Cliff Lee: he never wanted to leave Phillies in the first place

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Cliff Lee came and went in 2009 and came back in 2010

During what all fans of the Philadelphia Phillies have been led to believe will be one of the most significant off-season periods ever for the franchise, I’ve been taking a look back at the team’s ‘Hot Stove’ history.

So far we have recalled the signings of Pete Rose (1978), Jose Mesa(2000), and Jim Thome (2002) in free agency. We have also revisited key off-season trades: the 1981 three-way deal that resulted in Lonnie Smith leaving and Bo Diaz arriving, the 1982 trade of future Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, and the trading away of Thome.

Probably the most recent important Phillies move during a Hot Stove season came in the middle of December back in 2010. It was then that general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. began trying to reverse a huge prior mistake from exactly one year earlier. Both decisions were among the most influential during the 2009-11 period when the club was trying to get back to the World Series.

Those two moves involved a left-handed starting pitcher named Cliff Lee. His pro career had begun after he was drafted three times. Lee finally signed after being selected by the Montreal Expos with their fourth round selection in the 2000 MLB Amateur Draft.

In June 2002, Lee was dealt to the Cleveland Indians as part of a four-prospect package that also included Grady Sizemore and Brandon Phillips in an overall six-player deal that brought starting pitcher Bartolo Colon to Montreal.

LEE DEVELOPS INTO AN ACE

In Cleveland’s minor league system, Lee showed enough with Buffalo of the Triple-A International League that he was given a two-start cup of coffee with the Indians in September 2002. He went 10.1 innings allowing just six hits over those two outings.

Lee won the 2008 AL Cy Young Award with Cleveland

After beginning the 2003 season back at Triple-A, Lee received a spot start with Cleveland in late June. Then in mid-August he was called to the big-leagues for good. Lee would enter the Tribe’s starting rotation and remain there for the next six years.

Lee would develop into one of the top starting pitchers in the game, culminating in a memorable 2008 season. While the Phillies were driving towards their first World Series crown in nearly three decades, Lee was putting together a Cy Young Award-winning season in Cleveland.

In that 2008 campaign, Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA and 1.110 WHIP. He also had a fabulous 170/34 K:BB ratio over 223.1 innings across 31 starts. In addition to the Cy Young honors, he was an AL All-Star for the first time, and even received AL MVP votes.

Lee was scheduled to become a free agent after the 2010 season, and it became obvious that the Indians would not be able to get him to sign a contract extension. Looking at a rebuilding situation, Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro decided to find a deal for him a year early.

LEE ACQUIRED BY CHAMPS IN-SEASON

As defending World Series champions, the Phillies were struggling to open up a lead in a tight NL East race in July 2009. A big reason was that the team’s starting pitching was looking a bit fragile.

And then there were four

Jayson Werth raises 2008 World Series trophy

On Wednesday night, October 29, 2008 at Citizens Bank Park, the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays took to the field to resume Game Five of the World Series.

The Phillies had fought their way to a 3-1 lead in the Fall Classic, and needed just one more victory to secure only the second world championship in franchise history.

Game Five had originally begun two nights earlier, on Monday, October 27. However, rain began to fall early on that night, and grew to torrential proportions by the middle innings.

After the Rays tied the game up at 2-2 in the top of the 6th inning, Major League Baseball finally stepped in, and the game was suspended.

After two days of rains, the two clubs finally re-took the field in South Philadelphia. Geoff Jenkins got the home crowd stoked immediately, bombing a double to center field off of Rays reliever Grant Balfour. Jimmy Rollins then bunted him over to third base.

With the go-ahead run just 90 feet away from home plate, Jayson Werth stepped into the box. On a 2-2 pitch, the Phillies right fielder looped a base hit into center field, scoring Jenkins to put the Phils back on top 3-2.

The two clubs would trade runs in the final frames, and the Phillies would memorably mob closer Brad Lidge on the mound after the final out.

Just yesterday, while playing in the minor leagues of the Washington Nationals organization, Werth revealed that he was retiring from professional baseball.

This brings to the end a career that saw him appear with the Toronto Blue Jays (2002-03), Los Angeles Dodgers (2004-05), Phillies (2007-10) and the Nationals (2011-17) over parts of 15 seasons.

During his four seasons with the Phillies, Werth produced a strong .282/.380/.506 slash line. He slammed 95 homers, drove in 300 runs, scored 320 times, and stole 60 bases.

Compare those numbers to those produced by Jim Thome in his four seasons here in Philadelphia, and you will find that Werth is certainly worthy of consideration to be enshrined on the Phillies Wall of Fame at some point in the future.

However, he is going to have to wait a bit. Most of those 2008 World Series champions are now gone from the game. A number of them are going to be honored before Werth can be considered.

Left fielder Pat Burrell is already on the Wall of Fame. 'Pat the Bat' played his final season with the San Francisco Giants in 2011.

Third baseman Pedro Feliz last appeared in the big leagues with the Saint Louis Cardinals in 2010. He bounced around the minors, winter leagues, and independent leagues for a couple of years, and has not played at all since 2014.

The center fielder, Shane Victorino, won another World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2013. 'The Flyin' Hawaiian' last played for the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2015.

It was a mid-season 2016 career finale with the Chicago White Sox for Jimmy Rollins. The heart and soul of the Phillies for a decade and a half and the franchise' all-time Hits leader, 'JRoll' could make an intriguing candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame one day.

Ryan Howard never wore another uniform in a regular season MLB game other than that of the Philadelphia Phillies, finishing up his career here with the 2016 season.

He tried a comeback last year with both the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies, but 'The Big Piece' couldn't get out of either minor league system. While not officially retired, he is not getting back to the big leagues.

Nationals can prove nothing today - they must win two straight

Dusty Baker's Nationals need two wins (photo: Chicago Tribune)

The Washington Nationals are on the brink of postseason elimination. Stop me if you've heard this story before.

This year's version of the Nats will take the field on Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field in Chicago trailing the host Cubs by 2-1 in a best-of-five NLDS.

Whether they are willing to admit it or not, the Nationals will face another opponent today as well. That opponent lives inside their own heads and hearts.

This 2017 MLB postseason marks the fourth time in the last six years that Washington has participated in the National League Division Series. They have been eliminated in each of the previous three opportunities.

Winning today will not take the pressure off the Nats. Forcing a Game Five back at Nationals Park on Friday would not prove a thing. For the Nationals to show that this year's team is different from those previous playoff clubs, they must win two straight.

Time is now for Nationals to deal for bullpen help

More than two months into the 2017 MLB regular season, the Washington Nationals are in great shape in the standings. The Nats lead the National League East Division by 8.5 games over their nearest rivals.

The Nationals would appear to be cruising towards a second consecutive postseason appearance. It would be the franchise’s fourth NL East crown, and thus their fourth trip to the playoffs in six years.

But after 36 years as the Montreal Expos and now a dozen full seasons in the U.S. capital city, the franchise has still never even played a single World Series game.

In fact, they have never played in the NLCS either. Washington has been eliminated in the NLDS in all three of the club’s appearances during this decade.

Though the current version of the Nationals appears to be running away with the division, there has been one area of the team that has been a cause of season long concern.

Due to a combination of inconsistency and injury, the Nats bullpen has been a mess. Dusty Baker has tried five different pitchers in the closer role at one time or another over the first 10 1/2 weeks.

Anniversary of a Controversial Phillies Deal

The Philadelphia Phillies had just lost the World Series to the New York Yankees six weeks earlier. That six-game defeat came after the club had won the Fall Classic the previous season.

General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was presented with an interesting and exciting opportunity. Longtime ace pitcher Roy Halladay was being made available in trade by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Adding ‘Doc’ to the two-time NL pennant winners could be just what was needed to keep the championship ball rolling.

Amaro was able to negotiate and finalize the deal: Halladay to the Phillies for a trio of highly regarded prospects in Kyle Drabek, Travis d’Arnaud, and Michael Taylor.

Halladay was 32 years old at the time. The winner of the 2003 AL Cy Young Award was a six-time American League all-star. He had finished fifth in AL Cy Young race that fall, the fourth consecutive season in the top five of the voting.

Just a year earlier, following that 2008 World Series victory by the Phillies, Halladay had been the runner-up for that AL Cy Young Award. The winner? Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians.

Lee was now Phillies property, having been acquired from the Tribe in a trade deadline deal. The lefty was a key addition in helping the Phils nail down a third straight NL East crown, and second consecutive NL pennant.

As word of the Halladay trade broke, there was a brief moment of almost indescribable joy that swept across Phillies Nation. A pitching rotation fronted by Halladay, Lee, and Cole Hamels?

Added to the still dynamic offense that the Phillies had at the time, that trio would certainly elevate the Phillies back to World Series favorites.

And then the other shoe dropped.

Phillies Fall Classics XI: 2008 World Series Game Four

The Philadelphia Phillies met the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series, and the crucial Game Four took place at Citizens Bank Park in South Philly.

In the 2008 Fall Classic, the Philadelphia Phillies had scratched out a walk-off victory in Game Three at home to take a 2-1 lead over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, setting the stage for a pivotal Game Four.

The Fightin’ Phils were in the World Series for the sixth time in club history, but now in the franchise’ 126th season there was still just the lone 1980 series win.

The Rays were in just their 11th season of play, and had become champions of the American League after experiencing their first-ever winning season in 2008.

Still, the young and talented Rays had been made the series favorites over the more seasoned and experienced Phillies by many prognosticators.

The Phils were trying to take advantage of having split the first two in Tampa. Now having taken a 2-1 lead, they were trying to put a stranglehold on the club’s second-ever world championship.

Manager Charlie Manuel had thrown his top two starters, Cole Hamels and Brett Myers, in the first two games down in Florida, and then went with the seemingly ageless Jamie Moyer for the third game.

The Phillies’ fourth starter was Joe Blanton, obtained from the Oakland Athletics in a deal just two weeks prior to the non-waiver deadline in exchange for three prospects.

During the regular season, the Phils had used 24-year-old Kyle Kendrick and 30-year-old veteran Adam Eaton at the back-end of their rotation.

However, Eaton began falling apart in late June, and Kendrick was in his first full season. After Eaton suffered back-to-back horrendous starts in early July, the Blanton deal was struck.

Joe Blanton Bombed at Worst Time for Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers were bombed in the pivotal Game Five of the NLCS by the Chicago Cubs last night, and a former Phillies World Series hero surrendered the key blow.

By this point in the 2016 MLB postseason, fans of the Philadelphia Phillies already know that one of the subplots involves a handful of their former heroes who are now wearing Dodger blue.

Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz and Joe Blanton were all key performers at this time eight years ago as the Fightin' Phils fought their way to the franchise' second-ever World Series crown.

All three were eventually traded to the Dodgers. Utley went in August of 2015, and Ruiz this past August.

Blanton took a bit more of a circuitous route to this NLCS appearance. He was dealt by the Phils to the Dodgers back in August of 2012.

Over the next four years, Blanton bounced around four more organizations before signing back with the Dodgers this past January.

Reinvented as a relief pitcher, Blanton proved a revelation on the mound this season, appearing in a career-high 75 games for Los Angeles.

Blanton's numbers: 2.48 ERA, 1.013 WHIP, just 55 hits allowed over 80 innings pitched with an 80/26 K:BB ratio. 

Dodgers Aided by Ex-Phillies Postseason Experience

Eight years ago tonight, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers by a 5-1 score in Game 5 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium to win the National League pennant.

That team would go on to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to win just the second World Series crown in what was then 126 seasons of Phillies baseball.

Three key players on the team that dispatched the Dodgers and won it all in that fall of 2008 are now playing different, but no less important roles for Los Angeles as the NLCS opens on Saturday night at Wrigley Field.

Chase Utley was a 29-year-old superstar second baseman, the best in the game at the position, back in the 2008 season.

That year in the midst of his prime as a player, Utley hit for a .292/.380/.535 slash line with 33 home runs, 104 RBI, 113 runs scored, 41 doubles and 14 stolen bases.

Brett Myers: Backwoods Rebel

Brett Myers has released a 5-song country music EP

Fans of the Philadelphia Phillies remember Brett Myers as a key starting pitcher during the 2000’s, especially with the 2008 World Series champions, or as the closer for the 2007 NL East champions.

But most fans of the team have likely lost contact with the sometimes controversial righthander since he signed as a free agent with the Houston Astros following the 2009 season. 

Well, Brett Myers has resurfaced in recent days in a somewhat surprising role: country singer. Myers has released his debut EP “Backwoods Rebel“, a nickname which also happens to be a part of his Twitter handle @BackWoodRebel39.

In the 5-song set, Myers sings mostly about a pair of country classic topics: drinking and women. 

“EVERY WEEKEND RAISIN’ HELL, OUT HERE CHASIN’ TAIL” ~ “CHASING TAIL” LYRICS

“I Need a Drink“, “Black Creek“, “Chasing Tail“, “Beer Hand Strong“, and his first single “Kegerator” pretty much sum up the selections in their titles alone.

While the topics are simplistic and foster the good ol’ boy stereotype, fact is that this is not a bad initial effort. If a recording career in the country genre is something that the now 34-year old ex-hurler is hoping to pursue, he may have something.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Myers has long fostered a countrified image. During the 2008 season, he and fellow rotation mate Joe Blanton were frequently spotted in the clubhouse wearing red “Redneck Wrecking Crew” t-shirts.

For folks who already are fond of making fun of country music and it’s lifestyle, you’ll probably hear terms like “hillbilly“, “yokel“, and that same “redneck” tossed around in disparaging tones.

There may even be “wife beater” references to the ugly incident back in August of 2006 when Myers, a former boxer, allegedly beat his wife Kim on the streets of Boston while the Phils were there on a road trip.

Myers and his wife, who bailed him out and stood by him following that Boston incident, appear to have put the ugly past behind them, and continue to raise two young children together.

Brett and Kim Myers celebrated winning a World Series together. They have enjoyed a pro baseball lifestyle that earned him almost $60 million in total salary over 11 seasons. Whether they can survive his attempts at a music career remains to be seen.

Post-Trade Phillies Ain't Done Yet

At the 2012 MLB trade deadline on Tuesday, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro made a handful of decisions that signal two things: first, the Fightin' Phils lineup needed to change and, second, the team was not at all interested in a complete rebuild from scratch. The GM did two things, didn't do a couple others, and effectively put a couple others on the back burner with the chance that something could still be done there.

The first thing that Amaro did was to deal away long time centerfielder Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for effective right-handed relief pitcher Josh Lindblom and high-ceiling righty pitching prospect Ethan Martin.

Next, Amaro decided to deal away rightfielder Hunter Pence to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for a package that included rightfielder Nate Schierholtz, top catching prospect Tommy Joseph, and young pitching prospect Seth Rosin.

Decisions that Amaro apparently made involving not dealing away players included pitcher Cliff Lee and shortstop Jimmy Rollins. A number of teams inquired on the availability of Lee, but were apparently rebuffed from the start, or given such a high list of demands from Amaro that talks went nowhere in a hurry. 

The Oakland A's, fishing around for a shortstop, apparently checked in on their hometown boy JRoll, but again were either immediately rebuffed or unwilling to meet a high Phillies price.

Phillies Are Now Slump Proof

Throughout the stretch run of the 2010 season and again in at least both the 2011 and 2012 seasons, given reasonable health, the Philadelphia Phillies will remain a contending baseball team.

They will remain so because their trade deadline acquisition of right-handed starting pitcher Roy Oswalt has now made them virtually slump-proof.

Every team will go through slumps during the course of a 6-month long, 162-game season. The slumps will come because the team doesn't hit collectively on a consistent basis.

The slumps come because injuries hit. Sometimes, as with this year's Phillies team, those injuries occur to multiple key players at the same time.

They come at times because there is simply not enough pitching, and bad pitching gets beaten up by good professional hitters.

The one thing that can make a team 'slump-proof', or much more unlikely and infrequently than other teams to a slump or multiple slumps during a long season, is the presence of consistently strong starting pitching.

The Phillies now run three true ace starting pitchers at other teams: Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt. The odds that all three will lose their respective turn through the rotation are long. The odds that will happen twice in a row are even longer.

Most teams want to have what is known as an 'ace', or a 'stopper'. A true 'ace' is a top-of-the-line starting pitcher, one of the perhaps twenty best starters in the entire game.