What would you give up for Cliff Lee?

Update (Tuesday, 5:52pm): Buster Olney of ESPN is reporting that the Indians are scouting a bunch of Phillies pitchers, including Jason Knapp, to try to figure out who they would want in a deal that isn’t named Kyle Drabek. Knapp is probably the best pure arm in our system, but at 19, is 3-4 years away from the big club. The possibility of getting Lee for ‘09 and 2010 while keeping Drabek, Brown and Carrasco, is certainly intriguing.

With the Roy Halladay trade talks at a standstill, the Phillies appear as though they will turn their attention to Cliff Lee. Lee, 30, is 7-9 with a 3.14 ERA and 1.30 WHIP this season. The win-loss record means little, as the Indians have been horrible this season. Like Halladay, he is under contract through 2010. Unlike Halladay, he is lefty, won the Cy Young last year, costs less money, and will require less prospects to get a deal done.

So what would you consider a fair deal for Lee?

You have to think that the Phillies wouldn’t include Drabek or Brown in any deal for Lee since they are so reluctant to give them up for Halladay. That leaves J.A. Happ, Michael Taylor, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson as the major league ready prospects (which is what the Indians want) that could be included (there are others that could be tacked on, but let’s keep this simple).

The word is that the Indians want 2 pitchers in the deal, but I don’t think the Phillies would include Happ and Carrasco. They would probably try to substitute Taylor for one of them, as both Brown and Taylor will have a hard time breaking into the majors in the next 2 years. So let’s assume that a fair deal would be Happ/Carrasco, Taylor and Marson/Donald/other (likely Donald as the Indians top prospect is a catcher).

Would you guys make that deal? If so, which pitcher would you include? If you include Carrasco, you have 4 lefties in the rotation not just this year, but next. You could also argue that he is still more valuable than Happ since he is 4 years younger and some think has more upside. You also have no place in the rotation for Pedro Martinez, who has impressed scouts thus far and you just gave $1 million to be a starter.

If you include Happ, you are diminishing your current rotation and assuming that Martinez and/or Rodrigo Lopez can handle the 5th spot for the rest of the year (it certainly seems like they can). Happ also currently has better numbers than Lee and is under the Phillies control for 5 more years. He probably won’t be winning any Cy Young’s, but is Lee that much better than Happ?

I would still prefer to give up Drabek and Brown and land Halladay, but keeping the both of them and still landing last year’s Cy Young winner has a good deal of appeal. What do you think? Would you make this trade for Lee? Would you prefer getting Lee over Halladay while keeping our top prospects? Would the package I proposed even get a deal done considering the other teams that would be involved with a lower price tag?

note: I am indeed aware that the ACTUAL major league squad is currently playing games, and playing quite well. Feel free to talk about the games here. I’ll try to get something non-trade deadline related up before the Giants series. But we all know this stuff is more fun to talk about.

July 28, 2009