espn link

m's reported to be in a 3 way deal with toronto and philly that will send halladay to the phillies and cliff lee to the m's! i'll be so excited if that goes through! screw john lackey, i'll take a cliff lee anyday

phillip aumonte is a guy they can trade away, he was a starter who they turned into a closer, one of the worst moves ever considering they are loaded with young closer prospects

imo he's a great guy to move

if the trade goes through, i can see them using some of that money alotted for a pitcher in free agency used to keep lee around for a couple more years

Cliff Lee is a great pitcher and well loved here in Philly. The Phils would be crazy to lose him after what he did this year...especially in the world series...he was the only one who could handle the Yankmes. Would be a great addition to the Ms.

(fingers crossed)

If we can pick up a bat or two with power this puts the M's solid in the playoff hunt. Cool thing is we give up nothing but ? for a proven, Cy Young stud. 3 options and all are good IMO

1) He pitches all of 2010, which means M's are in playoff hunt all year, then leaves as a free agent and we get compensated with 1st and 2nd round draft picks as he would be a Type A free agent

2) M's suck early on so we use him as the top Trade bait in baseball and get 2-3 stud young players in return by July

3) He likes it here and signs a juicy 3-5 year deal

I think it was a good trade, depending on who the other guy is that goes with Aumount. Aumount might turn out to be another Ryan Anderson.

Current opinion from Philly: The locals are pissed! Phils fans think the M's stole Lee for next to nothing. They're blaming the front office for doing a salary dump whereas adding Halladay w/o losing Lee would have made them the front runner for the World Series in 2010. I think the M's now have the best 1-2 punch in baseball...now what are they gonna do about the bats?

espn appears to be calling it a done deal, and labeling the m's part in the trade as a "heist"

It looks like a heist alright. M's got Lee and kept Morrow, Adam Moore, Saunders, and Truinfel. They gave up Aumon, JC Ramirez, and Gillies.
J.Z. is looking pretty damn good right now!

still somewhat involved in the jason bay sweepstakes

Yeah, but remember Halladay is on for 3 years whereas Lee's deal is for one year...and he's gonna want serious cash after the 2010 season to stay in Seattle...probably in the range of $60-90 million over 3-5 years.

He most likely won't stay in Seattle. What the M's have done is trade 3 very young, very inexperienced players for Lee. None of the guys used in the trade were very close to being ready to come to the majors. So if Lee does his year and decides to sign elsewhere we get a couple draft picks ascompensation. So essentially we are renting Lee for a year and the cost is his salary plus one minor league player.

well said db, plus he is a freaking cy young winner in his prime!

I cared about the Giants when it was Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepada and Jaun Marichal along with a couple of Alou's.

so whats more amazing to you chuck, locker for a year? or lee for a year?

Lee will get way more than 60-90 million over 3-5 years. Lackey got about that on the open market and he's not Cliff Lee.

Still a fantastic trade.

M's just made another move, finally got rid of craplos silva for milton bradley.

I like this trade, I mean I know he has a bad attitude, but I think wakamatsu and even a little help from griffey can help calm him down. Two years ago he hit over .300 with 20+ hr's for texas, so let's hope he can do it again. Everyone knows silva is worthless so it's not a loss to get rid of him, especially the 25 mil he's owed over the next two years, M's are still going to pay 9 mil of that, but its still a good salary dump.

I agree, couldn't stand watching Silva.

Bradley is a cancer on any team he plays for. Ask the Indians, Dodgers, A's,Rangers and Cubs.