*This press release was for the 2002 Player of the Year Award.*

 

Cliff Lee named Hog Nation's 2002 Minor League Player of the Year

Hognation.net announced that Cliff Lee has been named the 2002 Hog Nation Minor League Player of the Year, an honor given to the former Razorback baseball player who accomplished the most in minor league baseball for the season. The 2001 Award went to Eric Hinske, who is now the starting third baseman for Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays and is a favorite to win MLB's Rookie of the Year Award.

Lee was named the eleventh best prospect in the Montreal Expos organizations before the season started by Baseball America, and the seventh best prospect by TopProspectAlert.com. He was named the Expos Minor League Player of the Month for the month of May and was selected to play in the 2002 AA All-Star game after compiling a record of 7-2 with a 3.23 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 86.1 innings at Harrisburg. On June 27th he was involved in a trade that sent Cleveland Indians Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew to the Expos in exchange for Lee Stevens and three minor league prospects, including Lee. He reported to Akron and pitched one inning in the AA All-Star Game. He was 2-1, with a 5.40 and 18 strikeouts at Akron before being promoted to Cleveland's AAA club in Buffalo.

Lee debuted in AAA on July 19th and won the game 3-2 over Ottawa. On July 25th Baseball America ranked him the fifth best left handed pitcher in all of minor league baseball and also listed him as having the third best breaking ball in all of the minors. He finished his season in Buffalo with a 3-2 record and a 3.77 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 8 games. He pitched one game in the playoffs and received a no decision. He had 11 strikeouts in 6 innings.

For the season Lee was 12-5, had an ERA of 3.67 and 164 strikeouts in 152 innings to go with just 57 walks.

On September 12th Cliff was called up to the Cleveland Indians, making him the fifth former Razorback currently in Major League Baseball (along with Eric Hinske, Kit Pellow, Robert Person and Dan Wright).

He was named Hognation.net's Player of the Week four times in the season.

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