Yeah, so... How does Wren even respond to this? Not only did Cliff Lee sign with the Phils, but he took far less money than was offerred from the Yanks/Rangers. People believe that he left around $50M on the table in New York to play with the Phillies. Wow. That reminds me how the Braves used to be - a place where people would take a pay cut just to be part of a great team and great clubhouse.
Anyway, it's sort-of like the Braves and Phillies are in an arms race similar to that of the Yankees and Red Sox. The only difference is that the Braves have about half the payroll of the other three teams mentioned in that previous sentence.
Apparently, the Phils will trade away Blanton. That means this will be their starting five:
1. Cliff Lee
2. Roy Halladay
3. Roy Oswalt
4. Cole Hamels
5. Kyle Kendrick
And don't look down on Kyle Kendrick, Braves fans, because the kid is 4-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 8 career games (7 starts) versus the Braves. We have hit .237 against him.
You remember that era when Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine all pitched on the same team and it was considered the best pitching staff of all time? And the players all wanted to stay together and maintain the continuity, which caused other guys to want to come be part of what was going on in Atlanta? Well that era has returned, only with the Phils.
Some bloggers/writers want to caution the Braves fans from panicking, saying that Hudson, Hanson, Jurrjens and Lowe can hang with the Phillies "Big 4." I don't see it. There's no way. Jurrjens was bad last year and had recurring injuries. Hudson isn't getting any younger and is on a plane with Oswalt, at best. Hanson has had mixed results. He's young, and solid, but he's got to get his walks and pitch counts lower. Then you've got Lowe - the disappointing $60M man. I don't mean to bad mouth our rotation, because there are positives there, too. Hudson finished Top 5 in Cy Young voting, Lowe's September was the best among all MLB pitchers, Hanson is still very young and has shown flashes of dominance, and Jurrjens was brilliant in 2009 when he was healthy. But relatively speaking, there just isn't the question marks on the Phillies staff that there are with the Braves. And given how the Braves struggled against the Phillies in 2010, it could be a very long 2011 season.
The Braves just don't have the budget to add any more pieces as part of any arms race with Philly. What the Braves have now is pretty much what they've got to run with in 2011. So, we'll see how it turns out.
The silver-lining to all this "great pitching staff" madness in Philly is that the Braves do have the consensus top minor league pitchers. So, to the extent Philly can enjoy it now, it may be the Braves who have the last laugh as they've got at least 3 guys who have not pitched in the majors yet and will probably all be ranked in the Top 50 prospects in all of baseball prior to the next season, which would mean they'd be Top 20-25 pitching prospects for all of baseball. That's incredible. I'm talking about Julio Teheran, Arodys Vizcaino, and Randall Delgado. That doesn't include Mike Minor and Craig Kimbrel, who've already made their debuts and will be on the major league roster next season. They'd probably both be in the Top 50 as well.
So... we can't lose hope for the future, although 2011 may be a struggle against the Phils.
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