Minor Matters: Bisons' Cooper Honored

Jason Cooper finally broke out of a lackluster season and earned International League player of the week honors. The Indians' third-round pick in 2002 out of Stanford, he was having a second straight disappointing year at Triple-A Buffalo until getting five consecutive multiple-hit games and batting .500 last week. The big performance lifted the 26-year-old outfielder's average 25 points to .266.

Cooper is the third member of the Bisons to win the league's weekly award this year. Right-hander Sean Smith won May 14-20 and third baseman Andy Marte earned the honor for June 4-10.

Cooper rapped out nine extra-base hits during the week. Overall, he went 14-for-28 with four doubles, three triples, two homers, seven RBI, six runs and a 1.071 slugging percentage. He also drew five walks for a .576 on-base percentage and stole two bases.

* On July 30, he had two walks, two hits including a triple, scored once and drove in three.

* On July 31, he went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a homer one walk, one run and one RBI.

* On Aug. 1, he was 2-for-3 with a walk, double, homer, run and RBI.

* On Aug. 2, he was 2-for-5 with a run.

* On Aug. 3, he was 2-for-4 with a double, run and two steals in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, he went 0-for-2 with a walk

* On Aug. 4, he went 2-for-4 with one run, two RBI and hit second triple of the game in the ninth inning to give the Bisons a 4-3 win.

* On Aug. 5, he went 1-for-4.

Wednesday night, he continued his hot streak by going 3-for-5 with a double and RBI.

2007 & MINOR CAREER

Team	G	AB	H	AVG	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO
Buffalo	82	267	73	.273	8	42	8	39	61
Minor Totals	602	2145	553	.258	88	368	26	252	566