Cliff Lee made his decision about where he will be playing the next several seasons a few days ago. The hottest pitching commodity of this season took himself all the market by signing a 5-yr 120 million contract to play for the Philadelphia Phillies. The New York Yankees and Texas Rangers were thought to be the front runner to sign Lee, but the Phils decided to get into involved recently and it did not take very long Lee to agree after the offer was made. Yankees and Rangers fans are probably pissed right now that Lee took the deal worth the least amount of money, but they are just bitter because he won't be pitching for their teams. Let's find out if Lee chose the right team.
Lee himself was officially introduced yesterday to the Phillies. In his press conference he said all the right things. He said it wasn't about who could pay him the most. He wasn't afraid to pitch in New York or angry about the spitting incident, which he doesn't believe happened. He said it was about him and his family being comfortable, and winning championships. He liked Philadelphia during his first go around, and never wanted to leave. He understood being traded though and thought he'd never have the chance to return. So when the opportunity presented itself, of course he was willing to take less money to return to the city he loved playing in.
In the baseball sense it was also a very smart idea. The Phils already have a superb core of starters of Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels. They have a great offense and a solid bullpen too. This team just jumps off the page at you before even re-adding Cliff Lee to it. Throw in the fact that Cliff Lee has one of the lowest ERAs at Citizens Bank Field, and it becomes a no-brainer. Cliff Lee and the Philadelphia Phillies are probably the most perfect fit for a player and a team that baseball has seen in quite some time. No matter how many people don't like it, Lee is Philly-bound and he might have just ensured the Phillies to be World Series-bound.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5923327
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