Just re-read Posnanski, and you have to love this quote from Charlie Manuel about Cliff Lee. It is classic Manuel, no?
"Most of the time when he starts a game, and he's in control of the game, and everything around it he's controlling — he's throwing strikes and he's getting the ball, what I call he handles the flow of the game, if you know what I mean. Everybody about it. The flow of the game, the way the game goes.
"Not only does he have command of the game, but he has the flow of the game. To me he sets the tone by his rhythm, getting the ball back, and he knows what he's going to throw. I like the way he pitches. I like everything about how he goes about it. But that's part of his success, too, is the fact that's how he handles the game."
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If Eric Wedge was the Phillies' manager, the 9th inning would have been turned over to a Mitch Williams clone to blow the game. It doesn't matter if a guy is lights out for eight innings, the robot manual says to put the closer in in the 9th.
absolutely alan.
how many games did wedge cost the team early in the season when he pulled lee for the bullpen scrubs? i can recall 3 right off the bat. good riddance eric wedge. too bad a lot of people (like me) left when cliff got traded. there's no point in following the indians after that horrendous deal. at least not as long as shapiro is still there.
Terje,
Great point: Shapiro is getting waaaaay too much of a free pass. He is equally, and maybe a bit more, to blame as Wedge.
What?
hey phil, it sucks that you can't play drums anymore. "in the air tonight" is the jam!
I vividly remember the imbecilic Bruce Drennan ridiculing the grammatically challenged Manuel shortly after the Indians named him MGR….shortly after Drennan went to jail.
I don't buy it. Dave Mustaine said he couldn't play anymore, five minutes later he's playing. Publicity baloney. But not as phony baloney as the publicity stunt of Shaquille O'Neal applying to become a Cuyahoga County special deputy. If Phil Collins and Dave Mustaine don't arrest Delonte West and beat him senseless in a Rodney King kind of way, then perhaps Shaq will.
Bruce Drennan and Dan Gilbert. Peas in a pod.
"But not as phony baloney as the publicity stunt of Shaquille O'Neal applying to become a Cuyahoga County special deputy."
since the maricopa county sheriff revoked his privileges for telling kobe to taste his monstrous behind i guess he figured cleveland was more accepting of that sort if thing. there are a lot of browns fans that have had a taste of butt in their mouths for a couple decades.
i thought shaq's privileges were revoked for facilitating Barkley's late night rendezvous in Scottsdale. as for dave mustaine, i'm sure it was just a heroin overdose, and when he came to he realized he could still play. ah mustaine, always much preferred him to those idiots in metallica!
If we took a poll of Indians' fans, what would they rather go watch: fireworks or Cliff Lee?
Cliff Lee is hands down the most valuable player in baseball right now because he owns the game (see Manuel's quote and what we were witness to in 2008). If I had to start at team from scratch right now, he's my number one guy.