SportsNation Blog Archives
Cliff Lee
Who says there isn't any drama in baseball? All right, pretty much anyone looking at the standings in any race that isn't the AL West. But Labor Day offered hope of at least one chase that may go down to the wire. Cliff Lee recorded his sixth shutout, the most in more than a decade, as the Phillies beat the Braves. The team's lead is safe in the NL East, but does either Lee or Roy Halladay lead the NL Cy Young race? Rank baseball's best pitchers.
- "I think Cliff Lee will win it. June: 5-0 with 0.21 ERA. August: 5-0 0.41 ERA. Six shutouts. If he finishes the year anything like how he pitched his last six starts (0.37 ERA), he has to win the award. Halladay and Kershaw are great; Lee is unbelievable." -- SN commenter johnjyuuu
The leader after Labor Day?
Lee has the shutouts, but Roy Halladay leads the NL with seven complete games, Clayton Kershaw with 222 strikeouts and Kennedy with 18 wins.
Is the staff living up to the hype?
Lee, Halladay and Cole Hamels are rolling along, but Roy Oswalt and Joe Blanton have just 24 starts and eight wins between them.
Who gets the ball in October?
Lee is 7-2 with a 2.13 ERA in 76 career postseason innings. Halladay is 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in 22 postseason innings.
- Vote: Was Cliff Lee wise to leave $30 million or more on the table?
- Rank 'Em: Who are baseball's best starting pitchers?
Cliff Lee deciding to return to the Phillies and spurn both the Rangers and Yankees came out of nowhere Monday night. But if you think the move caught everyone by surprise, well, you just don't know SportsNation. Consider this prophetic chat exchange from Monday afternoon while we try and track down Nelson for some lottery numbers.
Nelson (Puerto Rico)
HEY ROB! Doesn't this Cliff Lee Saga have a certain feel to it that tells you that a team who no one thinks can come out of nowhere and sign him, leaving the Rangers and Yankees dumbfounded?
Rob Neyer (Monday afternoon)
Yeah, sort of. I just don't know who's got an extra $160 million laying around. Full transcript
Of course, as it turned out, the Phillies only needed about $120 million to tempt Lee, and who doesn't have that kind of change between the cushions on the couch? But in adding Lee to Roy Halladay, the ace they acquired after dealing Lee prior to last season, do the Phillies have the best rotation in the game? We just watched the Giants win a World Series with one of the best collective pitching efforts in recent memory, but is this even a debate?
“Uhhh sorry Giants fans. While I respect the hell out of your team and while I absolutely acknowledge you are the Champs, you still aren't the best TEAM in baseball. Three NCLS appearances, two world series appearances, and one championship in the past three years would probably put the Phils ahead of you.
” -- NJGiant99
“Wow, another pitcher who can't beat the Giants. Good luck with improving that team. I'm still taking Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner and Sanchez over them, just for a lot less.
” -- vusani
2. Is Cliff Lee really worth the bidding war in progress?
Don't feel too bad about those holiday shopping bills. No matter how much you spend at the malls this weeend, either the Yankees or Rangers are about to splurge in a much bigger manner. But as the years reportedly climb toward seven and the dollars toward $25 million annually, is Cliff Lee really worth it to either bidder?
- "This would be a terrible signing for the Yankees, and I really hope that Texas somehow talks him into staying. I supported the Sabathia deal because he was 28, but signing Lee to a 7 year deal right before he turns 33 is just absurd." -- SN commenter budala20
1. Who would you rather have: Halladay or Lee??
Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are in the news again. Halladay won his second Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote, and Lee is being courted by seemingly every contender in Major League Baseball. Which ace has the brighter future?
- "A well earned award for Halladay. Congratulations to Halladay, the Philadelphia Phillies team and their fans. With Halladay leading this staff the Phillies will be a contender for several more years." ." -- SN commenter shaqmvp32
- Vote: Are you picking the Giants or the Rangers?
- Rank 'Em: Starting pitchers | Position players | All-time postseason aces
- Test your World Series IQ: Know your Rangers? | How about your Giants?
Tim Lincecum is the two-time reigning NL Cy Young winner (at least until Roy Halladay picks up his award for this season). He's 2-1 with a 1.93 ERA through his first four postseason appearances, including 30 strikeouts and just five walks in 23.1 innings. And he's pitching Game 1 of the World Series at home in San Francisco.
And 78 percent of SportsNation thinks he's going to lose.
This is all the scenic route to saying Cliff Lee, the guy voters like to beat Lincecum in Game 1, has gone from pitching ace to something even greater this postseason. Lee is clearly the pitcher SportsNation wants on the mound at this point in history -- he may even be the pitcher voters want on the mound for all time. But is Lee the most clutch performer across all of sports at the moment?
- Rank 'Em: Who are the greatest postseason pitchers of all time?
- Vote: Do the Yankees need to win three in a row?
- Chat: Joe Morgan, 11 ET | Rob Neyer, 12 ET More: ESPN Dallas | ESPN New York
How much are two hits worth? Are they worth more than pitching under the pressure that comes with being one round closer to the World Series? Are they worth more than pitching on the road against the defending champions instead of at home against the surprise NL Central champions with the fewest wins of any postseason entrant?
What we're getting at here is even with a no-hitter on the books elsewhere, might Cliff Lee's performance against the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS been the postseason's best pitching performance?
Consider how much SportsNation's consensus on the best remaining ace has changed.
Taylor (TX)
Richard, can you name one team in recent memory that's been as exciting to watch at the Rangers? I believe that one would be hardpressed to find a team with better team chemistry or a team that looks like they're having as much fun (claw and antlers really help this issue) as the Rangers have had this season.
ESPN Dallas' Richard Durrett
I can't name a better Rangers team in terms of chemistry. The 2004 edition had it, but not like this team. I'm sure the playoff teams had it too. But it's a club that genuinely likes each other and has fun together. It shows in their play. Some credit for that should go to the manager and to the veteran players who run things in there. The fans seem to have jumped on the claw and antlers thing, which is great, but that's not the only thing that produces chemistry for this team. They just have the right mix of personalities. Full transcript
- Rank 'Em: How do you size up postseason pitchers? | Power Rankings
- Vote: How will each division series play out? | Which series most interests you?
Now that we have a few days to catch our breath before the start of baseball's postseason (and thanks to the Padres for that), what are we to make of the teams still worrying about pitching rotations? Well, for the most part, SportsNation isn't exactly shocked by the playoff field.
Five of the eight active teams were ranked in SportsNation's top 10 on Opening Day, and the Giants were knocking on the door at No. 11. Only the Rangers (No. 16) and Reds (No. 23) really came out of nowhere.
But if either the Rangers or Reds are going to keep surprising, Cliff Lee and Edinson Volquez will likely need to break out their best Don Larsen impersonation. Lee rebounded from a weak August to dominate three of his final four starts, while Volquez missed the first half of the season but gets the first postseason start for the Reds after posting a 1.95 ERA in September. It's the time of year for aces to shine, but which teams have the best arms?
- Rank 'Em: How does the AL Cy Young race shape up at midseason?
- Rank 'Em: NL Cy Young race? | NL MVP race? | MLB Power Rankings?
Cliff Lee hasn't had much difficulty polishing his Cy Young credentials against hitters in recent seasons. General managers, on the other hands, have mastered the art of keeping awards out of his hands.
Lee won the AL Cy Young in 2008 but any chance for a repeat in 2009 was derailed when the Indians traded him across leagues to the Phillies. Another offseason swap landed him back in the AL, but will a strong first half only serve to spark yet another trade? Or might Lee mount a Cy Young season from the depths of last place?
- "If you guys think you're going to get him easily than you're kidding yourselves. This isn't Bill Bavasi running the team anymore, we are not giving up players like Choo and Cabrera for nobodies anymore. I would almost rather just keep Lee, get the two draft picks at the end of the year and watch Z do what he does best which is drafting great talent." -- SN commenter CGhereICome
Mike W (Chicago)
Lets start this off with Cliff Lee. What are the odds he goes to Cincinnati for a playoff push and what would it take to get him?
Jerry Crasnick
Mike, I find the Reds to be a very interesting stealth Cliff Lee candidate. There's something special going on with that team, Walt Jocketty has a history of making deals like this, and the owner, Bob Castellini, is a very motivated guy. But Edinson Volquez's comeback clearly complicates matters. I think they'd like to give Volquez another couple of weeks before they jump in with both feet on Lee. Full transcript.
On Tuesday (when Phillies fans and Yankees haters could still picture the Bronx Bombers without a 2009 World Series title), a majority of SportsNation overwhelmingly picked Chase Utley as MVP of the World Series.
Yet with the Yankees taking home the title of world champs, was it only fitting that a New York player (Hideki Matsui) win the award? Or should Utley's numbers (most notably, his five home runs this series) have made him the 2009 World Series MVP? Discuss and vote below!
“Matsui is the MVP. He single-handily [won] today's game and finished the series with 3 homers, 8 RBIs, .615 average. Sorry Mariano not this year.
” -- Jake-Macauley
- Vote: Which team has Game 2 edge? | Chat: Keith Law on World Series, 1 ET
Bob Gibson once struck out 17 batters to beat a 31-game winner. Sandy Koufax once pitched a shutout on two days' rest. And Don Larsen had a nice start of his own. But we're guessing most of you don't have perfect recall of those gems. Christy Mathewson pitched three shutouts in six days to win the 1905 World Series, but if you watched that effort with the same eyes that are reading this, well, kudos to you, sir or madam.
For most of us, Cliff Lee's complete-game, 10-strikeout shutout in Game 1 of the World Series -- at Yankee Stadium against the team that led the sport in runs scored this season -- was a standard of pitching rarely seen with our own eyes.
So while we're not asking you to break out the Ken Burns DVD and rate it against the best performances in the history of the sport, was Lee's win the best you've ever seen?
“cliff lee is like a dentist performing a root canal on the yankees...
” -- jgc711
“Lee's performance in this game was no different than his performance in any other game this post-season. ... No, this was not the best game of his career and if you listened to him afterwards it was just like any other game to him. The guy is a rock and doesn't know the word fear.
” -- loupinconnu
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