8. Texas Saves The Season

The first major blow in the Major League Baseball trading deadline happened over the weekend when the Seattle Mariners dealt Cliff Lee to their division rival the Texas Rangers for Justin Smoak and three other prospects. This is a good decision and a potentially really bad decision. 

The Rangers are currently bankrupt without an owner and need money very bad right now.  So they turn their prized prospect for one of the front-runners for the AL Cy Young. This will bring in ticket revenue and every start by Lee will probably be a sell out a lot like C.C. Sabathia for the Milwaukee Brewers. Then you add if they do make the playoffs, which they probably will means even more money for them.  A franchise who hasn't seen October since the early 2000s had to make a move, but who would have thought it would be probably the biggest one? 

I sure as hell didn't and I didn't think the Minnesota Twins would be able to land him either.  Then as the LeBron saga is going on and I am getting ready for Mitch-a-Palooza, SportsCenter said the New York Yankees were getting close to landing Lee.  I thought, "Shit, here we go again and Lee-Sabathia-Hughes will be unstoppable."  But Texas came in hot and had to offer their best offensive prospect. But this doesn't compare to the Sabathia-Milwaukee deal for a big reason. 

The Rangers gave up too much in hopes of making a decent playoff run unless Texas knows something we don't about Smoak or they believe it's possible to re-sign Lee at the end of the year.  The Brewers made the big splash because management realized how important a playoff berth was to this city. I don't know if that's the same thing for Arlington right now, but it might have just been a way to halt the New York Yankees too. 

The Yankees had they got Lee could have guaranteed themselves a World Series berth and probably back-to-back titles. I have to think Texas believes that with Lee they can play with the Yanks, Tampa Bay Rays/Boston Red Sox, and White Sox/Twins/Tigers when it comes to the playoffs. If they can add another mid-level pitcher with not giving up much (you want Doug Davis or Randy Wolf?), the Rangers are the second best team in the American League. They have arguably the best lineup in baseball with Josh Hamilton/Ian Kinsler/Vlad Guerrero, etc. and then add Lee, a clutch pitcher in postseason and another pretty solid pitcher they might be a force to be reckoned with.

-Charlie.