Fleeing Lee?

Last night's game was ugly. 14 to 9 Boston ugly.

Cliff Lee was awful, even by recent Cliff Lee standards. And compounding the awfulness, as the boos rained down upon him from an extremely upset home crowd, Lee tipped his cap as he entered the dugout. Bad move, Cliffie. Not the kind of move that will endear you to the crowd or the current management team. Especially for a guy who has been sucking lately, and, in his previous performance hit Sammy Sosa in the head and got into a heated argument with Victor Martinez. Especially for a guy who still has an option left.

So, what can we do with Cliff Lee? It's no secret that Mark Shapiro has been in Buffalo the last couple days scouting Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers. Is a trade in the works? Does the Sleepy Kitten ride the Buffalo shuttle? Has he worn out his act in Cleveland, especially combined with a continued erosion of his onfield performance? It's not a coincidence that Laffey is pitching on the same day as Lee. Sowers has looked better in his last couple starts. Given Lee's track record, one would think that we could find a taker for him, maybe flip him and Francisco for a bullpen arm and a left-handed outfielder to take the pressure off the Trotmeister. Rumors are flying that St. Louis is willing to move Isringhausen and Duncan to Cleveland for the right price. Izzy is expensive, and an injury waiting to happen, but when healthy he would certainly improve the back end of the bullpen.

After seeing the ransom in prospects that Milwaukee paid for a suddenly-hittable Scott Linebrink, it may be that deadline deals this year will be even harder to do, as every selling GM will look at San Diego's haul and raise the price, assuming this deal sets the standard. I sense an epidemic of cases of Jim Bowden Disease coming on.

The rest of the bullpen was not that much better than Lee. In fact, the only reliever who did not surrender a home run last night was Good Fernando Cabrera, who made an extremely low leverage appearance in what, by, then, was a 14-9 game. Even Good Fernando surrendered a double to Wily Mo Pena.

The good news is that the bats finally woke up. Pronk got a cheap RBI with a bases loaded HBP and then earned one with a single on the next at bat. So, now he's off the schneid after an 0 for 20 slide. So, he's got that going for him. Gutierrez and Garko both homered.

The Twins are up next tonight on Trucker Cap Giveaway and Fireworks night at Jacobs Field. Seriously. After watching last night's game, I hope Cliff Lee has his real estate agent on speed dial, because he's probably going to need to find a place in Buffalo or another city within the next few days.