The Cleveland Indians are baseball’s most disappointing team through the first eight or nine games of the season. No one envisioned the starting pitching being this bad, and the offense has been feast or famine. Obviously, no team is as bad as it looks during a losing streak, but if the starters don’t start getting to the seventh inning, the big free agent buy of the off-season, Kerry Wood, is an expensive luxury.
You don’t need a dominant closer if you’re trailing 5-0 in the third inning of every game.
However, today’s blog is about the frustrating offense. The Indians have some good hitters, but once again the strikeouts are ridiculous. On Sunday, the Blue Jays’ David Purcey, DAVID PURCEY!!!, struck out 10 Cleveland hitters in 4-2/3 innings. This is not Nolan Ryan or Bob Feller we are talking about. It’s David Purcey.
Right now, the Tribe leads the league in whiffing at almost 10 per contest. This has been a weakness for this team before, but if anything, the problem has gotten worse. In Saturday’s game and Monday night’s contest, the Indians had situations where they had runners on second and third with no one out, a situation where you can and have to score two runs, because it can be done without getting another hit.
The Tribe scored no runs in both cases.
Saturday, both Ryan Garko and Kelly Shoppach struck out. Monday, Victor Martinez fanned and Travis Hafner bounced back to the mound. You can’t be a good situational hitting team if you don’t hit the baseball.
Grady Sizemore leads the whiffers with 12 strikeouts in eight games. I will say it again, Sizemore is too good of a hitter to be striking out this much. And after reading the comments in Bill James’ Gold Rush, he does try to pull the outside pitch too often. Why isn’t the hitting coach working with him on this weakness? Sizemore is already an all star player, but he could be an elite player if he made more contact and took the ball to leftfield when he is pitched away.
Mark DeRosa and Travis Hafner are next on the strikeout parade. When your 1, 2, and 4 hitters are fanning this much, it is a huge problem for the offense because a pitcher can get out of jams without having a ball put into play.
This is why the Tribe attack is inconsistent. When they are hitting the ball, they can score with anyone, but when they are not making contact, David Purcey can strike out 10 in less than five frames.
The pitching in general is a mess, and Rafael Perez’ struggles (18.00 ERA, no strikouts and six walks in five innings) have to be a concern. However, the strikeouts have been an issue for several years. No one has made it a priority to make contact in crucial situations.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 