Cliff Lee 5th spot

Cliff Lee was the best pitcher the Indians had a couple years ago, people forget this. He was 18-5 in 2005  and 14-11 in 2006 with a decent ERA and over 200 IP both seasons. Not bad for a #5 starter. He was downright terrible last year, but since age is not a concern (he is only 29) i think he can easily bounce back from this bad season. I say he stays with the tribe, they wont trade a good lefty like him.

Interesting "takes" on awarding the fifth spot in the starting rotation to Cliff Lee for the coming 2008 season. Some people believe Lee was the lesser of three evils.. Others believe that Lee could be the guy who won 46 games over a three year period prior to the 2007 season.  It may come down to a relatively simple and crucial aspect of how the Indians staff approaches the coming season:

Every outing, ever game, the Indians have a chance to win with our starting pitcher  !!

When the Cliff Lee of 2007 was making his starts after his spring training injury last year, not many fans had the same degree of confidence that the Indians had a good or better chance to win as, say, when FAUSTO or CC were taking the ball. Cliff Lee, during this spring training, has shown that type of confidence. If it carries over into the regular season, this could be a truly special and incredible season.

What say you?

I'd say that I'd take the Indians' pitching staff over the Red Sox staff right now, but it's a relatively small difference in overall strength.  To me, the big difference between the Tribe and the Sox?  Manny Ramirez.  If the Tribe had Manny last year?  The Tribe would have beat the Sox in five games, may have swept them and certainly would have gone on to win the Series.  Argh!

I was going to go on a rant about David Dellucci again, but suffice to say that the Tribe needs to address that problem, just like they finally addressed the Aaron Fultz problem.  It may not be a fun thing to do, but guys eventually need to be cut loose.  Heck, we'd still have Bill Selby if it were based only on being nice guys all the time.

Cliff Lee had to pitch his way back on the team, over some real competition.  This is the best way for him to be back.  Let's hope that what happened in 2007 stays in 2007 and Lee charts his way back on to the course he set before.