philly in 2008 when he came over from Oakland. He is not Cliff Lee though.
Obviously he’s not Cliff Lee. For starters Blanton has at least 30 pounds on Lee.
Of course he’s not Cliff Lee, but in the long run I’d rather have Blanton now then a 25M 36 year old Cliff Lee three years from now. I like our farm the way it is and we could use the money for other needs(like Josh Hamilton)
Amaro had a great opportunity to fix his own mistake.
The riskiest part of Lee’s deal is coming up next year. The salary goes up and Lee has already shown some regression this year.
Why on earth would you not let the Dodgers assume all that risk?
If Lee really regresses next year, then Amaro is going to be stuck with that albatross of a contract.
The worse thing that could happen to Amaro is that Lee stays healthy enough for the last year on his contract to vest, but just loses enough stuff and control to make the last 2 yrs of that deal look like Barry Zito’s deal.
If I am a Philly fan, I am hoping Amaro trades Lee in the winter when he might be able to gain some leverage if 2 suitors want him.
My guess is, though, that the Dodgers will be the only team to still be legitimately interested in assuming a significant portion of Lee’s contract.
The Phillies will contend in 2013 and you are better with Lee than without. Victorino, Pence and Blanton can be replaced.
How can you be so sure that the Phils will contend next year? The Nats are young and will only be getting better, plus they have money to spend this winter, the Braves don’t look like they’re going anywhere, hell I’d even give the Mets a better chance next year. All the Phillies are doing is getting a year older and they don’t have much money available of they want to stay under the luxury tax.
I’m sure they’ll contend. Nats and Braves haven’t won anything yet and neither team has the resources Philly has. Mets are still a joke. Only a fool will count Philly out next year.
Also a reason why you guys are out of contention #dodgers
It wasn’t LA’s trigger to pull. After they put in a claim, all Philly had to do was say “take him” and LA would be responsible for the contract.
“Jonathan Sanchez was placed on the 15-day DL with an extreme case of can’tpitchitis. It’s a rare condition that seems somehow to be concentrated in the Denver and Kansas CIty areas.”
Big mistake. Amaro essentially just signed Lee to a 3 year 87.5 MM / 4 year 102.5MM extension. Lee could have been the Dodger’s responsibility.
It’s not like the Phillies need to get younger or could use some financial flexibility …
If a team intentionally subjects its fans to Sanchez in order to save 1.1 million, then that team is blatantly saying they don’t give a damn about their fans.
Either way, with or without C. Lee the Dodgers will be successful….this year!!!!
This was a golden opportunity missed by Ruben Amaro. The Phillies once mighty offense has declined tremendously the past two seasons, they have an aging roster, they now signed Hamels (one of the few young guys) to a long-term deal, they can’t trade Ryan Howard, they can’t get Chase Utley to stay healthy for more than 30 games at a time, and they are pushing up against the luxury tax.
What they should’ve done was dump Lee and his salary, look to trade Halladay in the offseason, and use that saved money from Lee to either upgrade the offense (Melky Canrera perhaps?) or go after a young stud pitcher like Greinke, and build around him and Hamels rather than Lee and Halladay, who are both on the downside of 30 and their great careers.