It seems once a player reaches a certain level of super stardom the only place where he can play is where they’re wearing pinstripes and the Yankee blue. That’s just the way it seems to go in baseball. Now that Cliff Lee has established himself as one of the elite pitchers in the game the Yankees want him and they just might get their wish.
Trade talks have been going back and forth between the Mariners and the Yankees over Cliff Lee in what would be a package deal going to the Mariners for the former A.L Cy Young lefty. Read more.
Whether the Yankees get Lee in a trade is uncertain. What is certain is that Cliff Lee is a free agent at the end of this season and the Yankees already have to be considered front runners to scoop him up. The Yankees have the payroll, they have his friend and former teammate Sabathia and Cliff Lee clearly likes pitching in Yankee Stadium. Lee dismantled the Yankee lineup in last year’s World Series and seemed to enjoy pitching on the big stage. There’s no stage bigger than the Bronx.
I can understand why Lee wouldn’t want to hang out in Seattle. Look how the Mariners team ran Griffey out of town, though, Griffey will probably never say a bad word against the team, someone on that snitched on him for sleeping in the clubhouse. That’s like baseball blasphemy for a guy of Griffey’s stature. He should be able to nail hookers in the dugout and no one should say a word about the Hall of Famer, considering all he’s done for that city. Can’t see why Lee would want to stick around in that clubhouse full of snitches. Loose lips sink ships and snitches get stitches, isn’t that what they say? Read more.
If and when the Yankees land Lee, he will be another allstar pitcher in a star studded rotation. No doubt all of the Yankee haters will rise up yet again to denounce “The Evil Empire” for spending the money to sign one of the game’s best. I’ve never understood that stance. You would think that people would applaud an organization for spending whatever it takes to make their team World Series contenders. I get the whole argument that it’s not fair to the small market teams and I don’t buy it. If owners don’t want to shell out the money or can’t afford to that’s just too bad, I don’t see the need for sympathy. Yeah, it’s not fair, but neither baseball, that’s been established. And the argument that other teams can’t afford to sign big name players for the most part to me is nonsense. There’s several teams that make plenty of money, but their owners are more concerned with the bottom line instead of putting a winning team on the field, like the Toronto Bluejays for example. You can’t tell me a team is committed to winning when they give away the best pitcher in the game.
If the Yankees do pick up Cliff Lee, head to the nearest bookie or online gaming website and make bet that they win the World Series again, and then do it again next year, heck even year after that.
