It's Time For One More Change in Cleveland

So now that the Cleveland Indians have shipped C.C. Sabathia off to Milwaukee, we can officially say that the Indians are done trying to win in 2008. The focus has now been moved to preparing this team for the 2009 season and trying to figure out which pieces fit into that picture, and which ones don't.

While none of us can see the future, there is something about this Indians team that most of us have known for quite a while, and that is the fact that Grady Sizemore will not be a lead-off hitter his entire career. When Grady first came up with the Indians, everybody knew he was destined to be a middle of the order type guy, but with the Indians monster lineup the last few seasons, there was no need to do it.

Well, it's time now. Grady has grown up and he's ready to be the guy the Indians build their lineup around. Travis Hafner's power and ability to make contact with the ball have magically* disappeared and there's no guarantee they'll ever come back, so there is an opening.

Eric Wedge is currently batting Ben Francisco third, and Jhonny Peralta in the clean-up spot (where Jhonny's been raking). Meanwhile, Sizemore has an OPS of .914 and leads the American League with 22 home runs, yet he only has 50 RBI. How can that be? Well, since Grady hits lead-off, 16 of his 22 taters have come with nobody on base.

When you're having trouble scoring runs, wouldn't you want your best hitter and best power hitter to come to the plate with runners on base? Doesn't that make more sense? Now I know what some of you Indians fans are thinking: it doesn't matter where Grady hits because nobody else on this damn team gets on base.

A good point, but Grady's more likely to have runners on when Jamey Carroll and Casey Blake are ahead of him in the lineup than he is with David Dellucci and Ryan Garko doing it.

I know the Indians tried Grady in the three spot for a bit last season after trading for Kenny Lofton, and he struggled a little, but that's no reason to keep him from doing it again this season. Maybe he just wasn't ready for it in 2007, but he clearly is now.

Now I'm not saying that moving Grady down in the order is going to fix everything with Cleveland's offense this year, but it will make a lot more sense for the team heading into 2009. If Eric Wedge doesn't see this, then maybe there are two more changes that need to be made in Cleveland, with the second being a new manager.

*Magically meaning the Mitchell Report came out and baseball is cracking down on steroids. Yeah, I said it.