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It was in the aftermath of Game 1 of the WS had me convinced the Yankees had quit on that series. I mean, it's the only way to describe the way SF who up until Game 4 against Philly hadn't scored more than 4 runs for 3+ weeks of baseball.

The Giants said in the post game interview, look this guy doesn't walk guys so if you're going to see your pitch because he can't over power you.

Note to Brian Cashman when he's about to throw $120M to Cliff Lee and a Spit proof suite for Mrs. Lee...

Um, this guy who will be 33 when (not if) he signs with the Yanks, is what will happen when in May the Yanks aging roster can't muster enough runs and Lee has a 4+ ERA (and he has started out very slow before) along with AJ...

Cashman has ALWAYS been enamored with guys who always stone wall the Yanks: Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, AJ Burnett, and now Cliff Lee.....

But again, the Giants just bashed him on the principle of knowing what the league knows...makes me wonder if this is one of those aging 30+ pitcher signings that the Yanks should BEWARE.

he was really up and missing the spots.....i mean he was throwing fastballs down the middle that the giants were missing!

the long layoff hurt him

just like the long layoff hurt our team

He had one bad game against a National League team after a long layoff. Did you see the way Lee manhandled the Rays, who actually are in our division?

I am not sure cliff wants to be in texas.. he was auditioning for the yankees, so he seems to put out his best vs us.. LOL.... who knows... I do know he is hittable and he doesn't have overpowering stuff like CC does when he is healthy..

Honestly, I think the yanks sweep a team like the giants.. the texas series seemed odd to me... texas was scoring runs off the yanks without the ball leaving the infield, then you had clowns likd molina hitting homers.. just an odd series for the yankees.. then we lose tex, we find out CC was not completely healthy and boom... there you go...

Cliff lee is good, but at 33, wanting long term money? big, long term money.... tough one...

BOS

lester, buckholz, beckett, dice k, lackey

that is 5 deep

TOR

romero cecil drabek morrow

TB

price, garza, davis, etc

we have

CC phil AJ

all those teams have pretty much 4 to 5 deep pitching....we need a #2 guy to compete with those clubs, even if andy wants to come back

Still want to throw 130-150 million at Lee after the San Fran, a team that struggled to score runs all season, lit his ass once but twice? Again, every one knows this guy doesn't walk batters. Like all those fools the Yanks threw money at, the Yanks are fooling themselves giving this pitcher that kind of money.

7ip 3er is not getting lit up

who else do you suggest we get?

you cant say wait a year, with the age on this team, the team is in win now mode

In WS baseball, three runs is getting lit up because you're up against Tim Lincecum. Never mind six hits. Pettitte allowed 2 runs and that was enough to lose to Lee.

This franchise is always going to say it's in win now mode. However, where did it get the Yankees from 2001-2009? Always over spending for a pitcher that fools only THEM.

With A-Rod's diminishing health, Jeter's range, and Posada's defense...c'mon this is a no-brainer. The Yanks got beat by Cody TWICE.

I just laugh @ Cashman saying the priority is to add more pitching. Really? 200M in contracts doesn't do it?

so whose the alternative

they really arent many

This is a win-now team. The entire team is all at their prime or already left. Pitchers like Lee don't go on the market very often, so when they do a team with the resources (like the Yankees obviously have) should go hard after him. He is one of the best post-season pitchers to ever pitch, throw him with Sabathia, Pettite, and Hughes and that is a dominant top 4 for the post-season. It's either you give Lee his 110-120 million for 5 years, or give a #3 or #4 a 40-50 million dollar contract and not nearly the consistency (or effectiveness in the PO's). Even if Lee gives us 3 years of great pitching and 2 years of mediocre, I'd be VERY surprised if 3 years of Lee and Sabathia in their prime are not good enough to carry this team to another world series title.

I mean really, just think about it. A team is going to see Lee, Sabathia, Pettite for 6 of 7 games and Hughes for 1 game during a championship series; and Lee/Sabathia for 4 of 5 games during a divisional series. Even if the Yankees get a very tiny improvement from the offense as a whole (though I'd expect a decent-sized improvement) for next years playoffs, 1 run is enough to win any given day.

Dr. Detfink wrote:Still want to throw 130-150 million at Lee after the San Fran, a team that struggled to score runs all season, lit his ass once but twice? Again, every one knows this guy doesn't walk batters. Like all those fools the Yanks threw money at, the Yanks are fooling themselves giving this pitcher that kind of money.

It was just a team that got hot. Same thing happened when SF faced the great pitchers in Philly. In Philadelphias first series against the Reds they had 2 complete games (1 being a no hitter). When Philly faced SF, Halladay (4.15 ERA) and Hamels (4.50 ERA) pitched significantly worse. So are you saying you wouldn't pursue Halladay this off-season as a FA (if he didn't sign that extension) because he got hit pretty hard against SanFran? That's ridiculous.

It's the same situation as when Lee shut the Yankees down, but didn't pitch very well against SanFran. SanFran might not be a great hitting team, but they got hot at the right time. They faced Hudson, Lowe (who was throwing great coming into the playoffs), Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt, and Lee in 10 of the 15 games that they played in the playoffs, maybe we should give them credit for winning the WS as opposed to criticize them.

If you don't want to pursue him because you don't think the Yankees should give out another 100+ million dollar contract, that's a valid point. But the reason the Yankees don't pursue or sign him shouldn't because of 1 series against the Giants who got incredibly hot.

Pharmcat wrote:BOS

lester, buckholz, beckett, dice k, lackey

that is 5 deep

If Dice K and Beckett make the Red Sox "5 deep" then the Yankees are also "5 deep". Dice K was on par with Burnett and Beckett was even more putrid this season than either guy. Lackey would be worse than the top 3 Yankee pitchers (CC, Hughes and Petitte).

TOR

romero cecil drabek morrow

Drabek has shown nothing this season other than he's not as good as other the other top draftee's that stepped in and looked like studs. Morrow throws hard but with a 4.50 career ERA is hardly a sure bet anything. Romero and Cecil would be 3rd, 4th guys in the rotation if they were on the Yankees.

TB

price, garza, davis, etc

we have

CC phil AJ

all those teams have pretty much 4 to 5 deep pitching....we need a #2 guy to compete with those clubs, even if andy wants to come back

Not necessarily.

Dr. Detfink wrote:In WS baseball, three runs is getting lit up because you're up against Tim Lincecum. Never mind six hits. Pettitte allowed 2 runs and that was enough to lose to Lee.

This franchise is always going to say it's in win now mode. However, where did it get the Yankees from 2001-2009? Always over spending for a pitcher that fools only THEM.

With A-Rod's diminishing health, Jeter's range, and Posada's defense...c'mon this is a no-brainer. The Yanks got beat by Cody TWICE.

I just laugh @ Cashman saying the priority is to add more pitching. Really? 200M in contracts doesn't do it?

Yeah great points...and yeah I tend to agree.

^b4 putting down the TOR and TB rotations, just remember they beat us in the season series

Dr. Detfink wrote:Still want to throw 130-150 million at Lee after the San Fran, a team that struggled to score runs all season, lit his ass once but twice? Again, every one knows this guy doesn't walk batters. Like all those fools the Yanks threw money at, the Yanks are fooling themselves giving this pitcher that kind of money.

You're acting like throwing strikes is a bad thing. You're all **** up.

Cliff Lee is as proven a postseason pitcher as you're going to find. He also relies heavily on control, so age shouldn't be an issue assuming his back stays okay.