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April 24, 2015Indians, Tigers rivalry MLB’s most lopsided since 2009: WFNY Stats & Info
April 24, 2015In 2014, the Cleveland Indians missed out on the postseason in part to a surging Kansas City Royals team. But—as we discussed several times—several losses throughout the course of the year were due largely to their dreadful defense—or more specifically, run prevention, an area where they were the worst in all of baseball. Had last season’s squad been merely average, fans could have been singing of even better tune heading into this spring, one that would have carried over from October. ((A negative-75 runs saved effectively equates to 7.5 wins. The Indians finished four games behind the World Series-representing Royals.))
Debatable metrics aside, Tribe skipper Terry Francona set out this year to have a team that flashed improved glovework, helping pitchers get out of jams, shorten innings, and allow for less reliance on the offense to win games. Jose Ramirez playing fulltime in place of Asdrubal Cabrera was to be just the tip of the iceberg, we were told. Thus far through 2015, however, this has been everything but the case.
Let’s let Fangraphs’ Mike Petriello take it from here:
With somewhat of an inflexible roster, management was limited in the moves they could make, so while things look similar, they aren’t identical. The Carlos Santana third base experiment is long over. Asdrubal Cabrera‘s adventures at shortstop are now Tampa Bay’s problem, with Jose Ramirez presenting a far superior defensive option. Yan Gomes‘ second half looked a lot better than his first half. Nick Swisher‘s achy knees haven’t yet appeared in a game. Tyler Holt showed defensive value as a backup outfielder late in the year. Jason Kipnis swore he was healthier after oblique and hamstring issues helped to tornado his 2014 season.
Story after story after story came up about the team’s focus on it this winter. This was never going to be a good defense, not with so much of the same cast and crew, but maybe enough had changed to think, okay, maybe this won’t be so bad. So how’s that going?
Team DRS
26) Phillies -8
27) Twins -10
28) Indians -12
29) Rangers -14
30) Nationals -15Almost certainly not unrelated, particularly given this pitching staff:
Team BABIP against
26) Yankees .309
27) Brewers .310
28) Mariners .314
29) Rangers .316
30) Indians .338
Even if you haven’t the faintest idea what “Team DRS” and “Team BABIP Against” are, know that ranking 28th and 30th, respectively, is not good. If you’d like to know why your favorite team is sitting with just five wins—just one more than Bartolo Colon, mind you—you’ll want to take one look at the defensive side of the ball. Sure, more runs would be nice. Sure, Cody Allen not imploding would be a bonus. But too many balls continue to fall to the grass; too many should-be outs are not capitalized upon.
This isn’t just to bag on the outfield. Indians pitchers aren’t helping themselves one bit by having a league-worst minus-7 in runs saved, five runs worse than the 27th-worst team in the game. This item is somewhat skewed and would be incredibly tough to sustain.
This, however…
Yeah, that’s totally unacceptable. And the worst part? It’s not Mike Aviles’ fault for being in center field at that point. He had just five innings of work in that spot over his entire career. The man preaching in the preseason about improved defense should have never had a utility infielder playing one of the most important positions on the field.
Making matters a bit muddier: No relief appears to be in sight. Francisco Lindor plays shortstop, which hasn’t been much of an issue. Yan Gomes will return soon, but he was one of the lone bright spots a season ago when the team was dreadful. Is Nick Swisher going to be a huge improvement in the outfield? Is Michael Bourn going to get younger? Will they somehow reacquire Josh Outman and ship him back to Colorado for Drew Stubbs? Outlook: Not so good.
Patriello’s hammer: There’s just too many fielders who shouldn’t be wearing gloves, and not enough DH spots to hide them in. While sample size may be to blame, the Indians appear to be doing themselves no favors when it comes to controlling the controllable. If they can’t right this ship soon, it’s shaping up to be another season of what-could-have-beens.
7 Comments
Absolutely correct and it befuddles me how the best defensive bench/Clipper players are duplicates of some of our stronger spots on the MLB team. Roberto, Lindor, and Holt are all strong on defense, but so are Yan, Ramirez, and Bourn.
Bourn and Ramirez haven’t been as strong as they have in the past, but they are still not part of this defensive problem. Having a bench with few defensive options is a big issue though.
Something not noted either way, but wanted to plug: Lonnie Chisenhall has not been a problem in the field this season. He may regress (he wasn’t good in ST), but thus far he has been adequate in the field, which is more than can be said for many spots.
Of 25 qualified (by # of innings) 3B, Lonnie ranks 8th.
“It’s not Mike Aviles’ fault for being in center field at that point.”
Cannot be said enough!
Oh, and this too: “There’s just too many fielders who shouldn’t be wearing gloves, and not enough DH spots to hide them in.”
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Hate to say it, but I don’t think the Indians are going anywhere this season. That may seem harsh after only 14 games, but I’ve already given up on the idea of the Tribe contending this season. In addition to the bad defense I see no signs that this team will start hitting any time soon either. Its a shame too, because our pitching staff is legit. Ill keep watching and hoping for the best, but I cant say that I feel good about this team right now, at all.
“I see no signs that this team will start hitting any time soon either”
I do. They won’t maintain a .258 BABIP all season, or a .212 BABIP w/ RISP. Just through sheer dumb luck they’re going to find a few more holes when runners are on base. And I’ll bet more than a few bucks that they don’t end up with five regulars (including Brantley) having an OPS+ this season that is below Alvaro Espinoza’s career mark.
Not to mention NONE of them hit well enough to be a DH.