Untime-Lee
Realizing that the events of this post-season continue to be agonizingly painful for Tribe fans, in light of what has transpired from this time in 2007 to now, what happened on Tuesday night forces us all to re-visit what is, what has happened, and what could have been, particularly in terms of Cliff Lee's playoff performance the last three times his teams made the playoffs...
Cliff Lee
2010 Postseason - 1.13 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, 21 K, 0 BB in 16 IP (2 victories)
Cliff Lee
2009 Postseason - 1.56 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 33 K, 6 BB in 40 1/3 IP (4 victories)
Cliff Lee
2007 Postseason - Did not participate, left off of post-season roster
Do not take this as a cry that Lee deserved on the 2007 post-season roster, but rather that the timing of "Cliff Lee: middle-of-the-rotation-starter" turning into "Clifton Phifer Lee - absolute stud and playoff hero" didn't exactly jibe with when the Indians could have used said "absolute stud and playoff hero".
Such is baseball...particularly in Cleveland as of late.
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2 comments:
Paul, thanks for a great year of insight and laughs. You're a helluva writer and Tribe fan.
Except for one small detail, I can't agree more with your last sentence: [T]he timing of "Cliff Lee: middle-of-the-rotation-starter" turning into "Clifton Phifer Lee - absolute stud and playoff hero" didn't exactly jive with when the Indians could have used said "absolute stud and playoff hero".
Jibe means 'to be in harmony or accord; to agree'. The accepted meanings of jive are 'to tease or bluff' or 'to dance to jazz or swing music.'
While I can't help but chuckle at the mental image of Clifton Phifer Lee jiving -- perhaps as he's about to sign his next contract -- I'm pretty sure you meant his performance in '07 doesn't match what we've seen subsequently.
Please pardon the hoity-toity English lesson but I only recently learned the difference myself and I thought you would appreciate being corrected since your writing regularly and skillfully corrects common misconceptions about the Indians and demonstrates how the numbers/actions/quotes often don't reflect the true meaning behind them.
More explanation here if you're so inclined: http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000711
OK, here's to a productive off-season in which the actions of the Tribe brass actually JIBE with their stated goals of building a championship caliber team ASAP!
Had no idea of that difference, but fixed.
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