After Saturday’s 7-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Indians completed their 27th game, hitting the 1/6th pole on the season.
What have we learned about this baseball team?
We have learned that the offense is about what most people figured it would be, which is a lot of feast and famine. The Indians rank fifth in the American League in runs scored, but through 27 games, they scored three runs or less in more than half of the contests (14).
On the other hand, they scored eight or more runs eight times. That leaves only five games where they scored between four and seven tallies.
That’s very inconsistent, although to be fair, they have been missing Michael Bourn for the last two weeks.
We have also learned that it appears Carlos Santana is becoming the all around hitter we thought he would be when he was called up in 2010. The switch-hitting catcher is batting .379 with six homers thus far, with an OPS of 1.160.
While it would be crazy to suggest he will end the year with those numbers, it looks like Santana is on his way to an outstanding season.
Free agent signee Mark Reynolds has also had a tremendous start, and is on his way to topping 30 HRs barring injury. He will have a period where he struggles, based on his past, but he seems to be getting better as a hitter, giving in a little bit with two strikes.
He doesn’t even lead the Tribe in striking out so far.
Asdrubal Cabrera (.222, 2 HR, 13 RBI), Jason Kipnis (.218, 2 HR, 10 RBI), and Lonnie Chisenhall (.231, 3 HR, 11 RBI) are all off to relatively slow starts, and should produce better as the season goes on, and some of the hot hitters tail off a bit.
We have learned that the Indians have quality depth in INF Mike Aviles and OF Ryan Raburn, both of whom have been very productive when called upon. Yan Gomes and Jason Giambi have contributed as well.
The bullpen has been very good as Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen have allowed Terry Francona to have five solid hard throwing right-handers at his disposal. And Rich Hill has done a good job as the ‘pen’s LOOGY (left-handed one out guy).
The starting rotation, which figured to be the club’s biggest weakness, has been strong lately, but had a shaky start.
Ubaldo Jimenez continues to be the biggest question mark, pitching well in his first start and last start, however, the three in between were brutal. At this point, Francona can’t know what he is going to get on a start-by-start basis.
The other wild card is southpaw Scott Kazmir, who has got better in each of his three starts, and looks to be a very pleasant surprise.
Zack McAllister has continued to show that he is solid, capable of keeping his team in the game in every start.
Justin Masterson was tremendous in his first five starts, but the last two have been so-so. He needs to go out there and give Francona seven quality frames on most nights.
The key going forward for the Tribe is the number of quality innings their starters can give them. They need to get to the sixth or seventh most of the time. Doing that will keep the bullpen fresh throughout the season.
The first checkpoint for the season shows the Tribe has held ground. They’ve been up and down, but they haven’t played themselves out of the race.
If they can be more consistent, both on offense and in starting pitching, it may be an enjoyable summer of baseball at Progressive Field.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 