Cliff Lee is not your average major league starting pitcher.

He had that quirky phantom throw before innings. His hat looks like it had been run through a pig pen. He doesn’t ice his arm after starts, and speaking of ice, it runs through his veins in October. Unfortunately for Indians fans, they never knew this.

Losing Cliff Lee as part of the 4 team blockbuster that was completed this week is a bitter, bitter pill to swallow. It boils down to October. As fans, we connect with those moments where it really mattered. That’s why a guy like Matt Stairs still got massive ovations in 2009 despite doing very little IN 2009 to deserve it. Oh, but that homer in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS? It may have saved the Phils season. In October, Cliff Lee left behind a shaky string of starts to end the regular season and took his game to the next level. His 4-0 postseason record and 1.56 ERA had as much to do with the Phils repeating as National League champs as Cole Hamels’ 2008 postseason dominance impacted the Phils’ World Championship in 2008. Lee’s World Series Game 1 will be remembered for years and years as one of the most dominant games pitched in a World Series.

So, when we see Cliff Lee jettisoned to Seattle for 3 prospects in order to replenish a decimated top end of the farm system, feelings of loss are expected. Little did we know that Game 5 of the World Series would be our last chance to see Clifton Phifer Lee take the ball for the Phils.

But it’s over, folks. Cliff is gone. It’s time to revel in what we’ve got.

A guy that wanted to be here – he called it “a dream come true” (screw you Scott Rolen, JD Drew, Curt Schilling etal).

A guy who is widely considered by his peers and baseball talking heads as THE best pitcher in baseball.

A guy who cared more about winning than how many guaranteed years his contract had.

A guy who sends more baffled hitters back to their dugouts than any pitcher in baseball.

A fiery competitor who wants a ring.

And he wanted to come to Philly.

Harry Leroy Halladay. Number 34 in your program, Number 1 in our hearts.

When your team has a guy of Halladay’s pedigree wanting to come here and accepting a contract that was very palatable to the Phillies, then you go out and get that guy. I have no issue with Ruben Amaro Jr. letting Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis D’Arnaud go to bring in Halladay at a very below market deal.

My issue is the reasoning behind the OTHER deal – letting Lee go. The Phillies want us to believe that Lee had to go so the Phils could get back prospects to replace Drabek & Co., but that explanation seems pretty disingenuous. The opportunity to throw Halladay, Lee and Hamels in 100 of 162 regular season games and pretty much any postseason game they play in 2010 should have outweighed the loss of prospects. The Phils would have been the prohibitive favorite to at least represent the National League in their third straight World Series appearance.

It is far more palatable to Phillies fans to believe that Cliff Lee had to go because he could get us prospects in return than for Phillies fans to know that Cliff Lee was moved because he was owed $9 million in 2010. Had the Phillies held onto Lee for 2010, they would have most likely netted 2 very attractive draft picks once he signed elsewhere. Phillies management called it a “baseball decision”. If by that they meant “we need to stay right around $140 million in payroll”, then I believe them. The Phils got 3 Seattle prospects. They could have had an extra year of Lee and 2 high draft picks.

I am not complaining here. Sure, I’d loved to have seen Cliff Lee be a Phillies for at least 2010, but I understand that bringing in Halladay required an increased commitment to payroll that the Phils weren’t thrilled about (hence the $6 million that came back to the Phils from the Blue Jays as part of the trade).

I just don’t buy the story Ruben told us.

The bottom line for fans is that the Phillies don’t have the bank account of the other elite teams in Major League baseball and they need to be more creative with payroll than some of their peers. The Yankees or Red Sox wouldn’t have worried about losing Drabek & Co. They’d have held onto Lee and hoped to three-peat as pennant winners with an eye toward a 2nd World Series in three years.