According to a small blurb ob Jon Heyman’s blog at SI.com, the Cleveland Indians may very well be considering offers for for starting pitcher Cliff Lee.
Lee is off to a sluggish start but has also been the victim of poor run support. The 30-year old, lefthander won the Cy Young award last season after compiling a 22-3 record to go with a 2.54 ERA. Lee’s 2008 winning percentage of 88% was the twelfth best of all time, and the fourth best by a pitcher starting a minimum of 30 games.
Lee’s arsenal is pretty extensive and features a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball and cut fastball as well as a circle changeup and a curveball.
Lee is currently 1-3 with a 3.94 ERA.
If you were to use the C.C. Sabathia trade as a barometer, the Brewers dealt top prospect Matt LaPorta, Triple-A left-hander Zach Jackson, Class A right-hander Rob Bryson and Class-AA first baseman/outfielder Micahel Brantley to the Indians for reigning American League Cy Young Award winner CC Sabathia.
Shockingly, the Brewers gave up all that for a rental.
If you were to put together a similar package today from the Mets, it might look like this:
Wilmer Flores, Jon Niese, Dillon Gee and Nick Evans. Sounds like a ton huh? And yet that’s very similar to the package the Brewers put together for Sabathia.
In my opinion, Lee is simply not as good as Sabathia and he’s three years older too.
I would propose something along the lines of Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese and Eddie Kunz. I might be tempted to include Flores instead of F-Mart, but I’d have to be desperate because I feel Flores will be a much better Major Leaguer than F-Mart.
In either scenario, it would have to include a 3 day window to sign Lee to an extension.
