The Cleveland Indians completed the first third of its schedule last night with a 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
It gave the Tribe their 30th win of the season, putting them on a pace to win 90 games this season. We would say that would give them a pretty good shot at their first playoff appearance since 2013.
Terry Francona’s club does have the third best ERA in the American League, which is kind of expected because this squad is built around their pitching staff, particularly the starting rotation.
The surprise is the Indians rank 4th in the AL in runs scored per game, and they have done it without Michael Brantley, who has played just 11 games this season.
Despite the veteran acquisitions over the winter, signing Mike Napoli, Rajai Davis, and Juan Uribe, the offense is being led by two kids, 22-year-old Francisco Lindor, and 23-year-old Jose Ramirez.
This is not to minimize Napoli’s presence in the middle of the order. He is on pace to belt 30 home runs and knock in over 100, something the Tribe has lack since the days of Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez.
And by the way, Napoli has more RBIs right now than the man everyone wanted the Indians to trade for in the off-season, the White Sox’ Todd Frazier.
But we digress.
It was expected that Lindor would be a key to the 2016 Indians, but most people figured he would have a slight decline offensively, since his big league numbers far exceeded his hitting stats in the minors.
We have been preaching about how special the shortstop is since his minor league days, and it appears he is one of those athletes who gets better when the lights are brighter.
The switch-hitter is batting .308 (804 OPS) with 5 HRs and 26 RBI and it seems he provides a sparkling defensive play each and every night. And his enthusiasm for the game is contagious.
Even at 22, he is an unquestioned leader on this ballclub.
He has now played 152 games at the big league level and has a .311 batting average, with 17 HR and 77 RBI (824 OPS).
And he should get even better.
The folks in the front office at Carnegie and Ontario should be thinking of tying his guy up for a long, long time, because his price tag goes up each and every day.
Ramirez is the bigger surprise, since he figured to be a utility player once the regular season started. The injury to Brantley put him in an everyday role, and he has flourished.
Also, a switch-hitter, JRam struggled last year playing shortstop, which is not his natural position. He was hitting under .200 and not making the routine plays defensively.
This year, he has made the step up, playing everyday at either LF or 3B, he’s hitting .317 with an 846 OPS, and is among the top ten in the AL in on base percentage at .387.
And at 23, you have to figure he will get better as well.
This isn’t to minimize others contributions to the Indians’ early success. Josh Tomlin is 8-1, Danny Salazar has become one of the AL’s best starters, we have talked about Napoli, and Jason Kipnis has played, like, well, Jason Kipnis.
The catalysts, at least offensively, have been Lindor and Ramirez.
And with guys like Bradley Zimmer, Clint Frazier (hitting over .300 in the pitching rich Eastern League), Giovanny Urshela, Mike Clevinger, etc., the Cleveland Indians are poised to make some noise in the American League.
That includes this season.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 