Indians Lee is Cy Young winner. Cleveland Indians left-hander Cliff Lee, who resurrected his career one year after a demotion to the Buffalo Bisons, was named a landslide winner of the American League’s Cy Young Award today.
Lee was 22-3 with a 2.54 earned run average for the Tribe, leading the AL in ERA and tying Arizona’s Brandon Webb for the major-league lead in victories. He had a career-high 170 strikeouts and just 34 walks in 223 1/3 innings.
Lee’s selection marked the second straight year a Cleveland pitcher captured the award as CC Sabathia won it in 2007. Lee was named first on 24 of 28 ballots by the Baseball Writers Association of America and second on the other four.
Lee finished with 132 points in the voting. Runner-up Roy Halladay of Toronto had 71 points, including the other four first-place votes. Los Angeles closer Francisco Rodriguez, who set a major-league record with 62 saves, finished third with 32 points.
It was a huge bounce-back season for the 30-year-old Lee after a disastrous 2007 campaign. Lee was just 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA for the Tribe in ’07 as a spring training abdominal injury and ineffectiveness doomed his campaign.
With his season in complete disarray, Lee was optioned to the Bisons in late July and went 1-3 with a 3.51 ERA in eight starts for the Herd. When Lee returned to Cleveland, he was not used in any meaningful situations and was left off the Tribe’s postseason roster.
Lee went to spring training this year battling Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers for the No. 5 spot in the Tribe’s rotation and won that job. He quickly established himself as the team’s ace by winning his first six starts and posting an 0.81 ERA in that stretch.
Lee was acquired by Cleveland from Montreal in the 2002 trade for Bartolo Colon. He pitched for Buffalo in both 2002 (3-2, 3.77 in eight starts) and 2003 (6-1, 3.27 in 11 starts).
Lee and Colon are the only modern-era Bisons to win the Cy Young. Colon won his in 2005 for Anaheim, but it came seven years after his final game for the Herd.
