Mike Francesa on "Mike'd Up," his radio show on WFAN 660, said today that "Cliff Lee has not been a dominant pitcher in the regular season." Further, Francesa added that Lee was "bombed in eight of his 12 starts for Texas" and that he did "not pitch well in Texas this year." Francesa also said that Lee has only had one great year in his career.
After being acquired by Texas, Lee pitched 108.2 innings with a 1.06 WHIP, 96 strikeouts and 12 walks. Lee made 15 starts as a Texas Ranger. There were four starts in which Lee gave up more than four earned runs. One of those starts when Lee gave up six earned runs against the Rays, he struck out 10, walked one and was hindered by awful eighth inning defense.
Lee wasn't as good as he was with Seattle but could anybody expect him to be? Moving from a pitching friendly to hitter friendly ballpark didn't help, plus his numbers with Seattle were almost too good. It would have been unreasonable to expect him to continue pitching at that exact level - but Lee came pretty close to it.
Francesa saying that Lee has only had one great year in his career is laughable, lazy and unbelievably biased. Lee went 22-3 with a 1.11 WHIP and 2.54 ERA in 2008 en route to winning the American League Cy Young award. He went 12-9 with a 1.00 WHIP, 3.18 ERA and posted a historic strikeout to walk ratio while striking out 185 batters in 212.1 innings and walking only 18. Lee started off slow with Cleveland last year but was excellent with Philadelphia and of course had that excellent postseason run.
But hey, he's only had one good year and was bombed in eight of his 12 starts for Texas. Even though he made 15 starts.
Oh yeah, Kim Jones, who is the Yankees in-game reporter for the YES Network, was on with Francesa today too. She said she wouldn't be surprised if Andy Pettitte throws a no hitter.
WFAN at its finest ladies and gentlemen.