Philadelphia Phillies

Shocker alert: With pitcher Cliff Lee signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, Vegas now considers the Phils the heavy betting favorites to win the 2011 World Series. Online betting giant Sportsbook.com currently has them listed at +160 to win it all.

A pitching rotation as hellacious as the one the Philadelphia Phillies are currently possessing rarely happens in baseball. Many of us are still wondering how the negotiating process went down. And why Cliff Lee didn't announce his decision on a one-hour special.

Everything about this negotiation suggested that Lee and Braunecker were playing perfectly in terms of maximizing the money. Now it appears money was never really a factor.

The Philadelphia Phillies have been one of the most successful baseball teams in the MLB the past three seasons. Recently, as most of you have heard, the Phillies lost their all-star left fielder, Jayson Werth, to the Washington Nationals for a ridiculous amount of money, but also gained the most coveted free agent in the 2010 class, Cliff Lee.

Cliff Lee is a happy man.

Forget the fact he swindled himself out of more than $30 million to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies. Okay, maybe not swindled, because Lee voluntarily left that money on the table.

He knew what he was doing. He knew he’d be the most at peace in Philadelphia. His trial run there in 2009 — despite the fact the Phillies failed to sign him that time around — was nothing short of magical.

The Cliff Lee signing has put together one of the greatest pitching staffs in recent memory.

Isn't it ironic that both Cliff Lee and LeBron James got their careers started in Cleveland?

Isn't it also ironic that both men are considered to be at the top of their respective sports in terms of talent and ability, and left via free agency to join teams that have a wealth of top tier talent?

Let's just tap the breaks on that last part for a minute.

I certainly didn’t see this coming.

There was no way that the Phillies could sign Cliff Lee.  While a lot of Phillies fans may have had it in the back of their minds as a wonderful fantasy scenario, most of us were sure that it wasn’t going to happen. 

Cliff Lee just shocked the baseball world by going back to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Texas Rangers and New York Yankees were widely thought to have been the front-runners for his services, but they're now left in the dark after his signing.

Begin Slideshow

Joe Blanton might be the only member of the Philadelphia Phillies who wasn't ecstatic to hear that the team signed free agent ace Cliff Lee.

Lee's addition now gives the team two Cy Young winners, a former World Series MVP, and Roy Oswalt. Because he now seems expendable, some reports have Blanton being shipped to the Boston Red Sox.

Cliff Lee Phillies marriage has Boston Red Sox fans giddy this Tuesday morning.

Obviously, the Yankees losing out on a front line starter is a big deal: anytime the Yankees lose anything Red Sox fans have to be happy.

But because the club's biggest offseason acquisitions (outfielder Carl Crawford and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez) were both left handed bats, the Yankees missed out on having a great response to their AL East rival.