Cliff Lee All Alone

How many of you would have guessed that the starter with the most wins in all of Major League Baseball would be Cleveland’s, Cliff Lee?

Or for that matter, how sparse is the population who thought Lee would have a better campaign than C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona with the Indians?

Lee was sent to the minors to work on his mental toughness and improving the location of his pitches. After all, the left-hander was anything but adequate on the mound last season which prompted the team to demote him.

How could a demotion motivate someone to the extent that the person becomes the frontrunner for a pitchers’ highest prize?

Sabathia was the Cy Young award winner in the American League (the honor going to the best pitcher in each League) while Carmona had an exceptional power fastball with great deception on his off-speed pitches. The two earned 19 wins a year ago in leading the Tribe to Game seven of the American League Championship Series.

Just imagine if Sabathia had not started as slowly as a turtle with the Indians and he pitched with such conviction with Cleveland in as many starts as he has with Milwaukee. Could we have proclaimed Cleveland to win the division?

Probably not! Without Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner in the lineup there is no lightning rod in the order

But the probability that Cleveland is within a couple of games is not unreasonable!

Instead, like most other franchises who have a history of selling off all assets of the team (in the hope of rebuilding into a contender), Cleveland’s level of pay was inferior compared with the Royals for a while.

Keep the players and play out the string! Wait for your stars to get healthy and stop making rash decisions that could destroy the team for years.