Indians Confidential

I think at this point if the Indians trade Cliff Lee, I might just stop writing about them for the rest of my life.

What good reason would at this point Mark Shapiro give up on Lee, who has been the rock of the rotation the last two seasons, and was the AL Cy Young award winner a year ago? Lee was great against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night, going the distance as the Indians won with two in the 9th to beat the Jays 2-1.

Lee allowed one run on seven hits, not walking a batter and striking out four. Sure he’s just 6-9 on the season, but when you take into account the run “support” that he usually doesn’t get, it’s amazing he’s even got this many wins. Lee is the talk of baseball now that the trade deadline is getting near, and some say that he’s the number one target of Charlie Manuel and the Phillies if they can’t get Roy Halladay from the same Jays the Indians beat Tuesady.

That would make no sense AT ALL right now for this team to move Lee. End of story.

He’s got another year left on his deal after this year, and has never really complained about much, and seems to be a good locker room guy. Trading Cy Young award winners in back to back years will get you nowhere, and if the Indians do it – they would be fools.

Back to the game, trailing 1-0 in the 9th, the Indians got two runs in for the win with a single, fielder’s choice, intentional walk, then a shallow double by Victor Martinez that scored the two runs to win the game. Not taking any chances with Kerry Wood, Lee allowed a one-out single in the 9th, but that was it.

The Indians move to 20 games under .500 at 37-57 on the year, and will continue the series tomorrow night at 7:05pm.