Lee Solidifies 5th Spot; Francisco Keeps Firing

Lee Locks up 5: Last Saturday Cliff Lee pretty much ended the competition for the last rotation spot.

Lee pitched 5 innings of 4 hit ball with 5 punch outs. This combined with the somewhat disastrous springs of Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey have basically led everyone to believe that Cliff Lee is the man to start the year in the 5th spot.

I think Cliff is capable of bouncing back. We’ll find out soon enough if Cliff can rebound, he won’t have pressure on him like he’s had in past years. The main thing with Lee is keeping his focus and not getting unraveled when he makes a mistake.

In the past Cliff would be pitching well and then hit a wall. He’d give up a hit and all of a sudden a few more would follow, maybe a big homerun. Cliff has to stay true and stop beating himself when he makes little mistakes.

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Francisco Watch: Offensively on Saturday Casey Blake and Victor Martinez did the damage to help the Indians topple the Mets. But our favorite son has done it again.

Ben Francisco went 2-3 with a homerun to bump his average up to .378.

Keep watching! The watch on the right side of the site won’t be updated because of my hands being tied. But get a good look at Francisco while you can, because he’s destined for Triple A for the time being.

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Hafner Goes Deep: Sunday’s action saw the Tribe and Central Division rivals Detroit face off. Travis Hafner went deep and Jhonny Peralta contributed with a two run triple.

I’ve been on record of saying Travis is going to bounce back in a huge way. I think he can hit 35 homeruns this year, but I think the biggest thing we will see is a high average. Beating the shift and taking what pitchers give him is the entire key to that. I think Travis realizes that and will do what he has to do and just wait for those juicy inside pitches to come when they come.