This quote by Lee really got people around Pittsburgh thinking yesterday, because Lee is looking for "the right opportunity" and right now the Pirates are four games over .500 and one game out of first place so couldn't Pittsburgh be the "right opportunity"? If Lee is looking for a playoff team to play for and have a shot to win the World Series at this point the Pirates chances of doing this are just as good as anyone else's in the NL Central right? The reason I bring up the NL Central is because Lee spent a large majority of his professional time playing in that division so couldn't that mean that if he was going to return to baseball he would want to return to that division?
As you know the Pirates took their chances with Derrek Lee last year at the trade deadline, a move that ended up being meaningless because of the Pirates collapse in the second half of the season. Although the Pirates did not win the games they were hoping to with Lee on the roster, Derrek did have himself a pretty good 28 games in a Pirate uniform. During these 28 games Lee hit 7 home-runs and had a .337/.398/.584 triple slash. These are pretty good numbers for a 35 year old acquired at the trade deadline, so I guess you can consider Lee's time with the Pirates pretty good as far as the number's go.
The downfall to Lee's time in Pittsburgh last year is that he missed a lot of time with a injury to his hand. Some people in Pittsburgh were not happy with Lee for that reason because a lot of the time people thought that he was faking this injury because he didn't feel like playing. I frankly think this is a ridiculous accusation to make. I do not understand why people thought that Lee would all of a sudden in the middle of his career just decide that he didn't feel like playing so he would make up a hand injury instead. More realistically there were rumors that Lee didn't like Pittsburgh and that he thought that the fans were not true fans. Some people thought that Lee just wanted to serve his time in Pittsburgh and then leave which I can understand a little bit more than faking and injury.
From the Pirates stand point Lee would probably be a pretty good sign because they could get another good bat in the line-up without giving up any young players that they will need for the future. Lee will most likely be demanding a ton of money though to only play half of a season. Lee also rejected the Pirates in the off-season through arbitration. The Pirates tried to get Lee back for a full season but Lee was so stubborn about the amount of money that he wanted that he decided to say goodbye to Pittsburgh and hello to an extended off-season which is still going on for him.
I just do not think that Lee liked Pittsburgh enough to come back and give it another shot, especially considering how the Pirates season turned out after he got here last year. But if I was the Pirates I would be going after this guy hard, but most likely they won't because they are not willing to give up the kind of money that Lee thinks he is warranted. Who knows by the time Lee is finally ready to come back to baseball it might be around the trade deadline and the Pirates might be way out of contention by then anyways. Lee could also come back to baseball and do nothing productive at all. I'm sure that Lee is taking swings in the batting cages everyday and getting good work in but it is still hard to go from your pitching machine to guys like Roy Halladay and other major league pitchers on an everyday basis with out any spring training or any real live pitching. It will be interesting to see where Lee ends up if he does end up anywhere, but with the Pirates luck he will probably end up in Milwaukee and hit a game winning home-run against us in September.
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