In the American League, the home run is king.

A look at the teams who lead the league in dingers closely resembles those who have the best records.  Here are the top five teams in hitting the long ball:

Texas (31-19)          76
Baltimore (29-21)  75
New York (26-23)  74
Toronto (26-24)     68
Chicago (28-22)      62

Where do the Cleveland Indians rank in this category?  12th, ahead of only the Royals and Twins, who coincidentally are the two worst teams in the league.

This is just another statistic that doesn’t bode well for the rest of this season.  And one of the players who is supposed to provide pop for this offense, Travis Hafner, just went on the disabled list (again!) with a knee injury.

This means the Indians lack the ability to have a big inning with one swing of the bat.  In a lineup with several holes in it, this means they are dependent on having to bunch several hits, and that is tough to do consistently.

If you think that home runs aren’t the end all, be all and you getting extra base hits is just as important, here are the AL leaders in team slugging percentage:

Texas (31-19)           .475
Boston (25-24)        .456
New York (26-23)  .455
Baltimore (29-21)  .440
Chicago (28-22)      .421

The Tribe ranks 11th in this category at .383, ahead of only Minnesota, Seattle, and Oakland, three teams all at least six games under the .500 mark.

This just reiterates what we’ve known about the American League for years.  Yes, pitching dominates in the post-season, but to get there in the AL, you have to score runs.

One of the seasons they can’t score runs is they have no power.

Yes, Progressive Field is a pitcher’s park, and that hampers the offense.  And they do have better success hitting on the road.  But they still don’t have a guy who can come up with two guys on and put three runs on the board with one swing.

It was striking over the weekend in the series against the White Sox, and yes, they play in a great hitters’ park.  Still, they have three players (Paul Konerko, Dayan Viciedo, and Adam Dunn) with more that 10 HR’s, and A. J. Pierzynski has eight.

As a point of reference, that number (8) would be tied for the Indians’ team lead with Jason Kipnis.

And only the now injured Hafner (6) has more than five home runs for Cleveland.

You can’t compete in this league without being able to hit for power, and this has been a theme for the last few years.  Last year, the Indians ranked 10th in home runs, and in 2010, they ranked 12th.

They started off 2012 by hitting the long ball, hitting 16 in the first nine games of the season.  But, they’ve hit just 25 in the last 40 contests, which over a full season comes to just 100 dingers.  That’s a paltry figure in today’s game.

You can overcome not getting the home run if you hit for a high average as a team, somewhere in the .270-.280 range.  Alas, the Tribe’s team average is just .248, ranking 10th in the league, right behind the Orioles, who have scored 22 more runs.

To be fair, the Indians’ offense is the best of the non-home run teams.  They rank seventh in the AL in average runs per game, and every team they trail has hit 20 more home runs.

You will often notice the Tribe plays many games where they have one big inning, and struggle to put together anything for the balance of the game.  That’s because that’s the inning they string a lot of hits together.  Manny Acta’s bunch doesn’t have a lot of one run innings, where someone hits a bomb and that’s it.

There is really no way this Indians team is going to start blasting balls all over the park, so they have to come up with ways to overcome it.  One way has already been a success, the ability to draw walks.

It’s just a tough way to play the game in the American League.

MW