Tribe bats non-existent in fourth straight loss
September 16, 2014Browns vs. Saints: Behind the Box Score
September 16, 2014Having the luxury of watching Corey Kluber pitch on a weekly basis has been one of the few fortunate occurrences of the 2014 MLB season. Kluber has endeared himself to Cleveland on the mound (where he’s been nearly unhittable) and off of it where he spearheads memes about teammates (Scott Atchison is so old…). And while Kluber has shown Cy Young qualities throughout the season, it’s tough to compare him to other pitchers who we may not see every fifth game. There is a predominant group of baseball fans in Cleveland who, at the end of the day, are just Indians fans.1
The good news is, myopic fandom aside, Kluber’s stardom is real. The Indians may be out of the postseason hunt, but it surely has not been for a lack of support from the emotionless one. His innings pitched have been workhorse-like. He misses bats and walks no one. He’s outdueled the best, and stepped up at the worst. He does things like this on the regular.
And this.
And this.
But will all of the missed bats and pinpoint accuracy net him the award for the league’s best pitcher? More often than not, the Cy Young award goes to a pitcher on a winning team. Back of the envelope math, the Indians are going to fall well short of 90 wins this season. But if you take a look at this piece from Beyond the Box Score, the Tribe’s ace should be in line for the biggest pitching award of the year, regardless of the rest of Cleveland’s shortcomings.
There is no doubt that this is a difficult selection to make, but in the end I’d select Corey Kluber. Amongst the pitchers I suggested as candidates, Kluber has thrown the second most innings and been the best pitcher in those innings. While you can’t fault Felix for having a great defense, or Sale for throwing fewer innings, those are important aspects of evaluating starting pitchers and should probably be integrated into the decision making process for handing out a pitching award.
Kluber has been a bright part of Cleveland’s 2014 season in which they almost ran down another wild card berth. The good news for Cleveland fans is that Mr. Kluber is under team control through 2018. Hopefully he can continue to be the strongpoint of their rotation that he has been in this Cy Young-worthy 2014 effort.
The piece looks at WAR, innings pitched, ERA, FIP, strikeout rate and walk rate. Given Seattle’s ascension and potential AL Wild Card appearance, it’s hard to see any scenario where Felix Hernandez doesn’t get the nod. Of course, there’s Max Scherzer and Detroit, a team that also appears to be playoff bound. Scherzer, however, has been worth a full win less than Kluber. Hernandez, despite having to face the hard-hitting Los Angeles Angels, but Kluber has on average faced opponents with a .716 OPS, while Felix has battled opponents with .710.
Also mentioned: This.
What gets cut off as the ball trickles into left-center field is Kluber, jogging from the mound to behind home plate where he would ultimately have to back-up any subsequent wayward throw, looking like he was about to vomit or punch someone or both. Felix has had an insanely lucky BABiP this season—Kluber has had an extra 28 base runners to deal with on this stat alone. The Tribe defense has been atrocious all season long, a factor that gets overlooked when looking at arcane items like ERA and—gulp—wins.
In his last outing, though having thrown well over 200 innings, Kluber went 8 1/3, fanning seven and walking none. He should be in line for a few more starts, assuming the team doesn’t shut him down, where he could very well add to his already incredible 2014 résumé. As a Tribe fan, I’ll be shocked (but elated) if Kluber gets his name placed atop the Cy Young ballots of the baseball writers who have had every reason to overlook Cleveland this season. There’s no doubt, however, that Kluber deserves it.
- Ask a group of proclaimed baseball fans who is leading the National League East in wins. If the NL is off limits, try inquiring about who’s leading the AL in home runs, saves or ERA. [↩]
5 Comments
IF KLUBER WINS THE CY YOUNG AWARD THAT MEANS WE WILL TRADE HIM NEXT SEASON!!!
/Dolanomics
It’s not just Indians fans. Stat guys have been all over Kluber since 2013. The Corey Kluber Society started for a reason.
It’s a shame that his 85pitch CG-ShO didn’t come later in the year. That is the type of buzz he’d need to get the Cy Young despite not making the playoffs. Maybe Tito can tell him he’s on a 100pitch limit in his next start so that he’ll do it again 😉
NOPE!
Kluber deserves consideration. However, it’s the media that votes on the annual awards and the media at large, much like its own fan base, views the Cleveland Indians as largely irrelevant. Once Kluber gets traded to the Yankees, Dodgers or Red Sox in the offseason, he will stand a better chance of being recognized.
It’s okay because when we trade him we’ll finally get that power bat we’ve been looking for!! Three cheers for Matt LaPorta!!!