These aren't the Cleveland Indians from a few years ago. This team has been gutted by trades, from Cy Young winners C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee to dealing Victor Martinez to the Boston Red Sox. The 2010 edition of the Cleveland Indians will be very young and not very deep.
Pitching
Lee threw 22 games for the Indians last year before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, and if you take away his efforts, then this team had a 5.75 ERA. Overall they were second-to-last in the majors with a 5.06 team ERA, so this year things could get ugly on the mound.
Fausto Carmona is the team's top hurler, but after posting ERAs of 5.44 and 6.32 the last two seasons, fans can't be excited about that. Justin Masterson, who came over from Boston in the Martinez trade, and Aaron Laffey will be two young arms this team is counting on to eat up innings.
Jake Westbrook missed last season coming back from Tommy John surgery, but how effective will he be now? The No. 5 starter is slotted to be David Huff, but his ERA was 5.61 in 2009. When it comes to the bullpen a lead does not guarantee a win. Kerry Wood, Chris Perez, and Rafael Perez are going to have to do a better job of locking down close games if this team wants to move up the standings.
Lineup
The Indians won't be scaring opposing pitchers this year either. Instead of veterans like Martinez or Kelly Shopach behind the plate, you'll find inexperience. The infield is composed of Russell Branyan, Luis Valbuena, Jhonny Peralta, and Asdrubal Cabrera.
Branyan displayed some power a year ago but hit .251. Cabrera hit over .300 but hit just six home runs. Travis Hafner is one of those guys who you have to wonder about performance enhancing drugs with, due to the steep dropoff and injuries he's sustained the past couple of years.
Out in the outfield there are a couple of players I like, with Grady Sizmore poised for a bounce back year and Shin-Soo Choo an under the radar star who hit over .300 with 20 home runs. Matt LaPorta will be given his shot out in left.
Prediction
The latest baseball odds show this team predicted at 74.5 wins. With my detailed 2010 Cleveland Indians predictions I forecasted the team to fall short of that number. I think this team wins short of 70 games in 2010, so you won't find me taking them with very many of my baseball picks .
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