On the same day that the Ruben Amaro took another step toward cementing his legacy, along with the Phillies’ immediate future, it seemed like the topic of the day was Cliff Lee, the erstwhile lefty who is long gone, but far from forgotten, in the City of Brotherly Love.

Most of the chatter takes Amaro to task for not keeping Cliff Lee on the payroll for 2010, especially in light of Joe Blanton’s recent contract extension. The prevailing logic is that if Blanton can get eight per for the next three, then why couldn’t that money go to Lee’s sure-to-be-monster contract?

More after the jump…

While that sounds like an easy solution, it is anything but. 1) There is the issue of moving (or non-tendering) Joe Blanton, 2) Signing Cliff Lee to an extension before he hits the open market, 3) Dealing with a decimated farm system that has all but drained itself of its top prospects, 4) A ballooning payroll that significantly limits the team’s ability to address other issues, most notably, Shane Victorino’s contract, Jayson Werth’s future with the team, and the bullpen.

And so it goes. If Lee stays, it causes a ripple effect that could end up hurting the team in the long run. Yes, that is crazy to say, but it’s no less true. So it was far from an easy decision for Ruben and Co to make.

Despite the three straight division titles, two N.L. Pennants, and a World Series trophy, the Phillies are still a team that is not without budgetary constraints. With a roster of talent that is getting more and more expensive with each passing year, the front office is going to be forced to make some big decisions concerning the future of the organization. For Ruben Amaro, his biggest test came in December. Does he trade for Roy Halladay, his White Whale, or does he keep Cliff Lee, the deadline acquisition that, almost effortlessly, led the Phillies back to the World Series?

Clearly, this was not an easy choice. After all, Lee is a bargain at $9 mil in 2010, a price tag that is almost guaranteed to double when he hits free agency. But on the other hand…it’s Roy freakin’ Halladay, arguably the best pitcher of the last five years. A horse that will pitch nine innings on Monday, and then nine more on Tuesday. A Cy Young winner. An Ace. A stud. All this, while pitching in the best division in baseball.

And unlike the bigger markets to the north and way out west, the Phils couldn’t go all in and keep Lee on the payroll past 2010. At least not realistically. Had Lee been willing to take a considerable cut in pay, then it was possible that he is in red pinstripes in 2010. But things being the way way are, and with a farm system that was in need of some replenishing, Amaro did the most* logical thing: trade Cliff Lee for prospects, free up payroll, ink Joe Blanton and Shane Victorino to three year deals, and still head into 2010 with the best team in the National League.

*Or least.

So instead of trading for Halladay and keeping Lee to form some kind of Voltron-esque super rotation that consists of Ace (yes, Ace) Cole Hamels, with Blanton and Jay Happ rounding out things, we are only left with the fleeting question of “What if?”

What IF Ruben could have convinced those that hold the purse strings to open ‘er up for a few seasons, so as to give the fans the ride of their life with the best Phillies team of all time? With good health and luck, it isn’t a reach to think the Phils could win it again. And again.

Whether or not Ruben made the right choice is not up for us to decide, at least not yet. On paper, which means absolutely nothing, the Phillies have the best team in the National League, and it would be tough to argue against them having the best team in baseball, even without a super-rotation of Doc and Lee and Cole and Joe and Jay.

But still, that would have been cool, right?

The Phillies GM and his hair-plugged sidekick held a press conference today to announce the signing of Joe Blanton to a 3-year, $24 million deal which will award him with a base salary of $7 mil this year and $8.5 mil in ‘11 & ‘12. The $7 mil salary in ‘10 is actually less than the $7.5 the Phillies offered in arbitration, and considerably less than the $10.25 mil Joe was asking for. Obviously, the comfort of a guaranteed, multi-year deal was more attractive to Joe than going through the whole arbitration process and risk getting a similar deal next season with some loser team.

Then after Joe was formally re-introduced, special assistant to the GM Scott Proefrock was asked how close the Phillies are to signing Carlos Ruiz and Shane Victorino to multi-year deals. This is what he said:

“The negotiations are continuing. We hope to have them done well before we go to a hearing, in both cases. We’re still talking and hopefully within a week we’ll have them locked up as well.”

So what he’s saying is, those two are basically signed.

UPDATE, 6:40 pm: I just heard Jim Salisbury on SportsNite say he thinks the Phillies will sign Shane Victorino to a multi-year deal, possibly within the next 24 hours. Carlos Ruiz’s deal could take a couple days to finish.

UPDATE, 8:20 PM: Welp, that didn’t take long. According to Todd Zolecki, the Phillies have signed Shane Victorino to a 3-year deal as well. The terms of that deal haven’t been released yet.

The Phils won, but Blanton got another hard-fought no-decision this season as he continues to keep the opposition in check with little to show for it in his personal ‘W’ column.

This is all just meant to be a long-winded introduction to my favorite Blanton highlight of last night’s victory over the Braves. As much as Victorino’s Mays-like plays in deep center, as much as Utley’s and Howard’s timely bombs, this barehanded grab of a quick hit back to the mound helped keep the Phillies on the good side of a very close victory:

Blanton responded:

“It’s nothing,” Blanton said. “I rub my balls up with whatever I rub them up with, and you rub it up and get it on your hand. I’m constantly trying to get moisture, and just touch my hat. It’s nothing sticky. Anybody can go touch it. It’s basically just dirt from my balls that gets… over time, over so many starts, I don’t change my hat. It just gets rubbed on the hat.”

So there you have it, Joe Blanton did not have splooge on his hat last night.

Maddon questions spot on Blanton’s hat | Phillies.com

(Disclaimer: Some parts of Joe Blanton’s quote were fabricated. But honestly, not as much as you might think)

Click here to view the embedded video.

After the jump, Big Brown’s 2-run BLAST from the 8th

(Video-cutting props to YouTuber broadandpattison)

Below you will find both versions (click on them to enlarge, dummy); on the left is the current non-updated version, to the right is tweaked by The Fightins to fit his “innings eater” persona.

And now, without furthur ado, the new & improved Joe Blanton MLBlog:

Big Joe’s Bluegrass Blog | MLBlogs

One has to wonder if perhaps Pat Gillick acted too quickly in order to get someone, anyone into the Phils’ starting rotation before the trade deadline. After Sabathia and Harden were taken off the market, there really wasn’t much left to choose from, and change for its own sake isn’t always a good idea.

No use arguing the point now, I guess. Blanton’s our starter and just about any move that sends Eaton to the bullpen is a good one. Still, I think J.A. Happ deserved a chance to show what he can do as a #4 or #5 starter.

He was good — not great, but good — in his two big-league starts, pitching 11 innings with eight strikeouts and a cumulative 3.27 ERA. (He also walked eight and finished with a WHIP of 1.45.)

In his minor-league start for the IronPigs last night, Happ struck out 12 batters in a seven-inning shutout victory over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. Once you’ve been up to “the show,” once you’ve seen the bright lights of the big city, it’s tough going back to the farm (system).

My hope is that we’ll see Happ on the mound at Citizen’s Bank Park before the end of this season, and definitely by the beginning of next season.

(Our homies over at The 700 Level have more to say about this latest development.)