Ted Lilly
Ted Lilly broke into the majors with the Montreal Expos in 1999, pitching in only nine games that year before being traded to the New York Yankees. Lilly played two plus years for the Yankees before being dealt to the Oakland Athletics in a three team deal. Lilly was in the starting rotation for Oakland, and pitched in the American League Division Series in both 2002 and 2003. Lilly was traded from the Athletics to the Blue Jays after the 2003 season. He posted a 12-10 record for the Blue Jays, which included 1 shutout. He was named to the All Star Team that year.
Ted was with the Blue Jays through the 2006 season. He posted a 10-11 record in 2005 and 15-13 record in 2006 reaching 15 wins in a season for the first time. It didn't appear that Lilly was all that happy while with the Blue Jays and was looking to get out of town following the 2006 when he would be a free agent. He had a couple of run ins with the Blue Jays manager John Gibbons and Lilly declared for free agency. He agreed to a four year deal with the Cubs at the end of the 2006 season. Lilly was part of the forming of the Cubs organization to build a contender. They signed Lou Pinella as the new manager. They added Lilly, Mark DeRosa, Alfonso Sorianno and Jason Marquee. Lilly proved his worth by going 15-8 with a 3.83 ERA helping the Cubs to the Division title. He was the starting pitcher in game two of the NLDS against the Arizona but only last through the 3 inning and was pulled yielding 6 runs. The Cubs lost the game 8-4. Lilly posted his best record of his career going 17-9 with a 4.17 ERA. He was instrumental in the team again winning the Central Division. Ted Lilly didn't see any action in the series with the Dodgers with the Dodgers taking it to the Cubs with a series win 3-0. The Cubs have now lost 9 consecutive playoff games.
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