- Pedro's dream season with Phillies falls short
- Bullpen not nearly as mighty as Phillies needed it to be
Photos: Phillies return from New York- More World Series coverage
Audio: Utley, Howard, Manuel reflect on loss- Sam Donnellon: Scrappy Phillies come up short
- Phil Sheridan: Phillies didn't play like champions
- Phils can't stop Yanks
- Buy Phillies jerseys, playoff t-shirts, hats, and more
- Purchase Phillies playoff photos & reprints
- Photos: 2009 Phillies
- Relive the memories: Coverage of the World Series run
RELATED STORIES
they have him for 1 more year, if they are in the race next year they sign him if not trade him and get some prospects back
Lee is not going anywhere this year. He pitches for us again in 2010
after giving up Knapp and Carasco and Marsten,...i would hope that they would extend him
Please please please please don't let Cliff Lee walk away ...
ONE reason not to sign this guy to a long term? There isn't one.
The Phils don't like deals of greater than 3 years for pitchers. They have the money to pay him, but will he take a 3-year deal? The guy is a great pitcher and is mentally tough. I hope the Phils and Lee can work out a deal.
If Lee doesn't come back, the Phillies won't be back. Bring him back, Hammels will return to form, bring back Meyers to close, and get a 3rd baseman who can hit, and you have a formula for another run.
Trust in Ruben -- and here's one - bring back Rolen -- love to see our home-grown infield together (doubt he would ever come back)
They will re-up Lee. With his physical fitness and his Dirty Harry mentality, he should be good at least as long as Andy Pettite, who is 37. That's five more years.
ARE THEIN MY MIND NOT A SUCCESSFUL SEASON--Our Phil's have too many sluggers and not enough hitters--and their pitching is woe full --starting and relief--WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT CLIFF....what happened tothe rotation it was screwed up buy Gumby...and all the offense we had was Chase---the team is a bunch of lefties TOO MANY-- IT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED IN THE OFF SEASON..AND the bullpen Durbin go back to the minors..and alL the other Durbin's out there too--Ruben you signed Pedro very late in the season as a hope and he winds up pitching two games that also shows how deep we are in starting rotation... SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED--RUBEN had a whole year to correct that...A SAD ENDING... to much promise and not ENOUGH performance!!!!Y KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Sign Lee to an extension.
2. Get a #2 starter. Right handed pitcher
3. Get Ryan Zimmerman from the Nationals. He has the power to hit homeruns and he can play defense.
People, the question is not whether Lee will be back NEXT year. He will, as the Phils have him at the bargain basement price of $9 mil. The issue is whether the Phils will offer him an extension to play AFTER 2010. If they get ahead of the situation and sign him to an extension this off-season, they can probably get him for less than he would get on the free agent market, assuming he pitches well again next year for the Phils. That's the rub: sign him to a long-term deal now, hoping he'll continue to be this good, or wait and see how he does, thus risking that you'll have to pay much more to sign him, or lose him to a higher bidder.
This should be a no brainer. Cliff Lee is the only reliable starter we have. SIGN HIM!
Phonak - our #2 starter is a guy named Hamels, Happ will be our #3 or 4 starter, and I am not sure about Blanton's status. So we need a #5 starter(some good prospects in AAA and AA - with Drabek standing out), and maybe anoter #3/4. Zimmerman isn't going anywhere - he's cheap and the only good player on that team. Beltre is a possibility (FA), or maybe Garett Atkins. Hopefully Romero gets healthy, and Lidge gets his head cleared out. Bruntlett, Bako and Stairs need to be replaced, but there will prob be some cheap options out there.
After we got him I didn't honestly care whether or not they signed him to an extension as long as they got their year and a half run out of him. But now, its obvious that to be a team like the Yankees who are always going to have an all-star lineup that you need to have what the RedSox and Diamondbacks and Marlins had, which is 2 hammers at the top of your pitching staff. If cole was the ace we thought he would be this year this series would have been much more cose. If Lee goes, the Phillies have nothing but what may be a "good" starter in cole hamels, and then a bunch of 3's and 4's. that won't win a title against anyone except the Rays on an off-year for the Yankees or RedSox. that being said, who's to say Lee wants to sign here? He's a midwest guy and you know those guys are hit or miss in an east coast city. I remember reading not that long ago about how he pretty much had an empty locker in the Phils clubhouse, no personal items, would not refer to the phillies as "we" and always referred to the team as "they" well after the trade. Who knows. I will say this. If the phillies plan is to just have Hamels, Happ(who is not the ace people think he will be), and pray that drabek comes on, then the Phillies will not be serious contenders and their golden era is over shortly. This is a special group of guys that needs to make title runs now!
