Cliff Lee To Sign With the Phillies and Ruin Baseball

First off, let me start by giving you some details about the imminent Cliff Lee signing by the Philadelphia Phillies. The contract is believed to be a 5 year deal worth $100 million with a player option for a sixth year. Not only is this a mammoth contract for Cliff Lee, but this is a huge move by the Phillies to try and get back to the world series in the near future.

Almost no one could have predicted this, while the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers were dueling back and forth to see who could throw the most money at Cliff Lee and win the Philadelphia Phillies swoop in and steal Lee away quietly. This helps strengthen an already very strong starting rotation for the Phillies which already features two all-star caliber pitchers in Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. With the addition of Lee, the Phillies now quite possibly have the best 3 man rotation in the majors.

Now while most Yankee & Ranger fans are struggling to grasp the fact that the Phillies just stole their would be ace in the rotation, I am trying to calm myself down and deal with the fact that baseball is getting tarnished before my own eyes.

I am an Atlanta Braves fan, so most of you must understand how I feel about the Phillies once again stealing the Braves thunder. Earlier this off-season, the Braves were quick in filling one of their needs which was the need for another power hitter. They accomplished this task by acquiring second baseman Dan Uggla from their fellow NL East foe, the Florida Marlins for infielder Omar Infante and reliever Michael Dunn. This put the Braves in a nice position to once again contend for the NL East title with the Phillies and possibly go deep into the playoffs.

For those of you who don’t know who owns the Braves, a corporation named Liberty Media owns the Braves and own parts of Time Warner, Sirius XM Radio, and Viacom. Needless to say, Liberty Media has enough money to afford the Braves. However, Liberty Media is not like most MLB franchise owners in that they do not give the Braves and infinite amount of money to spend to field the best possible team like the Yankees and Phillies are now doing.

I am sorry if I am preaching to the wrong crowd here, but does anyone else see a problem here? Is it right that the Phillies and Yankees are able to spend all the money they want to lure away the top free agents and trade for expensive players year after year so that they can beat up on the teams who simply “can’t afford” a Cliff Lee or C.C. Sabathia? All I am saying here is that I’m suggesting their needs to be some type of rule or (as a last result) a salary cap to make free agency and trades fair game for all teams.

I know most people will say that it isn’t the commissioner’s fault that this is happening, but something needs to be done to try and balance out situations like this because teams (such as the Braves) who have payroll restrictions are getting jobbed. Believe me, I’m all for having an organization go out and try to field the best team possible and I don’t blame the Phillies for making this move because it’s a smart move. But, this is a perfect example of how some teams just can’t afford some players and it results in lopsided rosters in baseball.

Now I’m not saying that this alone is ruining baseball, but I feel like if nothing is done soon, then some teams may never be able to crawl out of the cellar until they go under new ownership.

Please leave your comments below, I’m interested to see what opinions people may have regarding payroll restrictions.

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