GM-Carson wrote:Cliff Lee as a Phillies: 5 gm, 5 w, 40 ip, 39 k, 0.68 ERA, 0.75 WHIP.

SteveJeltzPhanClub wrote:If Cliff Lee finishes the season with 10-12 wins, an ERA under 2, 90-100 K for the Phillies, does he win the N.L. Cy Young?

As far as I can tell Carpenter and Lincecum are the frontrunners, but if Lee continues at this pace, he is definitely in the conversation, right?

uncle milt wrote:ok nerds, who is scheduled to pitch in DC 9/8 and 9/9???

seke2 wrote:

uncle milt wrote:ok nerds, who is scheduled to pitch in DC 9/8 and 9/9???

i think its pedro and lee barring rainouts or the phils mixing up the rotation on the 8/31 offday.

Barry Jive wrote:I think he'd probably have to win every one of his games to get consideration. It's just tough to do when you're only in the league for two months. If he wins all of his game and keeps his ERA around 2 and his strikeouts high, he could do it. That's just really unlikely.

Barry Jive wrote:I think he'd probably have to win every one of his games to get consideration. It's just tough to do when you're only in the league for two months. If he wins all of his game and keeps his ERA around 2 and his strikeouts high, he could do it. That's just really unlikely.

The Red Tornado wrote:he has 8-9 starts left so if he goes 13-0 total with an ERA under 2, I would think he could conceivably be in the running but wont win if Lincecum continues his path of domination.

Woody wrote:

The Red Tornado wrote:he has 8-9 starts left so if he goes 13-0 total with an ERA under 2, I would think he could conceivably be in the running but wont win if Lincecum continues his path of domination.

What if his ERA is under .2

Just when you thought there was no down side to the Phillies' trade for Cliff Lee instead of Roy Halladay, let us offer one:

The Phillies would have had a much better shot at re-signing Halladay than they will of keeping Lee.

Why? Because Halladay wanted to go to Philadelphia. He lives just up the road from the Phillies' spring training facility. And because he won't hit free agency until the winter before his age-34 season, he would have been more amenable (theoretically) to the kind of deal the Phillies gave Brad Lidge last season.

Had the Phillies offered Halladay a three-year extension next year, with a signing bonus and an option, that would have covered five seasons (counting the final year of his current deal) but not violated the Phillies' philosophy of only guaranteeing three-year contracts for pitchers.

Lee, however, will be a free agent heading into his 32-year-old season. And the buzz already is that his agent, Darek Braunecker, is looking for a deal beyond the Phillies' customary parameters.

"Darek Braunecker is going to try to kill it with this guy," said an official of one team that looked into Lee before the trade deadline. "There's no doubt in my mind. He'll be looking for $100 million. And I don't blame him.

"But you know what? From the Phillies' standpoint, if you get this guy for a year and a half and he's motivated as hell and he's absolutely dominant and then he leaves and you get two picks, wouldn't you rather be that team than the team that has to give him $100 million? I would. Maybe you'd rather have 2½ years than 1½ years. But you don't want six years, because those are the deals that get scary."