d00de of the Month: August Cliff Lee

A three way tie between nominees of Cliff, Aramis, and Novak. Here's how the tie break went, there hasn't been much tennis since the British open, Aramis had to hit a homer to win the night voting ended, and Cliff Lee just had to get back to pitching like Cliff Lee.
So of course, Cliff Lee pitched like Cliff Lee. So he is d00de of the Month.

I consider Cliff as a number one pitcher in the league. Roy Hallday (also of the Philadelphia Phillies) is considered to be the most consistent, but he just has a different style than Cliff. Cliff Lee's style is that of a charging bull. His pitches are aggressive and (what appear to the batter as) fast, his quick pace keeps batters on their toes.

To really understand the pitcher, Cliff Lee, you have to know his pitches. He has an arsenal of pitches including, a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a cut fastball, a slider, a circle changeup, and a knuckle changeup. Basically if you are going to swing thinking you know what is going to be pitched next, you will swing and miss.

It all really comes down to his month of June, Cliff was unstoppable. He pitched three consecutive shut outs over his span of starts, one involving an outing against the potent offense of the Boston Red Sox. Even though he stepped into humanity for the month of July, he also did something that helped him earn the coveted title of "d00de of the Month" and that was hit his first career home run off of Tommy Hanson of the Atlanta Braves. (Here is the proof)



Once he finished July with a win against Pittsburgh by striking out eleven batters, Cliff might be back on a run of godly pitching Thursday night he threw another shut out against the reigning world champs, the San Francisco Giants. Beware other teams in the majors, Cliff Lee is getting warmed up.