Mini C.C. Has Good First Year For Tribe

He may be nowhere near the size of his predecessor in the organization C.C. Sabathia, but right-handed reliever Chen-Chang Lee had a very good debut season in the Indians organization this season

Sabathia stands in at 6’7” 290 and is a former Indians prospect turned Cy Young Award winner. Lee, who is often referred to as “C.C.” by friends, teammates, and Indians personnel, stands in at just 5’11” and 175 pounds. Even though he comes in a much smaller package, he packed a pretty powerful punch this season in the Carolina League for the Indians High-A affiliate Kinston going 4-6 with a 3.35 ERA in 45 appearances out of the bullpen. In 83.1 innings he allowed 67 hits, 28 walks and had 97 strikeouts.

Lee, 22, was signed by the Indians as an international free agent last September for a reported $400,000. He was one of the top amateur college prospects in Taiwan, and was just one of three amateurs on the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) team that competed in Beijing, China during the 2008 Olympics.

"After the [2008] Olympics I signed with the Indians,” said Lee in a recent interview at Akron through translator Jason Lin. “I knew John Mirabelli had been tracking me. My exposure to the Indians was primarily when I pitched for Chinese-Taipei teams in International competition. That's when Mirabelli and the Pacific Rim scout Jason Lee took a peek and saw me. I was fortunate to perform well in some big tournaments and that is when John, Jason and my agent were able to sit down and work some things out."

So far, Lee has lived up to his billing coming out of Taiwan as a good relief pitching prospect. He showcases a good four pitch mix of a fastball, sinker, slider and split finger that he throws from a sidearm slot. He averages around 91-92 MPH with his fastball velocity and has touched 95 MPH. He gets good movement on all his pitches and has shown a good ability to command the strike zone.

While Lee has good stuff and his numbers were solid, it was an adjustment for him this season coming stateside and playing professionally in the United States for the first time.

"It was a pretty normal season,” said Lee. “I had some good outings and some bad outings. I was just trying to keep my emotions under control throughout the duration of the season and not get too caught up on stuff I can't control."

This biggest thing the Indians worked on with Lee this year at Kinston was solidifying his arm slot. If he can be more consistent with a low three-quarter arm slot, the Indians feel he could develop into a very good relief prospect.

"We are trying to solidify [his arm slot],” said Kinston Pitching Coach Greg Hibbard recently. “We’d like to see him kind of at a low three-quarter, I mean he is a side-to-side guy, but he needs to keep his hand above his arm a little bit and stay on top of the baseball. He has such a power arm that when he flies open his elbow will drop and he gets underneath the ball and everything kind of works uphill and he does not create much angle. He is not a real tall guy, so if he loses that arm slot and gets low it gets even lower. His breaking ball is also going to benefit from having a better arm slot.”

With Kinston wrapping up their season two weeks ago, the Indians treated Lee by having him join Double-A Akron for their playoff run. While he did not dress for games or was ever active on the playoff roster, he was in Akron participating in pre-game workouts and hung around the clubhouse and with the team for the playoffs. The Indians wanted to expose him to the playoff environment and also help him get acquainted with what will be his new home in 2010.

With the playoffs over, Lee is now back in Taiwan and his first order of business is to fulfill his mandatory military service requirement.

“I actually have to serve my military service time when I get back,” said Lee. “I am very fortunate to have been given an exception with the time I have to serve.”

In Taiwan it is a requirement that all healthy males serve 15 months in the military. He was actually granted an exception to cut the mandatory service time down from 15 years to just 12 days because he was part of the Taiwan team that won a gold medal in the Asian Games a couple of years ago. Taiwan and many other Asian countries that have mandatory military service time often provide this perk to their players as an incentive to win these highly competitive contests between rival countries in the Pacific Rim.

Once his military service requirement is up, Lee just wants to go home, rest for a little bit, and then jump right into his training regimen to begin his preparation for the 2010 season.

“I am just going to get some rest, workout and stick to an offseason plan,” said Lee. “I am going to try and work on getting my body stronger since the duration of a US season is a little bit longer than in Taiwan. I also want to continue to work on my offspeed pitches and the command of my fastball.”

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