Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee

Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee,
Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee,
We're talkin' f***in' Lee.
I had a friend named Lee,
He cast a spell a spell on me.

Jack Black and Tenacious D sang it, and I am feeling it. Cliff Lee has in fact cast a spell on me! Another seven innings, 0 run, 0 walk performance from the man named Clifton Phifor Lee.

Only this time, it wasn’t against the lowly Twins, the fluky Oakland A’s, or the “can’t hit their way out of a paper bag” Seattle Mariners. It was against my New York Yankees, out-dueling the Taiwanese heart throb, Chien-Ming Wang.

If you’re like me, you picked up Cliff Lee on your Fantasy Baseball team because he pitched a great game or two and you were desperate for pitching. If you’re like me, you also didn’t honestly think he would still be pitching this well. I mean he was pretty good in 2005 with a 18-5 record and an ERA under 4, but he was atrocious the last 2 years, between 2006-2007, he was 19-19 with an ERA well over 5! He was also in the minors as the Indians almost made the World Series last year. I know its still very early, but every pitcher since the divisional era started in the late 60’s that has started 6-0 with an ERA under 1 has gone on to win the Cy Young. By the way, some of the pitchers include Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez.

So herein lies the dilemma…if you currently have Cliff Lee on your Fantasy Baseball team, what do you do with him? The way I see it, you have three options:

1) Trade him: Lee’s value is sky high right now. There has to be someone in your league that is desperate for pitching who believes that Cliff will be, at the very least, an improvement on what they have now. Test the waters and gauge how much confidence the others in your league have that he will continue his dominance. If you have needs, use Lee to fill them.

2) Keep him: What if you trade Lee and he actually does go on to win the AL Cy Young Award? It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility. The most impressive thing about him early on is the fact that he isn’t walking ANYONE. His K/BB ratio is an absolutely absurd 39/2 through 44.2 innings! His ERA won’t remain under 1 for too much longer, but it appears that Lee can remain a valuable fantasy pitcher for awhile.

3) Drop him: Get rid of him. Forget you ever had him. Let him tease someone else with his amazingness. Forget you and Cliff Lee were ever connected in anyway. Ok, so this is a terrible option, but it is just that, an option.

So, what will you do with Clifton Phifor Lee? What will I do with Clifton Phifor Lee? I guess only time will tell…