Cleveland Indians 2009

Schruender is clearly an Indians fan who is excited about Grady Sizemore.

I think it's possible that everything could go up for Sizemore this year. He led the Tribe in RBI from the lead off spot last year, who does that? If Hafner doesn't start to improve isn't it possible that Wedge should consider moving Sizemore to the number three spot in the order?

The line-up the Indians trotted out there for the first two games looks like this:

Sizemore CF
Mark DeRosa 3B
Victor Martinez C/1B
Travis Hafner DH
Jhonny Peralta SS
Shin Soo Choo RF
Kelly Shoppach C/Ryan Garko 1B
Ben Francisco LF
Asdrubal Cabrera 2B

It's likely that this is the line-up we're going to see for a while, with the biggest change coming if they decide to start resting Hafner more as we get into the dog days.

Like Schruender, my instinct is that Sizemore should hit lower in the order as well so he can drive in more runs. However, Sizemore is also the only hitter in the Indians line-up with a lot of basestealing speed and had their best OBP amongst qualifiers last season.

Shin Soo Choo had a better OBP in his major league stint in 2008. But his MLE indicates that this probably won't hold up in 2009.

I suppose the Indians could move Sizemore down in the line-up. Paradoxically, though, the best hitter to have on base in front of Grady Sizemore so he can capitalize on those RBI opportunities he'd have batting third is Grady Sizemore...