Phillies Sign Cliff Lee

[DbacksRback]

-The Yankees are now "extremely negative" about landing Lee and they believe he is leaning toward the Phillies' offer, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (on Twitter).



-There is a belief Lee is heading to the Phillies, according to Jack Curry of the YES Network (on Twitter). Meanwhile, Jon Heyman of SI.com says the Phils "look like a very strong candidate to win Lee's services" (Twitter link).

MLBTR



Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, Hamels?

[skjelstrom]

As much as I love the thought, I don't believe it will happen. The Phillies have a sort of 3-year deal with pitchers: They don't usually sign them for much longer. If they decide to jump into the Lee sweepstakes I don't think they would do more than a 5-year deal, let alone a 7-year deal the Yankees have out there. Though it is very possible as the Phillies ALWAYS keep quiet and its been said that Lee grew fond of Philadelphia when he was there.

It would explain why its taking so long, if the Phillies decided to jump in at last minute.

That is quite the dream rotation. Forget a replacement for Werth! Dom will do fine. A rotation with 4 aces

[DbacksRback]

As much as I love the thought, I don't believe it will happen. The Phillies have a sort of 3-year deal with pitchers: They don't usually sign them for much longer. If they decide to jump into the Lee sweepstakes I don't think they would do more than a 5-year deal, let alone a 7-year deal the Yankees have out there. Though it is very possible as the Phillies ALWAYS keep quiet and its been said that Lee grew fond of Philadelphia when he was there.

It would explain why its taking so long, if the Phillies decided to jump in at last minute.

That is quite the dream rotation. Forget a replacement for Werth! Dom will do fine. A rotation with 4 aces

I read that he is willing to part with what would be around 50 mil to come back to Philly. You're correct it would not be a 7 year deal but apparently he really liked his time with the Phillies so for some crazy reason it could draw him back

[m16a]

EDIT: false information removed

(thanks for the heads up dbacks)

[DbacksRback]

Per Twitter and Ken Rosenthal (Ken_RosenthaI):

It's (almost) official: Lee has reached a tentative agreement with the #Phillies, he is waiting to see if the #Rangers will offer 8yrs. #MLB

That was a fake post:

I have not tweeted anything new on Lee since story I wrote earlier. Anything else is a fake.

[skjelstrom]

Stories are flying all over the place, who knows if that's actually the truth. We just have to wait.

[AquaMan2342]

omg fake tweets what's the world coming to?!

[Kim Bhasin]

Stories are flying all over the place, who knows if that's actually the truth. We just have to wait.

Yeah the speculation's going nuts. Now Twitter's just blowing up with tweets complaining about fake tweets.

[DbacksRback]

Apparently Its Official:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/a ... f-lee.html

[skjelstrom]

Yup, just saw that. I'm not taking it as 100% as of now. But that is going to be CRAZY if its actually a done deal.