Indians Tidbits (2008 season)

[osugrad21]

CPD

Cliff Lee named AL Comeback Player of the Year

by Paul Hoynes Thursday October 23, 2008, 12:32 PM



ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. --- Another day, another award for Indians left-hander Cliff Lee.
Lee was named the American League's Comeback Player of the Year today as part of the MLB Players Association's Players Choice Awards. All big league players voted on the awards near the end of the 2008 season.
Lee led the AL with 22 victories and a 2.54 ERA after going 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA in 2007. An abdominal injury cost Lee his 2007 spring training and he never recovered. The Indians sent him to Class AAA Buffalo at the end of July and when he returned he'd lost his place in the starting rotation and didn't make the postseason roster as the Indians advanced to Game 7 of the ALCS before being eliminated by Boston.
During the winter, the Indians talked to Arizona about a trade for Lee, but it didn't happen. In spring training, he had to compete with Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey to win the fifth spot in the rotation.
Lee ended the 2008 season as the Indians first 20-game winner since 1974 and the favorite to win the AL Cy Young award.
This is Lee's second Players Choice Award. He was named the AL's Outstanding Pitcher earlier in the week. The awards are being announced yahoo.com. He is a finalist for the Player of the Year award which will be announced Friday.
Cont...

[3074326]

Big surprise here, Cliff Lee won the AL Cy Young award. Congrats to him!

ESPN - Cliff Lee of Cleveland Indians wins American League Cy Young

NEW YORK -- Cliff Lee is a runaway winner for the American League Cy Young Award, capping a dominant comeback season that made him the second consecutive Cleveland Indians lefty to earn the honor.

Demoted to the minors last year, Lee went a major league-best 22-3 this season with a 2.54 ERA. He received 24 of 28 first-place votes and 132 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced Thursday.

Toronto ace Roy Halladay finished second with four first-place votes and 71 points.

Lee became the third Indians pitcher to win the award, following Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry in 1972 and CC Sabathia last year.

[LitlBuck]

PD

Sizemore adds Silver Slugger to Gold Glove
by Paul Hoynes
Thursday November 13, 2008, 4:40 PM
Grady Sizemore continues to corner the market on precious metals. The Indians center fielder today won his first his first American League Silver Slugger award.

Last week he won his second straight Gold Glove. Each award, one for offense and one for defense, earned him a $100,000 bonus.

The Silver Slugger, sponsored by Hillerich & Bradsby, the parent company of Louisville Slugger, is presented annually to the top hitter at each position in both leagues by vote of the respective league's managers and coaches. Sizemore is the first Indian to win it since catcher Victor Martinez in 2004.

The last Indians outfielder to win the Silver Slugger was Juan Gonzalez in 2001. Sizemore, 26, is the youngest Indian to win the award since third baseman Jim Thome in 1996.

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[LitlBuck]

Hard to believe that there were 4 writers who did not think that Cliff Lee deserved to win the AL Cy Young Award

[BuckeyeMac]

Congrats to you Cliff, you deserved it!!!

[3074326]

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

Hard to believe that there were 4 writers who did not think that Cliff Lee deserved to win the AL Cy Young Award

Yeah, it is.

[buckeyemania11]

Congrats to Cliff and Grady on their awards

now lets put it together and get back in the playoffs this year

[osugrad21]

ABJ

Indians ace Lee wins AL Cy Young Left-hander easily outdistances Halladay, Rodriguez for honor
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published on Friday, Nov 14, 2008

Cliff Lee is no fool. He is quick to say he would trade a Cy Young Award for a World Series ring, but he knows that being selected the best pitcher in the American League is no small tribute.
''I'll do everything I can to repeat,'' the Indians left-hander said Thursday. ''I want to win it again next year. It definitely is something I want to make a habit of doing.''
Habitual Cy Young Award winners are rare, of course. Lee received his first such honor Thursday, as announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, whose members do the voting.
Lee got 24 first-place votes and four second-place votes for 132 points, based on a 5-3-1 system. Twenty-eight writers, two from each American League city, are charged with selecting the winner each season.
Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy
Halladay (20-11, 2.78 ERA) was a distant second with the remaining four first-place votes and 71 points; Francisco Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Angels, who set the major-league record with 62 saves, was third with 32 points.
Cont...

[osugrad21]

CPD

Cleveland Indians pitcher Cliff Lee wins AL Cy Young

by Paul Hoynes Thursday November 13, 2008, 2:00 PM


Indians pitching coach Carl Willis saw it in Cliff Lee's first bullpen session in spring training at Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven, Fla. Every pitch Lee threw -- fastball, cutter, curveball, slider and change up -- came from the same motion and the same release point.
"I told Cliff after that session, 'That's what we're talking about,'" said Willis.
Today, 10 months later, it's one of the biggest reasons why the Baseball Writers Association of America voted Lee the American League 2008 Cy Young winner this afternoon. Lee finished with 132 points, followed by Toronto's Roy Halladay.
Lee received 24 of 28 first-place votes. Halladay received four first-place votes and 71 points. Two BBWAA members in every AL city voted for the top three pitchers in the league.
The Cy Young award has found a new home in Cleveland. Lee is the second Indians pitcher to win the award in as many years. CC Sabathia won it in 2007.
Gaylord Perry, selected in 1972, is the only other Cy Young winner in franchise history.

Cont...

[osugrad21]

Canton

Lee completes comeback with Cy Young
Lefty wins award following disastrous '07
Friday, November 14, 2008
BY JOSH WEIR
JOSH.WEIR@CANTONREP.COM

Cliff Lee came out of the Arkansas woods Thursday, a week of deer hunting behind him, to talk with the media horde.

Some would say Lee spent all of 2007 lost in a baseball wilderness. This past season, the Indians' left-hander found his way home and never left that comfort zone.

Lee was named the 2008 American League Cy Young on Thursday, capping a remarkable turnaround from a disappointing '07 and giving the franchise consecutive Cy Youngs with former Indian CC Sabathia winning the award last season.

RUNAWAY WINNER

Lee garnered 24 of a possible 28 first-place votes to top second-place finisher Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

The 30-year-old native of Benton, Ark., was a picture of consistency in mind, body and production, becoming the franchise's first 20-game winner since Gaylord Perry in 1974.

"I knew pretty early it was going to be a special year, I really did," he said during a conference call from his Benton home. "But with that I still continued to keep my mind in the moment, because I knew that's why I was successful those first few starts and all through the spring. ... I wasn't going to get away from that."

His focus didn't waver. Neither did the results. Lee's 31 starts blended into each other.

"It was the most incredible season I've seen from a pitcher at that level," Indians Manager Eric Wedge said. "Consistent from beginning to end.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

Lee's otherworldly 2008 ends with a Cy
Tribe lefty follows Sabathia as AL's top pitcher
Friday, November 14, 2008 3:03 AM
By Scott Priestle


The Columbus Dispatch


Cliff Lee has never lacked confidence. So even as he fought for a spot in the Indians' rotation in March, he took solace in being healthy. Whether his season started in Cleveland or Buffalo, he was sure it would end with success in the big leagues.
During the next six months, he justified that stubborn self-assurance with a staggering run of success. The pitcher who was banished to triple-A in 2007 went 22-3 in 2008. He added a worthy postscript yesterday when he won the American League Cy Young Award.
Such dramatic improvement seemed to stun everyone but Lee.

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[osugrad21]

CPD

Indians' third baseman prospect Wes Hodges having superb season at Arizona Fall League

by Paul Hoynes/Plain Dealer Reporter Tuesday November 18, 2008, 11:04 PM


Joshua Gunter/The Plain DealerThird base prospect Wes Hodges batted .290 for the Class AA Akron Aeros last season with 18 home runs and 97 RBI and is tearing up the Arizona Fall League.
Right now third base is unmanned for the Indians. Jhonny Peralta, Asdrubal Cabrera, Casey Blake, Garrett Atkins and Joe Crede are among the people who could be playing there in 2009. Beyond that, maybe in one or two years, it could be Wes Hodges.
The Arizona Fall League ends Thursday and Hodges has made a good impression there.
He's hitting .354 (35-for-99) with seven doubles, six homers and 26 RBI for the Surprise Rafters. He has 19 strikeouts, three walks and a .981 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).
"He's always been an impressive hitter," said Ross Atkins, Indians director of player development. "He has good plate coverage and he's very competitive -- it doesn't matter if he's facing Phil Hughes or a minor leaguer. He goes to the plate with no fear."
Hughes, the highly-regarded Yankees right-hander, faced Hodges in Arizona this fall.
Hodges' performance in Arizona follows a good season at Class AA Akron. He hit .290 (146-for-504) with 29 doubles, three triples, 18 homers and 97 RBI.
"He has discipline with power and a short swing," said Atkins. "He understands his limitations and attacks them."
Hodges, 24, was the Indians' second round pick out of Georgia Tech in 2006.

Defensively, he's not ready for the big leagues.
"He needs some work," said one scout who saw him in Arizona.
Hodges has made eight errors in 21 games in the AFL. He made 28 errors in 125 games at third base for Akron.

Cont...

[LitlBuck]

PD

Former Tigers pitching coach, Chuck Hernandez, hired to be Indians' bullpen coach
by Paul Hoynes/Plain Dealer Reporter
Wednesday November 19, 2008, 9:19 PM
Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer
.

It didn't take Chuck Hernandez longto start on his new job as the Indians' bullpen coach. Hernandez has already joined pitching coach Carl Willis in the Dominican Republic to watch Indians Fausto Carmona and Adam Miller pitch for Aguilas.

The Indians on Wednesday announced the hiring of Hernandez, who was fired as Detroit's pitching coach at the end of the season. He replaces Luis Isaac, who manager Eric Wedge fired at the end of the season after 44 years with the organization.

Hernandez, 48, spent three years as Detroit's pitching coach, including 2006 when the Tigers had the lowest ERA in the American League at 3.84 and reached the World Series.

"The first thing that sticks out is his experience in the AL Central and the American League in general," said Wedge.

Hernandez and Scott Radinsky, the Indians' Class AAA pitching coach, are believed to be the only two candidates Wedge and Willis interviewed for the job.

I still want Louie back.

[tsteele316]

Originally Posted by LitlBuck

PD

Former Tigers pitching coach, Chuck Hernandez, hired to be Indians' bullpen coach
by Paul Hoynes/Plain Dealer Reporter
Wednesday November 19, 2008, 9:19 PM
Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer
.
I still want Louie back.

ehh.

this guy's performance statistically is not much different than isaac's.

i'd be more concerned with cleveland making some FA moves than this.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

CPD

Beau Mills, David Huff named Indians top minor leaguers

by Paul Hoynes/Plain Dealer Reporter Thursday November 20, 2008, 5:20 PM



The Indians have named Beau Mills and left-hander David Huff as their minor league players of the year.
Mills, a No.1 pick in 2007, received the Lou Boudreau Award as the top minor league position player in the organization. Huff, the first player taken by the Tribe in 2006, received the Bob Feller award as the top minor league pitcher in the organization.
Mills, 22, just finished playing in the Arizona Fall League. He played first base and left field. Last season at Class A Kinston, he hit .293 (141-for-482) with 78 runs, 34 doubles, three triples, 21 homers and 90 RBI. He had an OPS of .880 in 125 games and was named the Carolina League MVP.

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