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Cliff Lee, Brad Lidge win Comeback POY


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NEW YORK -- Pitchers Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians and Brad Lidge of the Philadelphia Phillies were honored Tuesday as baseball's Comeback Players of the Year.

 

Lee went 22-3 with an American League-leading 2.54 ERA. The previous season, he was 5-8 with a 6.29 ERA and was demoted to the minor leagues.

 

"I've never seen a season like that," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "From start to finish he was incredible. There were real reasons for it. He worked hard phyically to get back."

 

Lidge was a perfect 41-for-41 in save opportunities as the Phillies' closer. In 2007, he converted just 19 of 27 for the Houston Astros.

 

"I never lost confidence in myself, no matter what the years were like or the results," Lidge said. "I always felt I was going to come back and pitch to the best of my ability."

 

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

 

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I hate this award. Cliff Lee is deserving because he came back from spending time in the minor leagues after being demoted last year. But what about Lidge? He only pitched 2 more innings and 6 more appearances this season then he did last season. So what did he come back from, being bad? That's a dumb argument, and it's realistically not a valid one either. He had a 3.36 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and .219 average against last season with a strikeout ratio well over 1 per inning, so it's not like he was total garbage.

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QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 30, 2008 -> 03:21 PM)
I hate this award. Cliff Lee is deserving because he came back from spending time in the minor leagues after being demoted last year. But what about Lidge? He only pitched 2 more innings and 6 more appearances this season then he did last season. So what did he come back from, being bad? That's a dumb argument, and it's realistically not a valid one either. He had a 3.36 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and .219 average against last season with a strikeout ratio well over 1 per inning, so it's not like he was total garbage.

 

 

Agreed. They should restrict it to something having to do with ABs or IP. That way there are qualification standards like there are for ROY

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QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 30, 2008 -> 03:21 PM)
I hate this award. Cliff Lee is deserving because he came back from spending time in the minor leagues after being demoted last year. But what about Lidge? He only pitched 2 more innings and 6 more appearances this season then he did last season. So what did he come back from, being bad? That's a dumb argument, and it's realistically not a valid one either. He had a 3.36 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and .219 average against last season with a strikeout ratio well over 1 per inning, so it's not like he was total garbage.

 

Though he wasn't the closer all season, Lidge still blew 8 saves in 27 opportunities last year, yet didn't blow a save all season this year. I have no problem with the results, even if Gabe Kapler probably would have been a better choice - there are almost always better choices, but this award doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot as it is, so it's a big who cares.

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