What Might of Been: Wade shot down Cliff Lee for Lidge

[ryan17wagner]

"One of the deals that we had a chance to make -- and if we had made it, at the time people would have scratched their heads -- was for Cleveland's Cliff Lee. If we make that deal Philly probably doesn't get in the World Series, and we look really smart if Cliff Lee has the season he had for us [instead of going 22-3 for Cleveland in 2008]. I don't spend a lot of time dwelling on it unless a Philly fan comes up to me and says thanks."


http://www.delawareonline.com/blogs/2009/03/mar-14-q-with-ed-wade.html

[BrooksBall]

I've been an Indians fan all my life. Nobody anywhere could have predicted what Cliff Lee ended up doing last season. He had trouble just staying up with the big club the prior year. I believe he was slated for 4th or 5th in the rotation at the beginning of last season before Westbrook got hurt.

[Nice Rollin]

EVERYONE wouldve turned that down

[Mr. Clutch]

Yeah and I could have shorted Bear at $100, so what.

[TheBigAristotle]

Well it's definitely a hindsight is 20-20 type of deal, but in a way it's not. Lee was a slightly above average pitcher before lighting it up last year.

Brooksball has a good point in that he was basically a back of the rotation guy until last season. Who knows, he might fall flat on his face this year or last year might be the turning point for him to develop into a solid pitcher. At the time though, no one predicted what Lee was going to do in '08