You might be asking your self, what is Cliff Lee thinking about? Well, he might be thinking about how the Texas Rangers pulled off a game 5 win against the Tampa Bay Rays. Though what he is really thinking about is how the he is only one series away from playing the team that traded him away.
A couple months ago the Phillies were hearing about all of the complaints from the media and fans about how they shouldn't of traded Cliff Lee. Cliff Lee was throwing complete game after complete game and everyone was worried that maybe the trade was a mistake. Fan's were also comparing Cliff Lee against Roy Halladay. The other thing that didn't help the situation was that the Phillies hit a rut with the team not playing well. Not only was their offense not doing well they also had a lot of injury's. The only starter from opening day that wasn't on the DL was Jason Werth.
Fast forward to a couple months later, when the Phillies brass decided to pull the trigger and bring in Roy Oswalt. All of a sudden all of the people that were jumping off the bandwagon were starting to trail behind it to see if one guy could bring this team around. Roy Oswalt combined with the return of injured players helped turn this team around. These factors were a major force in helping the Phillies lead the push to the top of the National League East.
We head to the end of September, and all of a sudden the media and fans are jumping back on the wagon as we are streaking towards the playoffs. Everyone is forgetting about how the Phillies traded away one of the best pitchers in baseball. Who needs Cliff Lee when we have Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt. We have the "H2O" factor, and no one in baseball has better starting pitching then us.
We are now a few days away from the start of the National and American League Champion Games. On one side of the spectrum we have the Phillies with our amazing pitching. On the other side we have the pitcher that the Phillies didn't feel like paying money to. Even though we have put the Cliff Lee trade in the back of our minds. I'm pretty sure that a Phillies and Rangers World Series will bring that trade back into our minds.
I don't want to see the media circus that is going to result in a Cliff Lee return to Philadelphia. Not only are people going to be talking about how Cliff Lee helped the Rangers get into the post season. They are going to be talking about how bad of a trade it was for the Phillies to trade him away. Not only will this be the worst case scenario for the Phillies who thought they were rid of Lee when they traded him to the American League. He might end up pitching against his former team and might even get a win against them in the World Series.
But lets not jump to conclusion, we still have to make it through the NLCS and the Rangers have to beat the Yankees in the ALCS, before we can crown the them league champions and speculate about whats going to happen. But if that does happen, I believe that we will find out who the number one pitcher is in baseball. Roy Halladay v.s. Cliff Lee in game one looks like a pretty exciting match-up and a way to decide that. My money is on the Doc because that is what month we are in any way right? I love DOCTOBER!!
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