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The Phillies have acquired, or rather stolen, Cleveland Indians ace Cliff Lee.

In a 6-player deal, the Phillies have been able to acquire the pitching help that they have so desperately needed during this first half of the season. While the pitching, and the team as a whole, has gotten better in the second half, it was still a problem that needed to be dealt with.

Any honest Phillies fan looked at their rotation and knew that it just was not a World Series-winning rotation.

Hamels has been pitching like an ace again, so he may stay at that first spot, but don’t be surprised to see him vacate that ace role for Cliff Lee. Either way, it will be Hamels and Lee in the first and second slots.

Then you have Joe Blanton, who has been on fire over the past month, and could land in the third spot behind either Hamels or Lee. However they may want to pitch him fourth and give Jamie Moyer the third position.

The only guy with a real definitive spot is J.A. Happ who will be the fifth guy. That’s right, the Indians didn’t even squeeze Happ out of the Phils.

Rodrigo Lopez has been pitching very well as of late, and may go to the bullpen as a reliever if the Phillies don’t simply decide to send him back down to the minors. However with the bullpen struggling this season, it doesn’t make much sense to send him down.

The Phillies also get a good righty coming off the bench, something they’ve lacked this season. Ben Francisco is currently batting .250 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs. That’s certainly not bad production, and the Phillies have to be excited to have a viable righty coming off the bench for them.

The Phillies didn’t come out of this completely unscathed as they had to give up four very good prospects. However, here’s the kicker. Of the four prospects, Kyle Drabek is not one of them.

Seriously.

The deal shakes out like this:

Phillies get:

• Cliff Lee
• Ben Francisco

Indians get:

• Jason Knapp
• Carlos Carrasco
• Jason Donald
• Lou Marson

I would say that Cliff Lee and a solid bench player without giving up Drabek, Happ, or outfielder Dominic Brown is much better than just Roy Halladay and losing at least two of those three players.

So, the Phillies (pending physicals) have made out like bandits. An unbelievable trade and another fantastic move by Amaro. People questioned the Ibanez move, but that’s worked out I’d say, wouldn’t you? Now he just picked up an ace for next to nothing.

The NL, and more specifically the NL East, just let out one harmonious #*%*!!!

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By Bob Cunningham
Writer/Blogger, SJ Contributing Author