Grady Sizemore

If you watch Cleveland Indians baseball or "you are in the Tribe," then you know the Indians are on a hot start in 2011.

After winning eight straight, including sweeps of the Red Sox and Mariners, the Indians are looking like they want to take charge of an AL Central that is up for grabs.

Wake up Cleveland! There is a contender in town and I'm not talking about the Lake Erie Monsters, either!

After dropping their first two games to the Chicago White Sox, the Indians have been on fire, rattling off seven wins in a row—taking a broom to both the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. Sure, this could be just a fluke, right? Both the Red Sox and Mariners have struggled early. Plus the Tribe are supposed to finish in the American League cellar, according to almost every sports writer in America.

The 2011 baseball season has barely begun, but there are some positive signs for the Cleveland Indians.

Pitchers deep in the rotation have pitched late into ballgames against the talent laden squads of Chicago and Boston.

Names like Carlos Santana, Orlando Cabrera and Jack Hannahan have provided offensive pop for the Tribe.

Perhaps most notably, however, is the resurgence of Indians DH Travis Hafner.

The opening month of the season is a time for optimism around baseball, as everyone is still in the running at that point. Still, there are clearly teams that will not be in that position for long, and they need to look ahead to what moves they may make at mid season to strength their team moving forward.

There are a number of intriguing options who may find themselves on the trade block sooner rather than later, with no name larger than Prince Fielder, who has been at the center of trade rumors for what seems like years now.

As the Indians continue to rebuild, this season's storylines revolve around the development of young guys like Matt Laporta and Carlos Santana.

Grady Sizemore's health is another thing to keep an eye on.  He's in the final year of his contract, and if he can stay on the field and contribute his trade value will increase if the Indians decide to shop him.

It's going to take time in Cleveland.

There is hope for a victorious recovery. 

As many Cleveland Indians fans remember, center fielder Grady Sizemore spent the majority of last season on the disabled list.  It took Sizemore just under a year to fully recover from microfracture surgery to repair his knee.

Now, in spring training, after slowly incorporating more drills into his routine, Sizemore is back at his home position in center, even if just for a few innings at a time.

After two disappointing seasons where he only played in 139 total games, Cleveland Indians outfielder Grady Sizemore seems primed and ready for a revival year. 

After only missing nine games from 2005 to 2008, Sizemore hit an unexpected injury bug in 2009, where he injured both his elbow and abdomen, and in 2010 where a microfracture surgery on his knee ended his season after only 33 games.

With the status of Grady Sizemore uncertain for Opening Day, and Austin Kearns' off-the-field issues still pending, the Cleveland Indians have turned to a relatively unfamiliar face this Spring Training for stability in the outfield: Travis Buck.

Buck has logged 39 at-bats this Spring Training, tied for first on the team, while appearing in 13 games. 

The Cleveland Indians can’t possibly be much worse than they have been each of the last two two seasons. After going 65-97 in 2009, Cleveland improved slightly last season winning 69 games. They once again finished in fourth place in the AL Central, but could be looking at a last place finish in 2011.

Ladies and gentlemen, the calendar has turned to March and that means that spring training is well underway and the start of the 2011 Major League Baseball season is just weeks away. It's the best time of the year, forget football and all those other sports, baseball is where it's at.

With a new year comes new and in some cases renewed optimism. Whether or not your favorite team is able to put together a great year is irrelevant right now because everyone believes that they have a chance, they just need one or two things to go right for that to happen.