Behind The Box Score

The story of Goldilocks and Three Bears sums this up best. The Phillies thought the deal with the Jays was too much. The counter offer was too little for the Jays. And now Philadelphia found something that was just right. This time, just right was with the Cleveland Indians, (42-59) who traded away Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco to the Phils today. The Tribe, in return, recieved four prospects: Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson. “You hate to lose [Lee],” one Indians veteran said. “You can’t replace him. To go out and do what he does every fifth day is incredible.”

The prospects that Cleveland gained will be solid investments for the future of the ball club. Knapp is going to be around for a long time to come, only 18, but his record doesn’t show the upside scouts believe he has. He is 2-7 with a 4.01 ERA at A-Lakewood this year. Someone else with a positive outlook is AAA pitcher Carlos Carrasco, who is 6-9 with a 5.18 ERA. But scouts and people within the Phillies organization speak highly of him. “We like Carlos right now better than any time last year. I know that may seem funny because of his results last year, but some of that was self-induced by us. There were some things he needed to do to become a good Major League pitcher, [like] start to learn to throw more inside. We introduced a slider to him. He’s gone through some growing pains. We could have called him to the Majors several times this year, but we thought it would impede his development,” Phillies assistant general manager Chuck Lamar said of him.

Philedelphia really gained more than just Lee in this deal. Lee’s club option at the end of the year  is 6.75 million less than that of Roy Halladay’s. Also, they made a deal without giving up pitchers J.A. Happ and Kyle Drabek, both gems that are in the Phils’ system, Happ is up at the majors currently. Cliff Lee is 7-9 only because of the 8th worst run support in the AL, but now moving to an offensive power like the Phils (58-40)