Hosts: Sonny and Ryan. In this episode, Sonny and I discussed the American League Central, one of baseball’s deepest divisions. After blowing a 3-1 lead in the ALCS, can the Cleveland Indians ride their two Cy Young Award candidates back into the postseason? Or will the new-look Tigers, bolstered by the acquisition of Miguel Cabrera, return to the playoffs after a one-year absence? Also, how will the Twins fare after losing the two faces of their franchise? All of this and more on the Sportable Spot!

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Tribe in Good Position to Scalp AL Central. The Indians entered last season with somewhat stymied expectations. Many pundits around the league had made them one of the teams to beat prior to the 2006 season, only to watch them sputter to a disappointing 78-84 record. However, these new-look Indians finally arrived last year, winning 96 games and advancing all the way to the ALCS, only to blow a 3-1 series lead against the Red Sox. With another year under their belts, this young team should be able to keep Chief Wahoo smiling all season long.

Bats. While these Indians won’t be confused for the slugging teams of the mid-1990s, they still scored the 8th most runs in Major League Baseball last year. They’re started at the top with leadoff man Grady Sizemore, who, when he’s not making girls scream and throw their panties, does it all for the Indians. Aside from winning his first hand ax throwing competition Gold Glove, Sizemore set career highs in walks, on base percentage and stolen bases. He is a lock for over 100 runs and could gain entry into baseball’s 30-30 club this season. Sizemore is Mr. Consistency in center field, but the Indians don’t have that stability in the corner outfield positions. Left field is expected to be again divided between Jason Michaels and David Dellucci, two dependable, albeit unspectacular veterans. Old bastards Trot Nixon and Kenny Lofton gave this outfield a boost last season but both moved on during the offseason. The right field job is expected to be given to Pedro Cerrano Franklin Gutierrez, who managed to slug 13 homers in just 271 at-bats.

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The start of Spring training in Florida and Arizona has been the talk around water coolers lately. One thing likely going unnoticed is the new Caps certain MLB team will be wearing this season. Not a lot of changes, but some interesting and noteworthy additions have been made.

First off, I am pleased to mention to you again that the Toronto Blue Jays will go retro at home inside the Rogers Centre on Friday nights this year. I feel that this new lid is unique and unmeasurable when it comes to retro caps. This cap is so nice, I have even spotted a few people around town sporting it. Heck, Sportable’s own staff writer Rich purchased his in January.

The Oakland Athletics have added yet another alternate cap to their locker this year, going with a more bold look (above). The cap is a mirror image of the other alternate hat, however, this new one has a white “A’s” with a yellow outline. I like the addition here by the A’s, but I think they should try to switch the design up a bit as they now have four hats that are all the same.

Staying in the American League, the Indians have decided to turn back the clocks this year. On Saturday June 14, the Indians will host the Padres at Progressive Field sporting this new cap and jersey to celebrate the 1970s . You have to love this plain “C”. It’s sharp and crisp to say the least. Not fancy or glamorous by any means but when it comes to sporting a clean image, this hat will do the trick.

Since the Devil Rays became the “Rays”, Tampa Bay decided to axe its look completely and go with something totally new. That changed resulted in new jerseys and a new hat. Kevin from the Sportable staff just received his new Rays hat in the mail and this is what he had to say about it: “I needed a new blue hat and I was lucky enough to stumble upon this one.”

Finally the last change on the hat rack for the 2008 season comes from Philadelphia. The Phillies will sport this new lid on certain occasions with this new alternate throwback jersey. I am a big fan of the red and blue mix that the Phillies are adapting again this year. I’m getting sick and tired of seeing the same old red and white look that has adorned the team for many years now.

All in all, I am really pleased with all of the additions this year. And if you have not had the chance to purchase one of the new 59-50 hats yet, you are missing out. NewEra created the light weight cap to not only help out with player performance, but feel more comfortable than the previous hat. Be sure to pick up your favorite team’s lid. The new season is just weeks away!

If you were waiting for the Indians youth movement to click, you can rest easy now. The Tribe, who currently sit atop the AL Central, are an astounding 36-22 this season and sit two and a half games up on the rival Tigers.

Finally, the team that was supposed to be scary good is….scary good. CC Sabathia has had an unreal start to the season and has 9 wins, tops in the majors. Fausto Carmona, who was an absolute train wreck in the relievers role last season, has made the switch to the starting rotation. Carmona is flourishing right now, boasting a 3.11 ERA and notching an impressive 7-1 record to boot. He’s arguably been the biggest surprise for the Indians since this guy arrived in 1989. And while Carmona can’t crank it up to 98 on the radar gun, he’s still equally as impressive.

How about the bats? We can start by saying that Victor Martinez is probably having the best season you didn’t know about so far in the major leagues. He’s anchoring a lineup that has emerged as one of the most threatening in the AL. Jhonny Peralta is playing much well enough to justify the random ‘H’ floating around in his name. Second baseman Josh Barfield, who was acquired from the Padres in the off season, has broken out of his early season slump. Grady Sizemore is still sex bombing the females of Cleveland while producing the numbers that a five tool player like Sizemore is able to put up. The scary part? Travis Shrek Hafner has yet to start hitting. Hafner, who has a fair amount of rbi’s, has a batting average that is well below his career mark and his ten home runs can actually be considered a slow start for a power hitter like him.

Could we see another different division winner this year in the AL Central? It’s entirely possible. With the way the Indians have played thus far, Chief Wahoo finally has something to smile about.

In our podcast preview of the AL Central, we emphasized the depth of the division. After all, this division has produced three different playoff teams and two different American League champions in the last two years. This year, we can throw another team into that mix of elite teams: the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are 24-14 and check in with the 2nd best record in the American League.

Thought to be the weakness of the team behind ace C.C. Sabathia, the Tribals’ pitching has been phenomenal. Paul Byrd is having a nice campaign and in one of the league’s biggest surprises, first-year starter Fausto Carmona is off to a 5-1 start. After a horrendous season in the bullpen, Carmona has found his niche as a starter. Carmona shut out the Twins today, outdueling AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.

“My confidence is real high right now,” Carmona said through an interpreter. “I was a little out of control last year and I learned a lot.”

Despite not making huge splashes in the free agent market, the Indians are making some great strides. They’ve shipped out Roger Dorn, Pedro Cerrano, and Rick Vaughn in recent years but they’ve found some great youngsters to replace them. Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, and Victor Martinez form a hell of a logjam at the top of the Indians’ lineup. They’ve even gotten 12 saves out of new closer Joe Borowski, who also checks in with a comical ERA of 9. With the great start by the Indians and the Browns’ selection of their franchise savior, things are looking up in Cleveland.

We’ve seen some absolutely brutal officiating in the past few months. The past few days has been astonishingly bad. In the NBA, the officiating at the end of last night’s game between Dallas and Golden State is being reviewed. And in Major League Baseball, teams are protesting umpire’s decisions. On Saturday night, umpires added an extra run for the Orioles…three innings after initially waving the run off.

“I don’t blame Eric for protesting the call since it was our screwup,” umpire Ed Montague said. “But we can’t take away a run on my screwup. Eric was great about it. He understood, but he had to protest.”

Once a play is over, it can’t be reversed unless the sport has some form of play review. Major League Baseball is not one of those sports so why are you adding a run three innings later? Grady Sizemore made a diving catch and threw to first base to double off Miguel Tejada. Nick Markakis tagged up from 3rd base and scored before Tejada was thrown out. It may have been a missed call. However, you can’t go back and add the run later. It’s just sketchy.

By allowing this run, Montague is opening up a can of worms that is not good for the league. It’s not like this was a blowout when the ruling was changed. After six innings, the score was 4-3 Indians. The added run tied up the game and the Orioles scored in the 8th and 9th to win it. I’m not going to suggest any corruption but if an umpire can do this, what’s stopping him from skewing any calls he wants? Baseball has had enough problem with game fixing. I don’t think they want any other whispers to start coming up.