We were discussing the Indians’ recent winning streak with a group of friends the other night, and the talk turned to the state of baseball in general and how different the game is now than when we were growing up.
Now, before you go further, without giving away our ages, we remember when the Tribe wore the vested uniforms with the red shirts underneath, and the strength of the team was the starting rotation of Sam McDowell, Sonny Siebert, and Luis Tiant.
True confession, we aren’t “get off my lawn” guys either. In fact, several of us knew about OPS and sabermetrics for over 30 years, and respect that view of the game.
The chat started with RBIs, which has been reduced in value as a statistic in today’s game along with batting average, and the lack of “RBI men” in today’s game.
We didn’t know who even led the league in ribbies right now, because no one talks about it. It’s all about OPS and slugging percentage, etc.
(The current leader is Pittsburgh’s Josh Bell with 98, followed by Freddie Freeman and Eduardo Escobar with 96. Rafael Devers, who tortured the Tribe this week, leads the AL with 94).
We know people think now that runs batted in is a product of getting more opportunities to do so, but we watched Manny Ramirez drive in 165, the most by anyone in the big leagues since 1938.
Yes, yes, Ramirez batted behind Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, and Roberto Alomar, who got on base a ton.
But Ramirez put the ball in play a lot of times to knock in runs with ground balls, fly balls, and base hits. He did hit for a .333 average that season.
We recently read that five worst home run to RBI ratios all time are held by active players. That comes from the notion now that strikeouts are fine, and putting the ball in play with a runner on third with less than two out is passe.
We still consider guys who hit for a high batting average very good hitters. Heck, we had one with the Indians for the past few years, and Michael Brantley ranks 5th in MLB in that stat at .328. But, those guys get overlooked because they don’t walk enough.
A similar case can be made for the Mets’ Jeff McNeil, who didn’t get to the bigs until he was 26 despite a .311 batting average in the minors, because he didn’t walk or drive the ball.
We commented that the Red Sox lineup is relentless because they have put together a lineup where everyone, save for CF Jackie Bradley Jr., hits .280 or better.
By contrast, the Tribe’s lineup has improved, but Terry Francona can only put three such players in his batting order: Frankie Lindor, Carlos Santana, and Tyler Naquin.
The Indians have put a premium on contact in the past few drafts, looking for players who are hitters first, and figuring they can teach driving the ball, much like Lindor and Jose Ramirez.
The problem in our eyes is the number of hitters who swing for the fences that probably shouldn’t be. A player like Rougned Odor with Texas comes to mind.
Odor has belted 69 homers since the beginning of the 2017 season, but has hit .204 in ’17 and currently this season. Wouldn’t he be a better player for the Rangers hitting less home runs and getting on base more often? He has a lifetime .292 on base percentage.
The game has changed for sure, but we aren’t sure it’s for the better. Striking out used to be embarrassing. Maybe it should be again.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 