Inside Baseball
Lee’s Cy Young season came out of left field
CLEVELAND — Indians left-hander Cliff Lee has a stiff neck and he won’t start the Tribe’s finale today in Chicago. That might be the only negative sentence you could write about his entire season. Lee is 22-3 and almost certainly will be named Comeback Player of the Year. And, with apologies to Francisco Rodriguez’s 60-plus saves, Lee should hands down get the Cy Young Award as well.
So before we get all tied up in postseason talk, we have to examine this question: What fueled the incredible turnaround from demoted- to-the-Bisons lefty in 2007 to All-Star starter and Cy guy in ’08?
Lee, remember, was a pretty good pitcher until his injury-plagued ’07 campaign that ended with a shocking demotion back to the Herd. He was 46-24 from 2004-2006 and his 18-5 season in 2005 got him a fourth-place finish for the Cy.
But he was just 5-8, 6.29 last year — and was left off the Tribe’s postseason roster. He pulled an abdominal muscle during spring training, went on the disabled list and didn’t make his season debut until May. By July 31, he was in Buffalo and he was hardly awe-inspiring here either (1-3, 3.51, 25 walks in 41 innings).
Lee never questioned the Indians’ decision, routinely telling anyone who asked this year that he didn’t want to be “the bitter guy in Buffalo.”
The first step to Lee’s big season — easily the best ever by an ex-Buffalo pitcher — was his winter conditioning work. He had repeated problems with abdominal pulls and had two sports hernias so he had to get in better shape before spring training. Once he got to Florida, he had to compete with Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers just to make the club and avoid another trip back to Buffalo.
How silly that seems now. Lee’s numbers are astonishing. He’s pitched a career-high 223x innings and set career bests for most strikeouts (170) and fewest walks (34).
“I think about preparing for each start, going out and executing pitches,” Lee told this corner after a recent start in Progressive Field. “I’ve kept it simple all year and that’s the approach I’m taking. I don’t think I’ve ever been caught up in numbers. My job is to put up zeroes and give the team a chance to win. That’s really as simple as it gets.”
“You’re like, ‘He can’t keep doing this’ but he keeps going out there and it’s just like a replay upon replay of five days ago,” said pitching coach Carl Willis, who had Lee in Buffalo in 2002 after Cleveland acquired him in the Bartolo Colon trade. “It’s been special to watch a guy be that locked in and be able to repeat pitches like that.”
Lee found command of his fastballs on both sides of the plate — getting them in far enough against right-handed hitters that they don’t break back over the plate like they had done much of his career. He’s also learned to refocus in different counts and not let one pitch carry over to the next.
“His ability to slow the game down and not let his emotions take over has really helped,” Willis said. “He delivers a pitch and then he might analyze it but he’s able to go to the next pitch. If you didn’t execute the pitch, you can’t take it back. It becomes all about what you do on the next pitch and a lot of guys aren’t able to take that step.”
Lee mixed his curveball and change-up more, not simply living off a fastball that’s only in the low 90s and can eventually be hit if it’s all that people see. There haven’t been many deep counts against him either, so total pitch counts have stayed down. His sinker has also been more lethal, as opponents have grounded into 25 double plays.
“It feels good to get results and do your job effectively but I’ve learned that can change in the blink of an eye,” he said. “I’ve just tried to do what I can every day to prepare for my next start.”
“I’m certainly proud of what he’s accomplished,” Willis said. “I’ll tell my grandkids about it, about the year he’s had and the career I think he’s going to have when it’s all said and done. Pretty amazing.”
Thumbs up to Tribe
Maybe you’re like me and a little chafed the Indians left Buffalo for reasons largely related to marketing and television, but this corner is going to give it up to the Tribe here and now anyway. Right to the end, Cleveland was a terrific parent. When Mets GM Omar Minaya called Tribe counterpart Mark Shapiro for thoughts on Buffalo, he got a glowing review and that certainly made a major impact on New York’s decision to come here.
“The reputation in Buffalo is out there in the game,” Minaya said here last week after the Bisons’ incredible welcome-to-the- Mets news conference. “Talk to players who have played here and people who have managed here. [Shapiro] spoke great things about how Indians players are treated. He felt so good about it, he told me, ‘Look, I could not have been in a better situation than we had with Buffalo.’ ”
Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, a former member of the Jamestown Expos, heard similar sentiments about Buffalo. One of his former teammates is Benny Distefano, the slugger who was a fan favorite the first two seasons of then-Pilot Field.
“He just can’t say enough good things about being here,” Wilpon said. “He knew a lot about their history and it was great to hear. Putting our players in a position where there can be 8-10,000 fans a night and the proper amount of press coverage you guys have here is a good way for them to learn not only baseball skills but the life skills that are going to be expected in New York.”
What about Syracuse?
Think the Mets were going to go to Syracuse if they could have taken control of the woebegone Chiefs franchise? You bet they were.
“It comes down to ownership. They have 4,000 shareholders. Here there’s two shareholders, the Riches,” Wilpon said. “They’re a family business like we’re a family business. The synergy there fit very well very quickly. As soon as I talked to them, it felt like the right place to be.”
Wilpon said the Mets actually called Syracuse first on the day they could finally talk with minor-league teams.
“We did have good conversations with them but the structure they have didn’t make a lot of sense to buy a minority stake without control,” he said. “If we’re not going to have control there, the track record here is obviously really great. If we could have bought the whole franchise, we might have gone to Syracuse.”
With the Mets getting offered only a 25 percent stake, they said no and Syracuse ended up with the Washington Nationals, who initially won’t spark much interest but are spending on their farm system.
The Jays, meanwhile, got kicked out of Syracuse but spent most of the summer thinking they were coming to Buffalo. Then the Bisons did an end-around on them and Toronto is now stuck in Las Vegas, which was ditched by the Dodgers. Neither side is very happy about that arrangement.
