Game 1 of the World Series last night showed us many things; the Phillies are really good, the Yankees can be shut down, CC is human, and Cliff Lee isn't. It's the Cliff Lee performance that fans should really take notice of, think back to July at the trade deadline. The Phillies wanted to get Blue Jay's ace Roy Halladay to bolster their pitching staff and make them favorites in the NL again. They couldn't get the Blue Jays to agree to a deal though, and had to settle for getting the defending AL Cy Young winner Lee from the Indians along with outfielder Ben Francisco.

At the time the Phillies were given credit by virtually everybody in the media for being able to get an ace pitcher, but they didn't get Halladay so some wondered if Lee would be good enough. Lee spent most of August dominating the NL with a 4-1 record and a 2.00 ERA. He struggled in September with an ERA of 5.45, but has turned it up again in the playoffs.

Lee is now probably one start away from completing the most dominating postseason for a pitcher ever. In four starts so far Lee is 3-0 with a 0.54 ERA. He gave up two earned runs in two NLDS starts, and hasn't given one up since. He shut the Dodgers powerful lineup down for eight innings in the NLCS, and just made the Yankees look silly last night. If he can continue to pitch like this the Phillies will win the World Series, and Lee will go down as the new Josh Beckett. He is a perfect example of why the "big name deal" isn't always the best deal for a team.

There are other examples of this that come to light throughout baseball.

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The Cardinals made the "big deal" by going out and getting Matt Holliday. They were trying to win back the NL Central and felt that Holliday would provide Albert Pujols the protection he needed to carry the Cardinals to the division title and beyond. His 1.023 OPS for St. Louis certainly made the Cardinals look like title contenders. We all know what happened next with the dropped fly balls and the not hitting well, now the Cardinals stand with a barren farm system and the possibility of losing Holliday after only two months.

The White Sox also pulled off a big deal when they got Padres ace Jake Peavy right at the deadline. Now the Sox new Peavy was injured when they got him, and in all likely-hood this deal was made with 2010 and 2011 in mind more so than 2009. That being said, Peavy didn't actually start a game until September 19th when the Sox were well out of contention. The Sox also lost starter Clayton Richard in the deal, and him being in the starting rotation instead of a parade of AAAA guys just might have cost the Sox a chance at the division. Does this make the Peavy deal a failure like the Holliday one might become, not really because like I said the Sox did this for the future. Still the big name failed to make an impact.

The Red Sox getting Victor Martinez is yet another example of a team getting their main target, and that target not putting them over the top. Rich Harden for the Cubs last season, Nomar Garciaparra for the Cubs in 2004, Mark Teixeira in 2007 to the Braves and 2008 to the Angels, and the list could probably go on forever.

The point of this isn't to say all these other deals were stupid and never should have been made. I don't think a single one of those should not have been made, and hindsight really only makes the Holliday one look questionable. The point here is that sometimes at the trade deadline fans get focused on getting one big star, and there is some dissapointment that comes with not getting that player. The Phillies were lucky enough to have a fall back plan this summer, and while settling for second best might not have been awesome then, it might just win them the World Series.

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