Falling off the Cliff

Big news rocked the baseball world Tuesday morning around the word that free agent pitching ace Cliff Lee would spurn larger contract offers from both the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees to return to the Philadelphia Phillies, the team which he helped lead to a National League pennant in 2009. While I root for the Phillies, my allegiance is ultimately to the Yankees, so I have to admit that this left me with some mixed feelings. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Yes, Cliff Lee is still going to make a lot of money ($120 million over five years), but the fact that he left up to $28 million on the table to return to the Phillies is amazing. $28 million is still $28 million (an amount which most us will never see in our lifetimes). The thought only six years ago that someone would take less money to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies would have been inconceivable. Whatever happened to reputation of those "horrible" fans?
• Apparently, Cliff Lee and his wife really loved Philadelphia, and Cliff felt that his time as a Phillie was the happiest he's ever been as a baseball player (maybe he liked the cheesteaks, too). There's a lot to be said about liking your co-workers. I recently had a conversation with my boss (who I like) where we agreed that given the choice between a crappy job working with good people and a great job working with jerks, you'd take the former all the time. Cliff Lee's playing with guys who he likes and a manager he likes - oh, and he still gets $120 million.
• That Phillies rotation is pretty scary. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels present a ridiculous starting four where the fourth starter is a World Series MVP. Heck, if they keep Joe Blanton as a fifth starter, you now have a fifth starter who used to be the ace of the Oakland A's three years ago.
• I have to wonder if there's going to be any jealousy from Roy Halladay. As good as Lee is, Halladay will probably still take his place as the ace of the staff, and the Phillies held the line on a three year, $60 million contract extension for Halladay last year. For Lee, they made an exception and broke the bank. Sure, Halladay isn't exactly sweating the welfare rolls with his $60 million, but wouldn't there be any jealousy (see Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez)? Apparently not, according to some sources.
• It's a great signing, but wasn't everyone crowning the Phillies the World Series champions last year before they fell to the San Francisco Giants? And doesn't everyone remember the killer Braves rotation of the 1990's with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Steve Avery/Denny Neagle, which won only one World Series as opposed to the predicted dynasty? Those "unbeatable" rotations were taken out by my Yankees (twice) and by less heralded rotations led by Kevin Brown, Sterling Hitchcock and Andy Ashby (Padres). There's no guarantee.
• As for my Yankees, I'm oddly not too bothered. For one, I'm not convinced that Lee will live up to his contract, thinking that $150 million is a lot to pay for a non-power pitcher. If Lee is somewhere between Andy Pettitte and Tom Glavine, that's impressive, but I'm not sure I'd put him in the Top Five over the next five years.
• As I wrote in a previous post, there's something "just" about the Yankees losing out on Cliff Lee. I had written that in light of the abuse that a handful of obnoxious Yankees fans heaped on Cliff Lee's wife, part of me hoped that Lee would stick it to the Yankee fans by proverbially spitting back at them.
• But yes, the Yankees are pretty much screwed next year. With the Red Sox getting Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford and the Yankees countering with a signing a formerly non-tendered Russell Martin, let's just say the rivalry momentum has turned in a big way. The reality is that unless Phil Hughes becomes vintage Josh Beckett (possible), A.J. Burnett goes back to at least 2009 form (hopeful) and Ivan Nova turns into Ubaldo Jiminez (highly improbable), the rotation is going to be the third best in the division.
• But it's even worse to be a Mets fan. Let's see, the Phillies, which have completely dominated this "rivalry" in the past three years, just signed the best free agent pitcher to set up a historically good rotation. The Mets, on the other hand, were unable to re-sign long-reliever and spot starter Hisanori Takahashi. They did however get some good news when their closer pleaded out an assault charge.

So go Phillies. I hope that your historically good rotation fares better than the Braves of the mid-90's. Unless you're playing the Yankees, of course.