Cliff Lee

I could have sworn everyone was expecting Cliff Lee to go to the team that offered him the most money.  He was supposed to become the second highest-paid Yankee and the third most-overpaid Yankee.

Zack Greinke was supposed to be the consolation prize for the team that lost out on Cliff Lee. He was supposed to mesh well and find comfort with the young base in Texas.

The Yankees and Rangers were not longshots to meet again in October 2011.

But the road to October just got a bit rocky for these two teams.

The Boston Red Sox made their moves. Trading for Adrian Gonzalez and signing Carl Crawford has transformed the Red Sox from one of the better offensive teams in the league into the most feared lineup in the American League.

The Philadelphia Phillies stole Cliff Lee right out from under the Yankees' nose. Imagine facing a playoff rotation of Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels.

Consider this piece more of a memoir than anything else.  My childhood with the Phillies was always adventurous but often ugly.  The Phillies were constantly a losing team and never broke the bank to go out and sign any big-name free agents.  At the time, we knew they weren't the New York Yankees, nor were we asking them to be.  We just wanted to know that they had a desire to someday win.

In today's age of professional sports, it's not too often that you find superstar-caliber players that truly value winning championships over the biggest, most lucrative contract one can get his hands on when testing the free agent waters.

Every pro athlete in every sport claims that their No. 1 goal is to win a championship. They claim that it's what they come to the ball park every day for, why they practice, why they play the game, however in most cases, it's not really why they're in the game.

Shortly after former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke didn't get traded to the Washington Nationals on Sunday, I wrote a story about the Denny McLain trade back in 1970 and suggested that had Greinke come to Washington, things would have turned out just as bad for the Nationals as it did for the Senators some 40 years earlier.

When 2008 AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies to boost an already stacked starting rotation, many people started handing them the 2011 World Series championship.

Not so fast though. Another very good team has also made some huge moves this offseason. Of course, I am speaking of the Boston Red Sox, who traded for All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and signed All-Star outfielder Carl Crawford.

In a surprise twist worthy of an M. Night Shyamalan film, Cliff Lee passed on both the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers, the two teams thought to be the finalists for his services, to pitch once again for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Move over Cliff Lee, because this move will make more of an impact than Lee going back to Philadelphia. Zack Greinke was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday morning and this shifts the entire outlook of the National League.

The Brewers finished third in the National League Central last year, 14 games back of the Cincinnati Reds. Milwaukee was not light in hitting, but struggled mightily on the mound. They finished 12th in runs scored, but were 26th in ERA.

The Milwaukee Brewers pulled the trigger on a big-time trade Sunday, and no it wasn't the much talked-about Prince Fielder move, as they acquired disgruntled Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke.

That begs the question, where does Greinke fall in amongst the best of the National League? Between the St. Louis Cardinals duo of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, the Philadelphia Phillies "Big Four" and the San Francisco Giants duo of Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, among others, the NL is not short on great starting pitching.

Zack Greinke was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers around 9:30 Sunday morning.  Does this announcement make him an automatic favorite to win the National League Cy Young Award?  After all, he did win the award in the American League in 2009.  Here are 10 pitchers who will compete with Greinke for the award in 2011.  

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