Indians call up Todd

TODD Kilgore native Jess Todd made his second Major League Baseball appearance this season on Wednesday night, but this one for the Cleveland Indians.

As reported first on kilgorenewsherald. com Wednesday morning, the Tribe, who had traded for Todd late last month, called Jess up on Tu e s d a y night. He went to Cleveland o n Wednesday, and was in the game on the mound for the Indians in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins just hours later.

Jess went to the mound in the ninth after a very good performance by starter Aaron Laffey, who pitched the first eight innings (allowing just one run on six hits, and five strikeouts). Jess was able to finish off the game, allowing one hit and striking out one in the final inning. Cleveland won, 8-1.

At press time Friday night, Todd, 23, and the Indians were preparing to face the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, where they'll be all weekend. Game 1 of that series

was Friday, and today's contest begins at 6 p.m. Sunday's is a 1 p.m. Central firstpitch.

To make room for Todd, the Indians had to move pitcher Jose Veras off their roster. Cleveland has 10 days to release, trade or re-assign Veras to the minors.

Cleveland, who competes in Major League Baseball's Central Division of the American League, is 44-62, and likely out of playoff contention, but has made several moves in recent weeks to bring in younger, talented players.

Todd is very much at the head of that class. The 2004 KHS graduate was recently a Triple-A All-Star with the Memphis Redbirds, and played in the Triple- A All-Star Game in Portland, Ore., the only member of the Redbirds to have that honor.

He also played in MLB's prestigious Futures Game last summer at Yankee Stadium in New York, and took a quick journey through the St. Louis Cardinals' organization up to the Triple-A level.

Todd had made one appearance for the Cardinals, earlier this season when the team had suffered several injuries to their pitching staff. He has spent the majority of the year in Triple-A Memphis, the Cardinals' organization, and more recently in Columbus, Cleveland's Triple-A club. The Indians traded Mark DeRosa to St. Louis in July, and Todd was the player-to-be-named-later in the trade. He went to the Indians' franchise just about 10 days ago.

Todd is the son of Tom and Kim Todd, and played college ball at Navarro and the University of Arkansas. Not counting his major-league appearances, just his Triple-A action in Memphis and in Columbus, Todd is 4-2 with a 2.04 ERA. He's struck out 66 and walked just 13 over 83 innings.