UPDATE: Forget that arbitration nonsense below, the Phillies just signed Blanton to a three-year, $24 million extension. And no, Cliff Lee would not have signed for that, so I suppose the Phillies are better off today than they were yesterday.
11:30 A.M.: Lost (by me anyway) in all of the arbitration stuff these past few days was the fact that Joe Blanton has asked for $10.25 million and the Phillies have countered with $7.5 million.
Deep Thought #1: If the Phillies are willing to pay Joe Blanton $7.5 million -- and risk paying him $10.25 million -- why weren’t they willing to pay Cliff Lee $9 million and deal Blanton for a reliever or something? Yeah, I know Lee walks next year, but if there is any team that should be in win-now mode it’s the the Phillies, and for the price of $1.5 million, they could have drastically-increased their chances of winning it all.
Deep Thought #2: Tim Lincecum was probably insulted by the Giants’ $8 million offer from the get-go, but I wonder how he reacted when he learned that he, a two-time Cy Young award winner, was offered a mere half million than Joe “basically average” Blanton?