Looks like we're moving again kids!
Well, I just posted about David Lee’s jump to the Warriors, so I may as well dedicate today as Lee day, and talk about the Rangers acquisition of Cliff Lee. The Rangers are already 5 1/2 games up on the competition in the standings, and the Angels continue to slide, losing four in a row, and seven of their last ten without their main man Kendry. The power in the west shifted even more today, as Texas acquired Cliff Lee from Seattle for Justin Smoak (2008 first round pick), and four other minor leaguers. The Cliff Lee sweepstakes took a surprising turn when pretty much everyone had him going to the Yankees earlier today. He instead will be heading to Texas in a deal that had to make Nolan Ryan crack a smile. It’s a good move to do it now, so they can get an extra three or four starts out of him instead of waiting all the way to the trade deadline. As a rabid A’s fan, I’m not completely against making our current division leader better, because if there was a team I wanted to win outside of the A’s, it would be the Rangers. Maybe that’s why I picked them in our predictions at the beginning of the year. Their biggest weakness was pitching, and now they have a true ace of their staff that they’ve been missing for so many years. If they get back Rich Harden from the DL after the all-star break, and he is what he used to be with Oakland, they’d have a very solid top of the rotation with Lee, Harden, and Colby Lewis. They might get rocked here and there in the home run friendly confides of Arlington during the dog days of August, but all of these guys know how to pitch when healthy. Does this make the Rangers a contender to win it all? Most would say no, and I’d agree with that, but the way their offense is set up they can beat good pitching, and now acquired one of the best pitchers in the game that will surely give them a win every fifth night. As long as Ron Washington is there, I’ll be rooting for that club to do well, and with some pitching to back up that great offense this deal couldn’t have worked out better for them. Side note, it also feels good to be a Vlad supporter again after he spent so many years on the Angels.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
July 9th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
chappy
Lucky for you but I don’t believe that your favorite sports agent was involved in this trade as the Rangers got of well . Had it been either the Yankees or Red Sox and Boras was the agent involved then someone would’ve ended feeling as if they’d been brutally violated.
🙂
Alan ………. 🙂
July 10th, 2010 at 12:33 am
Ya’ know what? GREAT move by the Rangers.
I would think this would seal the deal for a playoff spot.
Is he the best pitcher they’ve had since Kevin Brown?
July 10th, 2010 at 1:14 am
chappy
It makes the divisional races all the more interesting now !
Image ? Image And A Self Conscious League ……….
🙂
Alan
July 11th, 2010 at 6:01 am
chappy
Found this interesting tidbit .
🙂
Alan …………..
July 11th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I wonder exactly how much they sacrificed still. If they only took $12-14M each, that’s a pretty good gesture!
July 12th, 2010 at 9:13 am
chappy
I’m sure an exotic car dealership in Miami or South Beach will more than make up for that by loaning LeBron a Lamborghini Murcielago for his own personal use. Not that the publicity will do either any harm to begin with . Off court earning for LeBron an estimated $35 million a year ……….. not exactly chump change is it ?
And will LeBron having the use of a Lamborghini hurt his “street cred” with the “homies” do you think ?
Winding Down Or Winding Up As The Case Maybe
🙂
Alan ………….