Spring Is Here!

Ye gads, I missed a day! I've been so good about posting every Tuesday and Friday but yesterday just passed by without notice. I blame my newly pending (over a year from now) nuptials. Every time I sit down to write, my fiance blinds me with that diamond I just paid for.

And speaking of diamonds, let's talk baseball!

(Yes, I did that)

There was an interesting spring training preview for the Tribe up on CNNSI.com the other day. In it, they mention something I hadn't heard anywhere before (a side note, I thought they were particularly harsh on our boys, but I suppose teams that don't make big deals are boring to sports writers): Peralta to 2nd so Cabrera can play shortstop.

This would obviously never happen because Cleveland sports teams in general thrive on the belief that if it ain't broke, don't fix it (the simple fact that it's taken the Cavs this long to make a trade is a good point to that effect). But a decent argument could be made that 2nd requires less range than shortstop. Ultimately, though, the idea of moving Peralta to third has more merit, simply because we don't have a viable third baseman after this season, but we do have a viable additional middle inflielder.

This could be a difficult spring for Franklin Gutierrez. The big criticism about the Tribe is that we have no pop in our line-up beyond the middle of the order, that our bottom third is a steep drop off. That's a legitimate concern. If you look at the projected bottom of the order, you know what you're going to get from Casey Blake. Franklin Gutierrez, on the other hand, is somewhat of an unknown. His Buffalo numbers seem to indicate that he could step up and really produce, but he hasn't had the time in Cleveland to really prove that, and his performance in the post-season (giant homerun in Boston notwithstanding) was less than encouraging.

Perhaps in a worse position is Shin Soo Choo who will more than likely take the final spot on the bench, blocking the path of minor league batting champ Ben Francisco. Choo has shown some great ability in the few games he's play in Cleveland, but Francisco's stock is extremely high coming into spring training. There could be a point a few months in when people are clamoring for Francisco to get the call, and since Choo is out of options he also might be out of luck.

But the person who really has the most on his shoulders -- whether he knows it or not -- is David Dellucci. Yes, he knocked in the winning run in one of the greatest games we saw last year, but no one seemed terribly upset when he went down with an injury. At that point he was hitting .230. Even worse, his injury paved the way for the return of Kenny Lofton, who clearly added a spark to the team and the city.

Ideally, Dellucci should be hitting second. He hit .292 with the Phillies in 2006, but only drove in 39 runs with that average. He needs to be the one brought in, not the one getting people in, something a .292 average and a spot ahead of Hafner, Martinez, and Garko would allow for. And as much as I like the "I can bunt more times in a row than anyone ever" ability of Asdrubal Cabrera in the 2 spot, I don't know if we can expect a repeat performance from him at that level.

Oh, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Adam Miller has been shut down for a week becasue of a blister...again.

Jeremy Sowers seems to have worked out his problems from last year and his velocity has increased over the winter. At the same time, Cliff Lee's command of his fastball appears to be back, so I'll stick with my predicition that Lee gets the 5 spot in the rotation.

Perhaps the biggest question for the Tribe when they start the season is who will be on their roster by the end of the year. Even if they stay in contention (which would rule out dealing any of their big guns), they still have a number of people they could move for the right price, from Andy Marte to Shin Soo Choo to Cliff Lee or even Paul Byrd (who's contract is up after this year).

I know it's only spring training, but I, for one, am excited about the games starting up again.