From Any Angle, Phillies Big Winners With Cliff Lee

Filed under: Braves, Dodgers, Giants, Mets, NL East

Anyone remember the San Francisco Giants?

You know, the guys in orange and black loaded with pitching and personality. They beat the Phillies only two months ago in the National League Championship Series. They beat up on Cliff Lee in the World Series.

Our West Coast dudes are reigning World Series champions. No matter how many millions of dollars the Phillies or the Red Sox spend on ballplayers this offseason, nothing is decided in December.

True, when the Phillies and ace Cliff Lee reached terms Monday, the phrase embarrassment of riches applied.

"Best pitching staff in the game!" Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers texted in reply to FanHouse after Lee, a bona fide ace, joined a rotation that already boasted Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt.

When asked about Lee later on Tuesday, an NL East scout pondered the next few Octobers, and sounded resigned to the prospect of seeing a shade of red too familiar. "You would have to think the Phillies would get close to the World Series for two or three more years," he said

Their four pursuers appearing largely incapable of denying them a fifth consecutive NL East title, the Phillies may have more reason to fear an invisible foe. There's age creep on their roster, even with Domonic Brown, 23, penciled into right field as the replacement to Jayson Werth. Father Time always wins--eventually. The four aces have a lot of mileage on their arms. Our scout doesn't see any blinking yellow lights among them, though.

"Halladay is in the prime of his career," he said of the 33-year-old true ace, who won the Cy Young award this year and threw two no-hitters, including a perfect game.

"Lee is a young 32 and is just hitting his stride. Hamels is 26 and is really good. The only guy I saw last year who really wasn't himself was Oswalt (33). I don't know if it was from pitching in the World Baseball Classic the previous year, or pitching for a bad team. But he looked fine after he went to the Phillies."

Among Philadelphia's everyday players is only slight evidence of decline, although many of them are past the typical peak years. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins is 32 and coming off an injury-marred season, as is second baseman Chase Utley, who will turn 32 on Friday, but both still command respect from opponents. The team's top slugger, Ryan Howard, is 31. Left fielder Raul Ibanez is 38.

"The left fielder is getting old," the scout said. "Are the Phillies getting old? Nah."

My still-fresh memory of the Phillies, though, is of Giants pitchers making their bats look slow.

 

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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/12/15/from-any-angle-phillies-big-winners-with-cliff-lee/

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