Free Garko

The Cleveland Indians are paying a lot of attention to Ryan Garko this spring.

Garko proved to everybody in the organization that he could hit last season while he was filling in as the designated hitter for the injured Travis Hafner, he hit .292 with seven home runs and 45 RBI over the last month and a half batting cleanup. The Indians would like to see if Garko can play first base though after being converted from a catcher. That's why the coaching staff had him on his knees yesterday (The Indians base playing time the same way young starlets earn roles in movies) as they fired ground ball after ground ball at him.

"Last year taking ground balls in front of the whole staff would have affected me," he said.

"Now it doesn't bother me. First, I'm feeling pretty confident in what I'm doing. Second, if you can't do it in front of 10 coaches, how are you going to do it in front of 50,000 people in Chicago?"

I was pretty impressed with the little I saw of Ryan Garko last season, and I see 25 HR 80RBI potential in the kid, but the problem he faces is that Cleveland has a lot of guys with that kind of potential. What they don't have enough of is infielders who can catch the ball.

If Garko is going to earn a spot on the roster and supplant Casey Blake at first base, he might want to invest in some knee pads because he's going to have to spend a lot more time on his knees this spring.