Cliff Lee cements his spot

As Terry Pluto writes, Cliff Lee pitched awfully well yesterday against the Mets, and will probably be the fifth starter when the season opens in eight days.

Lee went five scoreless innings, striking out five, walking one and giving up four hits -- none of them hit all that hard. Frankly, he looked like the guy who won 46 games from 2004 to 2006, and not the guy who went 5-8 with a 6-plus ERA in 2007. And, as Les Levine points out, the Indians can made a change if Lee doesn't do well. Lee says his sore ribs were the problem last year, and considering how successful he was before that, I believe him.

Speaking of Indians who had off-years in 2007, ESPN's Amy Nelson has written a feature on Travis Hafner and how he's hoping for a nice bounce-back year. Hafner's '07 was a lot better than Lee's, but still, he wasn't the hitter we'd gotten used to.