Cleveland Indians

·          Do we really need to see more of Ben Francisco and Kelly Shoppach?  I understand Shoppach catches Cliff Lee, but why doesn’t Victor Martinez catch the rest of the time?  As for Francisco, if you’re not Andy Sonnanstine, he can’t hit you.

The lowest ranked players who have seen significant playing time for Cleveland are OF Ben Francisco (-0.5), Kelly Shoppach (-0.9), and Grady Sizemore (0.3).  Sizemore has his elbow injury as a reason for his struggles, and if that has been a problem since spring training, it could explain hi...

Jhonny Peralta (25K’s/8 walks), Kelly Shoppach (16 K’s/ 1 walk), and Ben Francisco (16K’s/6 walks) are huge offenders.  Especially since Shoppach and Francisco have just 39 and 58 at bats, respectively. The best thing the Indians have going for them is the AL Central Division, where in sp...

By noreply@blogger.com (Papa Cass) Spring training saw a number of good individual performances from the hitters. Jhonny Peralta, Ben Francisco and Victor Martinez all tied for the team lead with 13 RBI. Peralta batted. 391 for the spring, Grady Sizemore hit .373 and Mark DeRosa hit .364 upon returning to the Tribe after the Wor...

By James Pete Jhonny Peralta hit his second home run of the series, as the Cleveland Indians completed a four game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-2. Peralta’s third inning sacrifice fly, tied the game at three. Ben Francisco had gotten the Indians on the board an at bat earlier with a single, scoring Frankl...

By James Pete Ben Francisco’s second three-hit game in a row boosted another sterling Cliff Lee pitching performance as the Cleveland Indians shut-out the Tampa Bay Rays 5-0 at Cleveland’s Progressive Field. Funny how we all knew that in spring training.

By James Pete 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E CLEVELAND 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 8 0 Minnesota 1 1 3 0 0 1 2 4 X 12 15 0 W: Livan Hernanadez (9-5), L: Paul Byrd (3-10) HR: CHI–HR - Nick Punto (1), Delmon Young (3) ; CLE–Ben Francisco (7), Kelly Shoppach (7) The Minnesota Twins scored early and often against Indians starter Paul Byrd, as the...

By Jon Taken from Indians.com ..."The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled OF BEN FRANCISCO from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room for Francisco on the Major League roster the Indians designated OF JASON MICHAELS for ...