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Here is his career.  Either 2, or 3, "HOF years" out of the 23 he pitched.
Am guessing that the "run of the mill" HOF pitcher :- ) had only a couple of seasons at Randy Johnson level...   right now Lee has 60-70% of a HOF career at age 34.
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The thing is, Cliff Lee is one of three pitchers (Felix, Verlander) you can bank on for Cy Young contention in 2014.  He gets 8+ strikeouts and 1+ walks, with no gopheritis, every year.  
If Lee's no better than Hisashi Iwakuma then you don't pay him $25M per, anyway, much less pay talent to do it... the trade is based on the premise that you believe Cliff Lee to be a HOF-caliber pitcher.  If that's not where you put him, then nada.
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I dig the switch-of-subject to WBC-san's excellence, though :- )