For Cliff Lee, hopefully this is only the beginning. The salad and bread before the main course is served. Lee already won the AL’s comeback player of the year award, and this weekend he picked up two more honors. Lee was voted Most Outstanding Pitcher by the player’s association as well as AL Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News. These awards are nice, but the big one looms.
Lee is considered by most to be the favorite to bring home the AL’s Cy Young award. The only other serious threat to take the award is Anaheim’s closer Francisco Rodriguez – he of the $15 million per year contract demands. Of course, Toronto’s Roy Halladay may get a few nods, but it will be tough for him to rack up more votes than a rival starting pitcher. Complete game machine, he may be, but Halladay trails in key metrics like wins, losses and ERA. However, we would be more than willing to listen to opposing arguments if anyone honestly believes that Lee is unworthy!
There has been some talk over the last few weeks that the Tribe should look to lock up Lee for a few more years; especially given the chance that we would be sans ace upon any departure. But the little man on the other shoulder (most likely wearing red, carrying a pitchfork) reminds us all that we did the same thing with players like Jake Westbrook and Travis Hafner – and look where that got us!
But regardless of what happened this past season with the team, at least we can all take pride in having the Cy Young recipient for what would then be back-to-back seasons. Twenty-win seasons do not come all that often in these parts. Now let’s just hope we can build off of this next year, instead of using it as a slump buster.
