spot that figures to burn for a while on the North Coast.

Mr. Show Pack and The BLCWhen 2008 began, Shoppach and the good S.S. Choo were thought to be on the outside of the Indians’ plans going forward, blocked by entrenched stars (Victor), young players who performed well in 2007 (Gutz), or “similar” players being paid more money (The Looch). It was thought that Shoppach would simply provide depth at C and see a few more starts behind the dish with Victor playing up the line more frequently to reduce the burden on him physically. With Choo, coming off of TJ surgery and out of options, the hope was that they could at least find him a spot to keep him on the roster, perhaps taking AB fromDellucci from time to time so the team could better evaluate whether he was a strict platoon OF or if he merited more of a look as an everyday OF. For both, AB looked to be scarce and a good read on either seemed unlikely when the year started.

Of course, Victor then Hafner hit the shelf and these two essentially replaced them in the lineup. Maybe not in their spots in the lineup (certainly not at the beginning), but their AB went ostensibly to Shoppach as C and Choo as an OF (as Dellucci was relegated to DH duty and Gutierrez’s struggles continued). What the two of them did as a response to getting regular playing time serves as the great revelations of the 2008 season. Since the