A few somewhat random thoughts about the Cleveland Indians

Terry Pluto offers some interesting comments about some of the Indians' younger players.
There's a small part of me that would love to see all these class A and AA prospects come up to Cleveland to see how well they'd play. (That probably comes from being an Indians fan for a long time. It used to be the only thing I could look forward to was seeing the next round of prospects coming up.)
If we read between the lines of Pluto's story a little bit, we might conclude from it that maybe the Indians really are considering playing Jhonny Perlata at third base a lot this year.
Apparently, the Indians like new second baseman Luis Valbuena, who is ticketed for AAA this year. He played second while Asdurbal Cabrera played short in the Mariners' minor league system. Pluto says:
But the Indians love his (Valbuena's) short, controlled swing that delivers line drives to all fields. A left-handed hitting second baseman, Valbuena could take over the spot in 2010 -- with Asdrubal Cabrera shifting to short, Jhonny Peralta to third.
In a way, it makes you wonder how long third baseman Mark DeRosa will be with the Indians, especially if Valbuena hits really well right out of the gate. I'd hope the Indians would not leave the young second baseman in AAA like they did to Ben Francisco lat year. If he hits, I'd hope they get him up to the majors and play him. DeRose is not a long-term solution at third base, so why waste at-bats on him if they could get a productive younger player into the lineup?
On another note: I'd still be in favor of playing Victor Martinez at first base and letting Kelly Shoppach catch most of the time this year. It just seems to me the Indians are better that way than with Ryan Garko at first and Martinez at catcher. I like Garko as a possible replacement for Travis Hafner if he doesn't come back to full effectiveness after shoulder surgery.
That said, Garko tied for the team lead in RBIs last year, so it's kind of hard to shuffle him to the bench. But, 90 RBIs in the middle of the order for a winning team isn't really that many. That number of RBIs put him 17th in the American league, tied with Indians' leadoff hitter Grady Sizemore. Sizemore was tied for th team lead an RBIs despite one at bat every day with no one on base to drive in.
That tells you a lot about how great a player Sizemore really is. Because he hits leadoff and not third or fourth, I think fans sometimes fail to recognize just how great he is. When his career is over, one day we may be looking at Sizemore alongside the greatest Indians position players of all time.
I hope some of the team's young players — Pluto mentions Valbuena along with outfielder Michael Brantley, outfielder Matt LaPorta and catcher Carlos Santana — get up to Cleveland in time to help him win a World Series.