Cleveland Indians Summer Check Up
Cleveland Indians
34-29 (First in NL West)
Eye Popping Number
4.4
Jose Ramirez broke onto the scene in 2016 as a super utility
player that hit for a good average. Last year, Ramirez made the leap to MVP
candidate. This season he’s making the case for best non-Mike Trout player in
baseball. With a 4.4 Wins Above Replacement, Ramirez is well on pace to top his
6.9 WAR he put up last season. Not only is he doing it with his bat (second in
the MLB in home runs with 19, top 10 in doubles and runs), but he’s already
produced more wins with his glove and base running so far this year than he did
all of last season. Usually a war of 9 wins you an MVP easily, except he’s
contending with Mike Trout and Mookie Betts this year, so it’ll be interesting
if anyone slumps or gets hurt to make the race even more interesting.
Biggest Surprise
In the 2016 postseason, the Indians revolutionized the way
most teams viewed how they used their bullpens. The back end of Andrew Miller
and Cody Allen was as dominant as could be. They followed up that magical
postseason with the second most valuable bullpen in baseball last year behind
the Yankees, and had far and away the best bullpen ERA. So it would figure that
this year they would be able to shut teams down in the late innings again, but that
couldn’t be further from the truth. The Indians have the worst bullpen in
baseball this year. They have the worst WAR, ERA, home run rate and just barely
second worst left on base percentage (meaning if someone gets on base there’s a
good chance they’ll score). There are a couple of reasons for this, Miller has
been hurt, Mike Clevinger has moved to the starting rotation, and Bryan Shaw and
Joe Smith signed with other teams in the offseason (but they’ve been terrible
this year too and wouldn’t help their case). That still doesn’t explain Allen’s
fall from grace or the whole staff just falling apart. Luckily their starting
rotation is so good they don’t have to pitch much.
Player to watch
I want to put Francisco Lindor here just for his infectious
smile, as well as his on field play, but I’m going to go with someone
different. Tyler Trevor Bauer has finally started to live up to his first round selection back in 2011. After being a solid, but not great, innings eater that strikes people out, Bauer has become a legitimate #2 being Corey Kluber this season. He's on pace to set a new career high in ERA (2.62) even though he's never had an ERA below 4.00 in a season before. He's also on pace to throw over 200 strikeouts in a season for the first time in his career, while also giving up the least amount of home runs, a good recipe for success. Once the Indians get to the postseason, a Kluber-Bauer 1-2 punch will stack up with just about any team they will have to face.
What to Watch for at the Deadline
Bullpen. Bullpen. Bullpen. The Indians are going to make the
postseason. The AL Central has been the worst division in baseball all season,
with the Indians being the only contender. But once they get there, are they
going to trust anyone that comes out after their starter gives them 7 solid
innings? Probably not. Unless Miller comes back healthy and Allen suddenly
wakes up out of his funk. But that still leaves probably two more spots that
need to be filled in order to be effective. Oliver Perez was signed last week
and has done a solid role as a left handed specialist so far, and that leaves
another open spot. The San Diego Padres would be a good target so they can pick
up multiple arms in one swift move like Craig Stammen, Kirby Yates, and Adam
Climber. The Baltimore Orioles have the same situation where they’re trying to
sell and have multiple guys like Mychal Givens, Richard Bleier and Zach
Britton. In the division, a pair of shut down arms in Kelvin Herrera (Kansas
City) and Joakim Soria (Chicago White Sox) will be available as rentals. The
Indians need to pick up as many of these guys as possible to prepare for
October.
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