Cleveland Indians: Continued Success From 2007?

The Cleveland Indians, limited in salary and depth, made a run in the 2007 playoffs, and surprised quite a few people.

Restricted by their lack of money, the Indians are not able to provide big name player's salaries like the Yankees or the Red Sox. The Indians are forced to build from the inside and they started that rebuild back in 2001.

With the trade of Bartolo Colon after the playoffs in 2001, they were obviously planning to rebuild the roster. Former GM John Hart and Dick Jacobs weren't running the show anymore.  Mark Shapiro and Larry Dolan took over the show and a revamping was to take place. The trade brought a few question marks, but it brought in prospects such as Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee who have brought success to the ball club.  This trade jump started Shapiro's plan and thankfully led to success. 

Other key players brought up through the rich Indians farm system include C.C. Sabathia, Franklin Gutierrez, Rafael Bentancourt, and also Jeremy Sowers.  Sowers and Bentancourt show some promise for the future, which is good considering the question marks regarding Sabathia's future. 

The Tribe has a good core of young talent and last year that talent, surrounded by veteran leadership, brought them to the ALCS. 

Even I, an Indians fan, was surprised but pleased by this outcome. 

Even though they were successful, the problem they are facing is the inability to compete with ball clubs that can spend the high dollar and attract big name talent.  The Indians were successful, but with the Santana deal occurring and Sabathia winning the Cy Young, he apparently sees big money in his near future.  Thankfully he put it out of his mind for the season to focus on winning, but this obviously worries fans, as does the big offseason from Detroit. 

With a few players stepping up, a comeback year from Hafner, and this young talent, strong bullpen, and pitching staff I see the Tribe turning heads yet again.