Five Questions That Will Decide the Indians' Season

Today is the Indians opener against their division rivals the Chicago White Sox. Here are the top five questions that will need to be answered to see how the Indians will do this season.

1. Will Fausto Carmona pitch well and how will the rest of the rotation be?


2. Are young players like Matt LaPorta, Carlos Santana and Michael Brantley ready to step up?


3. When will Grady Sizemore return from injury?


4. How soon will players like Drew Pomeranz, Alex White, Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall be in the Majors?


5. Will Shin Soo-Choo, who is no longer a surprise, be able to carry the team if others fail?

San Francisco Giants 10 Cleveland Indians 7

The first game of the spring is over and the Tribe lost 10-7. Jeremy Sowers, who is looking for a spot in the starting rotation started the game and in 2 innings gave up 1 run on 3 hits with 2 strikeouts. Newly acquired Mark DeRosa hit a 3 run home run in the bottom of the 3rd inning to give the Indians a 3-1 lead. In the top of the 6th inning with the score tied at 3, right-handed reliever Edward Mujica gave up 4 runs on two home runs to Travis Ishikawa; who went 3 - 3 with 2 home runs; and Nate Schierholtz who had 2 RBI's. The Indians tried to make it a game with solo home runs by Stephen Head and Michael Aubrey, but to no avail as it was too little too late.

Now I won't be writing after every game but I do intend on writing every once in a while and giving some inside the box-score information. So here it goes:

• Grady Sizemore went 1 - 3 with a run scored
• Victor Martinez started at catcher and went 0 -2
• Matt LaPorta (acquired last season from the Brewers in the C.C. Sabathia trade) went 1 - 3 with a run scored
• Rafael Perez pitched one inning and gave up a run
• Matt Herges struck out 2 batters in a scoreless 9th inning
• SF left 2 men on base while the Indians left 8 men on base

With off-season pick-ups Kerry Wood and Joe Smith, players like Mujica need a good spring if they want any chance of making the club. We'll see how they fare and in the words of Randy Quaid in the beginning of Major League II "This is the year we go all the way, ALL THE WAY! ALL THE WAY!"

GO TRIBE!!!!