As we move into Spring Training and beyond, one of the baseball questions that keeps haunting me as a Phillies fan is Should the Phillies have kept Cliff Lee? Yes, Roy Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball and is well worth the contract he signed with the Phillies. Yes, Cole Hamels looks motivated to prove everyone that last year was an aberration. Yes, the Phillies rotation looks good in Spring Training thus far. (Though the classic line from “Major League” rolls through my head: yeah, against guys who are going to be bagging groceries in a couple of weeks!) But couldn’t the Phillies have kept Lee, somehow, some way???
The twosome of Halladay and Hamels should be great. But that puts the Phillies on par with some other great duos like Lincecum and Cain, Carpenter and Wainwright, Sabathia and Burnett, Hernadez and Lee and Lester and Beckett. However a threesome of Halladay-Lee and Hamels could not be matched by any other team. (No Red Sox fans, not even by Lester-Beckett and Lackey) The goal is to win the World Series and though I’m ecstatic that the Phillies finally got Roy Halladay, I did not want to exchange Cliff Lee for him. I’m a little torn because I like the moves to keep the Phillies relevant into the future. I’ve lived through the dry times and got razzed on the day of the 10000th loss, so a move to keep the Phillies good for future years is heartening. But couldn’t we have gone for it this year and then seen what happened? The future is not guaranteed, you have to go for the NOW!
I guess we’ll see what happens this season. I expect the Phillies to win the East, take out St Louis for the Penant and face the Yankees again in October. Hopefully this time the Offense, Hamels and Lidge all have their A games ready so Philadelphia can hoist another banner!
The Philadelphia Phillies need to take a page from the New York Yankees handbook. Given a home series with the floundering Florida Marlins, the Phillies proceeded to screw the pooch over the weekend and watched a seven game division lead fade to four after a three game Marlin sweep! Meanwhile, the Yankees strangled their bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox, taking four from the Sawx with timely hitting and fabulous pitching and taking a firm hold of the division lead. Speaking of pitching, what has become of Phillies Ace Cole Hamels who got lit up again this weekend and fell to 7-7 on the year???
So it appears that Buster Olney of ESPN has his thoughts on why the Philadelphia Phillies need to sign Toronto Bluejay ace pitcher Roy Halladay, effectively trying to steal my thunder. Thankfully, while his opinions are solid they do not quite emulate mine and make my case even better! As ex head coaching great Herm Edwards stated (okay so Edwards was not great as a head coach; he was a fine motivator and defensive expert, but didn’t have a great eye for talent and was too soft on his players, but I digress…) “You play to win the game!” or in this case, the World Series. How would Halladay help the Phillies? Well…
It appears Anaheim has more to crow about than Disneyland and the Mighty Ducks. They can lay claim to one of the finest baseball teams in recent history as the Angels have won three of the last four division titles and look on their way to doing so again. Why all the love for the Angels who haven’t been to a World Series but for their one Championship in 2002? This is a franchise that has had to live in the shadow of the Los Angeles Dodgers since their inception and this year has had to overcome the losses of Mark Texiera and Francisco Rodriguez in free agency and Nick Adenhart in a tragic car accident just days into the 2009 season. 
Hurry back Alex! New York Yankee fans rejoiced today with the breaking news that Alex Rodriguez took his first slide into a base since his March hip surgery. Playing 0.500 ball at a lackluster 13 and 13 record, things in New York are getting desperate. Generally Yankee fans don’t pay attention this early in a season as the Bombers are traditionally slow starters. But missing the playoffs last year and starting the season 0-5 against the Boston Red Sox has started the faithful grumbling into their beers. 
A buddy of mine and I have a running arguement on who’d you rather have on your team, Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez? I take Jeter, he takes A-Rod. And during weeks like this one, looks like the arguement swings my way. Granted A-Rod has all the stats and is an awesome ball player. Its very likely we’ll be discussing his 800 odd home runs in a few years, but then what? Jeter has all the intangibles; four rings, Captain of the New York Yankees and some gaudy stats of his own. What he doesn’t have is all the baggage A-Rod has… Steroids, books calling him A-fraud, Madonna, etc. Rodriguez can’t just keep his name out of the papers. The only time you see Jeter on the TV set is selling Gatorade or on ET with yet another of the 100 most beautiful women. Could Jeter’s name be on the list of 103 steroid abusers yet to be named? Maybe, but I doubt it. On the other hand, were you really surprised when A-Rod’s name came out?
