MLB top 50 paid players - no wonder tickets are $85 and up

1. Alex Rodriguez, NYY $28,000,000
2. Jason Giambi, NYY $23,428,571
3. Derek Jeter, NYY $21,600,000
4. Manny Ramirez, BOS $18,929,923
5. Carlos Beltran, NYM $18,622,810
6. Ichiro Suzuki, SEA $17,102,149
7. Johan Santana, NYM $16,984,216
8. Todd Helton, COL $16,600,000
9. Torii Hunter, ANA $16,500,000
10t. Bobby Abreu, NYY $16,000,000
10t. Carlos Delgado, NYM $16,000,000
10t. Andy Pettitte, NYY $16,000,000
10t. Carlos Zambrano, CHC $16,000,000
14. Mike Hampton, ATL $15,975,185
15. Magglio Ordonez, DET $15,768,175
16. Rafael Furcal, LA $15,730,196
17. Jim Thome, CHW $15,666,667
18t. Vladimir Guerrero, ANA $15,500,000
18t. Tim Hudson, ATL $15,500,000
18t. Richie Sexson, SEA $15,500,000
21. Aramis Ramirez, CHC $15,250,000
22. Jason Schmidt, LA $15,217,401
23. Randy Johnson, ARI $15,100,546
24. Mariano Rivera, NYY $15,000,000
25. Miguel Tejada, HOU $14,811,415
26. Andruw Jones, LA $14,726,911
27t. Lance Berkman, HOU $14,500,000
27t. Barry Zito, SF $14,500,000
29. Pat Burrell, PHI $14,250,000
30t. Mark Buehrle, CHW $14,000,000
30t. J.D. Drew, BOS $14,000,000
30t. John Smoltz, ATL $14,000,000
30t. Alfonso Soriano, CHC $14,000,000
34. Albert Pujols, STL $13,870,950
35. Troy Glaus, STL $13,500,000
36. Adrian Beltre, SEA $13,400,000
37. Gary Sheffield, DET $13,326,306
38. Derrek Lee, CHC $13,250,000
39. A.J. Burnett, TOR $13,200,000
40. Jorge Posada, NYY $13,100,000
41t. Johnny Damon, NYY $13,000,000
41t. Adam Dunn, CIN $13,000,000
41t. Hideki Matsui, NYY $13,000,000
41t. David Ortiz, BOS $13,000,000
41t. Roy Oswalt, HOU $13,000,000
46. Garret Anderson, ANA $12,600,000
47. Frank Thomas, TOR $12,560,000
48t. Carlos Lee, HOU $12,500,000
48t. Mike Lowell, BOS $12,500,000
48t. Mark Teixeira, ATL $12,500,000

UK sucks and proves it - I was correct they had no point

As a Kentucky fan.... sick.... just sick....

http://www.sportingnews.com/cbasketball/scoreboard/20081114/recap/1069283-p.htm

Lee wins 2008 AL Cy Young Award - AL get's it right

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081113&content_id=3677553&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle

The American League Cy Young Award winner is again a Cleveland Indians pitcher. But Cliff Lee's rise to greatness in 2008 was far from a repeat performance.
When CC Sabathia received his award a year ago, Lee was coming off of a humbling season that included a summer at Triple-A Buffalo and no role in the Indians' postseason run. While Sabathia ascended to greatness, Lee prepared to battle for a spot in the rotation the following spring.

That's what arguably makes Lee's 2008 season so special.

"It wasn't any fun," Lee said Thursday, "but looking back, it definitely makes for a better story."

It certainly made for a better pitcher.

Lee led the AL in wins with a 22-3 record and in ERA with a 2.54 mark, posted the third-highest winning percentage (.880) for a 20-game winner in baseball history and became the Tribe's first 20-game winner since Gaylord Perry in 1974.

"It was the most incredible season I've ever seen from a pitcher at that level," manager Eric Wedge said.

The voters took notice. Lee received 24 of 28 first-place votes and finished with 132 points in balloting. He beat out the Jays' Roy Halladay, who finished second with 74 votes.

"[Lee] was already a good Major League pitcher," general manager Mark Shapiro said. "This year, he took the step to greatness."

Lee followed the trail of Sabathia and Perry as the only Tribe pitchers to win the prestigious award. But Lee's path to greatness was certainly unique, including an offseason field trip.

It came on the heels of a 5-8 record and 6.29 ERA for the Indians in a 2007 season that began with a right abdominal injury and fell apart from there. It was a bizarre position for somebody who had won 46 games over the previous three seasons, including an 18-5 record in 2005.

When the season ended, the Indians wanted Lee to work in the offseason to make sure he stayed healthy. But they also wanted Lee to connect with the message that pitching coach Carl Willis conveyed. So Willis suggested that Lee spend a couple days with him at Willis' North Carolina home.

"I think Cliff was probably wondering why that was necessary," Wedge said. "I just felt like it was something that he needed to be in an environment with his pitching coach and a guy that he trusts. [Lee's] been through a great deal with [Willis], but he needed to be in a different environment with him, without the pressures and emotions day to day, in-season that you go through."

Willis simply felt that Lee's injury left him trying to play catch-up early in the season and getting impatient. The visit set Lee up for what would be a critical winter.


They just wanted to make sure they did everything they could and put everything out on the table," Lee said. "They wanted to make sure they did everything they could to make me the pitcher I could be, and I was all for that. It made sense.

"I don't know if that's the reason why I turned things around and got back to pitching well, but if it had anything to do with it, then perfect."


Lee had to fight for a spot on the Tribe's roster out of Spring Training. Because of the $3.75 million he was set to make, it was generally assumed Lee was the frontrunner to beat out young left-handers Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers, but the Indians nonetheless wanted him to earn the job.

It didn't take long for Willis to know that Lee was ready.

"He and I had talked a couple of times over the winter, just about the control and command," Willis said. "And his first bullpen session back in February, he really showed that. He exhibited that. And I remember when he was done with that bullpen, I said to him, 'That's exactly what we're talking about. Just keep going with that.'"

Lee took that into his first Spring Training outing, Willis said, and showed it against live competition. From there, Lee took it with him just about every time he stepped onto the mound.

"Instead of just throwing the ball over the plate, he started throwing quality strikes," Wedge said, "commanding the baseball, hitting the glove and throwing it right where he wanted to. That opened everything else for him. For him to do it for a short period of time is one thing. For him to do it over the course of 30 starts, that's pretty special stuff."

The key to that consistency, everyone agreed, was the mind-set.

"It's easier to be aware of those things when you're keeping your mind in the moment and not allowing your mind to drift," Lee said. "Just focus on what you're doing right now and make adjustments on the fly and make them work their way on base."

With the combination of a strong mental approach and pinpoint pitch execution, Lee wouldn't be in the back of Cleveland's rotation for long. He won each of his first six starts, posting a 0.81 ERA in the process, and knew this season was different.


Cliff Lee's 2008 stats
W-L 22-3
ERA 2.54
CG 4
SHO 2
SO 170
"I think probably after my fourth or fifth start, when I had under a 1.00 ERA, that's when I knew it was going to be a special year," Lee said. "I never rested on that and felt I had it figured out. I still continued to keep my mind in the moment. I wasn't going to get away from that."

Lee won a career-high 11 straight decisions from July 11-Sept. 12 -- the longest such streak in the bigs since the Cardinals' Chris Carpenter won 13 straight in 2005. Lee was the AL Pitcher of the Month in April and August, and the AL's starter in the July 15 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

To put a little more historical perspective on Lee's season, consider that he was just the seventh pitcher since 1920 to win 22 of his first 25 decisions, according to STATS.

When all was said and done, Lee finished second in the AL in complete games (four), ninth in strikeouts (170), second in innings pitched (223 1/3), 13th in opponents' batting average (.253), first in homers allowed per nine innings (0.48), second in baserunners per nine innings (10.2) and third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.38).


"His approach to each game was consistent," Shapiro said. "His focus was consistent. Nothing derailed his execution. The result was a very unique, very special season."

As a result, the Indians have back-to-back Cy Young Award winners, a point Willis said is a source of pride for the entire organization rather than just himself or the staff. With Sabathia gone, Lee will enter the 2009 season as the ace rather than a fifth guy.

The rest of the Indians enter with a tough streak to follow.

"It would be great to see [Fausto] Carmona win it next year," Lee said.

He'll have to beat out Lee first.

Webb cheated out of CY Young

Webb who led the MLB in wins, loses NL CY Young Award to Lincecum

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081111&content_id=3674375&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

SAN FRANCISCO -- Isolating a peak performance among Tim Lincecum's 34 appearances in 2008 was impossible.
"You can pick out gem after gem after gem," Giants right fielder Randy Winn said.

Lincecum's crown jewel arrived Tuesday. The Giants right-hander received the National League's Cy Young Award, emblematic of the league's best pitcher, in voting conducted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Lincecum received 23 of 32 first-place votes, seven second-place votes and one third-place vote for 137 points, which were assigned on a 5-3-1 basis. He outdistanced Arizona's Brandon Webb (73 points), the New York Mets' Johan Santana (55), Philadelphia's Brad Lidge (10), Milwaukee's CC Sabathia (9) and the Chicago Cubs' Ryan Dempster (4).

"In Obama-like fashion, it wasn't close," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said.

The comfortable margin surprised Lincecum.

"I thought it would be a lot closer. I was thinking more along the lines of Sabathia or Johan or Webb," he said, noting that those three are previous Cy Young winners.

Giants left-hander Jack Taschner suggested that Lincecum's efforts spoke loudly: "We're a West Coast team, and East Coast reporters are probably in bed by the time we get into the third or fourth inning. But that's really all you need to see [of Lincecum]."

Lincecum became only the second Giant to capture the Cy Young, joining 1967 winner Mike McCormick, and the first second-year player to earn the distinction since right-handers Dwight Gooden of the Mets and Bret Saberhagen of Kansas City secured the 1985 awards in their respective leagues.

"As I told Timmy earlier today, 'You'll always be remembered as the winner of the Cy Young,'" McCormick said. "That's the way I'm identified; that's the way I'm introduced."



At 24, Lincecum already has earned a place in Giants lore alongside Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry, San Francisco's Hall of Fame right-handers. Marichal somehow never received a Cy Young first-place vote in his six 20-win seasons, and Perry twice won the award after leaving the Giants.

Lincecum deserved to exult in his triumph, so he did. He received the election news Tuesday morning at his San Francisco home while watching NFL highlights on ESPN.

"When I was told, I really said 'Really?' I was more shocked than anything," Lincecum said. But his emotions took over once the phone call ended. "'Whoo-hoo!' I literally yelled a couple of times," he said.

After Lincecum calmed down, he had plenty of people to recognize, which he did during a pair of afternoon news conferences. He congratulated the other Cy Young contenders and thanked teammates, the Giants organization and coaches, Bay Area fans and BBWAA electors. Lincecum saved most of his gratitude for the man who directly influenced his development: Chris, his father.

"He's definitely been the biggest help for me throughout my life [while] making transitions through high school to college, college to the Minors, and Minors to here," Lincecum said.


Despite Lincecum's sustained excellence, he faced formidable competition for the award. Santana's 2.53 ERA led the NL, Webb's 22 victories paced the league, Sabathia performed in otherworldly fashion after being traded from Cleveland (11-2, 1.65 ERA) and Lidge converted all 41 of his save opportunities.

But none of them matched Lincecum's overall dominance. He compiled a league-best .783 winning percentage with his 18-5 record and amassed 265 strikeouts to become the first Giant in baseball's modern era (since 1900) to earn that distinction. Against Lincecum, opponents hit .221 overall and .167 with runners in scoring position while averaging 7.22 hits per nine innings -- all league lows. And his 2.62 ERA was the NL's second best.

Lincecum acknowledged that among all his glittering statistics, those strikeouts shine the most.

"It's one of those things that kind of get me fired up," he said.

Lincecum's game-by-game progression defined consistency. His 26 quality starts ranked second in the league, two behind Santana. Never did he lose consecutive starts; only once did he allow four or more earned runs in back-to-back outings. As the Giants lurched to a fourth-place, 72-90 finish in the West, Lincecum rescued them from a harsher fate by posting a 14-3 mark with a 2.79 ERA in 25 games following losses.

That led to another measure of just how singular Lincecum's season was. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the .339 difference between his winning percentage and San Francisco's was the seventh-largest in Major League history among pitchers with at least 15 victories. He also became only the 12th Cy Young winner for a team with a below-.500 record.

As Lincecum built these credentials, his downplaying of Cy Young chatter remained as steady as his performance.

"I said this many times, my dad always taught me not to get too excited about the good things or the bad things," he said. "I wasn't going to get worked up over things I had no control over. It's not like I didn't care, but I wasn't going to put any added pressure on myself."

Lincecum cemented his Cy Young candidacy with a strong finish. He struck out 10 or more batters in six of his last 13 starts and yielded two or fewer runs in all but three of them. He pitched his two complete games, including a four-hit shutout at San Diego, in September. And in the season finale against Los Angeles, he recorded his first nine outs on strikeouts, becoming the first hurler to accomplish that feat since the Mets' Sid Fernandez on July 30, 1986.

Webb won 11 of his last 14 decisions. But while Lincecum surged, the D-backs ace dropped three starts in a row between Aug. 26-Sept. 6, allowing 19 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings.

Lincecum's triumph was a matter of style as well as substance. Despite his 5-foot-11, 170-pound physique, his long-striding, mechanically precise delivery enabled him to exceed 95 mph with his fastball routinely. He complemented his heat with a curveball, a slider and a changeup that proved to be perhaps his best pitch as the year lengthened.

"That's the thing that helped me out the most, to get more ground balls and strikeouts," Lincecum said of his changeup, explaining that finding a comfortable grip for the pitch gave him the command he lacked as a rookie.

In his first full Major League season -- he made his Giants debut on May 6, 2007 -- Lincecum became one of the game's most charismatic performers. The native of Bellevue, Wash., was named to the NL All-Star team, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and won two pre-Cy Young elections as the league's top pitcher involving player voting (Players Choice and The Sporting News). On Monday, he also received the Bullet Rogan Award from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum as NL Pitcher of the Year.

Each achievement silenced the skeptics a little more. Maybe Lincecum wasn't too small to thrive, as they claimed. Maybe his remarkable pitching motion wouldn't tax his arm after all.

"People have been doubting me my whole life, so it's nothing new," he said. "If they want to doubt it, let them watch and see what the end result is."

Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.