Cleveland Baseball: How the Indians Will Win the World Series in 2008

No one would expect that the two ALCS teams would meet in mid-April and only one have a winning record.

When the Cleveland Indians walked off the field in October last fall, they also left with a bitter taste in their mouth.  Well it seems the bitterness has turned sour and the ALCS Indians have yet to show.

Cleveland kicked off the season how everyone expected in winning the home opener against the White Sox.  But no one last fall would have guessed that on April 16th, a team that came within one win of going to the World Series would be a dismal 5-10.

This time last year the Tribe was tied with Detroit atop the Central with a 6-3 record.

Now the Tribe is fighting to even keep fourth place to themselves, and after a 13-2 loss to the Tigers, it may be harder than expected.  But the Indians are content to see the silver lining in the dark days of this early season.  

Although Joe Borowski, who lead the American League in saves last year, is on the DL with a tricep strain, the Indians roster can repair itself with Julio, Betancourt, Perez, and Kobayashi all having experience in closing games. The Indians have plenty of depth in their very own roster.

The Offense is going in the right direction lead by Sizemore, Martinez, and Garko, all hitting above .300.

The two main characters that are struggling are Casey Blake and Asdrubal Cabrera, both of whom are hitting below .200.  The main concern on the offensive side of the team is what to do with dud Andy Marte, who was supposedly the future at third base but never quite made it. 

The starting pitching is just the opposite of what the Indians expected.

Instead of the headline reading Carmona and Sabathia, it now reads Lee and Westbrook.  Lee—who was fighting for the fifth and final spot in the rotation—seems to be one of the two qualified candidates. Westbrook has continued his dominance that he started in the spring with 17 straight scoreless innings.

Byrd has struggled but has shown the dominant pitching that was seen last fall in the ALDS and ALCS.  Sabathia and Carmona are both struggling due to "mechanical" problems, but should be fine once their mechanics are under control.

The fans on the shore of Lake Erie have nothing to worry about, the Tribe will come around to pull this all together.

The starting rotation will come around with Byrd, Carmona, and Sabathia all regaining the brilliance of last years dominant pitching and Lee and Westbrook will both go on to be Cy Young Candidates and both win 15+ games this season.

The offense will survive and hit the ball all over the ballpark this summer.

The bullpen will take care of itself with it's depth, the closer situation will be under control when Betancourt is given the reigns to the closer role and can shut down batters in the ninth instead of the seventh.

Watch out Boston, Cleveland is hungry and the only thing that can stop this monster is a World Series ring.

Competition Beware!