• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

2017 Cleveland Indians

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
What Austin Jackson has done this year is really remarkable, having an offensive year like this this late into his career. I wanted to see what he's been doing differently between this year and the recent past, and there are two primary differences.

The first being his patience. I know I've heard about this on broadcasts earlier in the year. He has a 10.1% BB rate this season, his second highest mark in 8 seasons in the majors. (Fun fact, Carlos Carrasco leads the Indians in walk rate this year at 20%, one walk in 5 PAs... Michael Martinez is third). Even more important, is Jackson's hitting with 2 strikes this year. According to STATS, Jackson is hitting .257 with 2 strikes (37 for 144), good for 6th in the AL.

But the other primary difference is his launch angle. There's been a lot of talk about this in the MLB this year, as a ton of guys are raising their launch angle to get the ball in the air more and hoping to hit more home runs. But Jackson's on the other end of the spectrum. Here's his launch angle Statcast breakdowns on hits over the last 3 seasons:

From left to right: 2015 (.267 AVG), 2016 (.254 AVG), 2017 (.306 AVG)

314p3l5.png


Obviously the 2017 breakdown is the outlier, as Jackson is getting a ton more hits on balls around 0 degree launch angle. This simply means he's getting a ton more ground ball base hits this year. Whether or not this is on purpose, we don't know, but it's one of the lone outliers of this season vs his others.

Even his exit velocity numbers are nothing out of the ordinary this season, and he has the lowest line-drive percentage since 2011.

So with this info, you'd expect his BABIP to be at a career high in order to maintain .300+ average, and it is:
BABIP 2015: .342
BABIP 2016: .319
BABIP 2017: .370

Another minor area that reflects this change is GIDP's. This stat has a ton of variance, but this is interesting: only Edwin Encarnacion (18) has grounded into more double plays this season than Jackson (12). And that's in well over double the plate appearances for Edwin.

I keep waiting for Jackson's numbers to fall off some, but they just won't. He had 3 ground-ball hits tonight that prompted me to make this post lol.
 
Last edited:
CavsFanJapan said:
Driving 3 and 1/2 hours to Seattle on Saturday to take my son to his first MLB game. Exciting times!! We will be on the Indians side (of course) down left field line, 5 rows back. Maybe a foul ball will come our way.
Click to expand...
went to a game at safeco middle of august, and holy shit, if you have a clear day the views out of that stadium are fantastic. We sat upper deck behind home play off to the first base side and just spectacular.

have a blast!

coming from bainbridge?
 
1. Dodgers 96-55 (----) 2 @ PHI, 3 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 3 @COL

2. Indians 94-57 (2 GB) 2 @ LAA, 3 @ SEA, 3 vs. MIN, 3 vs. CHW

3. Astros 92-58 (3.5 GB) 2 vs. CHW, 3 vs. LAA, 3 @ TEX, 4 @ BOS

4. Nats 91-59 (4.5 GB) 2 @ ATL, 3 @ NYM, 3 @ PHI, 4 vs. PIT
 
Last edited:
Urban said:
1. Dodgers 96-55 (----) 2 @ PHI, 3 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 3 @COL

2. Indians 94-57 (2 GB) 2 @ LAA, 3 @ SEA, 3 vs. MIN, 3 @ CHW

3. Astros 92-58 (3.5 GB) 2 vs. CHW, 3 vs. LAA, 3 @ TEX, 4 @ BOS

4. Nats 91-59 (4.5 GB) 2 @ ATL, 3 @ NYM, 3 @ PHI, 4 vs. PIT
Click to expand...

Tribe's last 3 games vs the White Sox are actually at home.
 
bob2the2nd said:
went to a game at safeco middle of august, and holy shit, if you have a clear day the views out of that stadium are fantastic. We sat upper deck behind home play off to the first base side and just spectacular.

have a blast!

coming from bainbridge?
Click to expand...
Portland, Oregon.
 
Urban said:
1. Dodgers 96-55 (----) 2 @ PHI, 3 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 3 @COL

2. Indians 94-57 (2 GB) 2 @ LAA, 3 @ SEA, 3 vs. MIN, 3 vs. CHW

3. Astros 92-58 (3.5 GB) 2 vs. CHW, 3 vs. LAA, 3 @ TEX, 4 @ BOS

4. Nats 91-59 (4.5 GB) 2 @ ATL, 3 @ NYM, 3 @ PHI, 4 vs. PIT
Click to expand...
ill be honest im not really worried bout the dodgers right now. I think the way they have been playing the indians will pass them, maybe even the nats as well.

My concern is those damn pesky astros, i would love for them to lose a couple of games and give the indians some breathing room.
 
Rosenthal on Kluber and the MVP

I'll tell you something that sticks in my craw: Justin Verlander’s MVP award in 2011. Don’t get me wrong—Verlander had a terrific season, going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA in 251 innings. But my fellow voters from the Baseball Writers Association of America fell for a narrative that year, and remain inconsistent in how they view starting pitchers for the award.

Which brings me to Cleveland Indians right-hander Corey Kluber. There’s no question that he deserves the American League Cy Young Award—Kluber is 17-4, and his 2.35 ERA is more than a half-run better than Chris Sale’s 2.86. But based on Verlander’s victory in ’11, Kluber belongs in the MVP conversation, too.

Infielder Jose Ramirez and shortstop Francisco Lindor are the more obvious MVP candidates from the Indians. Yet, Kluber is second in the AL to the Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve in baseballreference.com’s version of Wins Above Replacement and is third in Fangraphs’ version (Sale is first). Kluber’s park-adjusted ERA, meanwhile, is better than Verlander’s was in 2011, as are his strikeout and walk rates.

Granted, Verlander threw a significantly higher number of innings than Kluber, who missed nearly a month with a lower back strain and is at 191 2/3. Clayton Kershaw, though, threw a mere 198 1/3 innings when he won the NL MVP in 2014. Yes, Kershaw’s 1.77 ERA that year was the eighth-lowest by a pitcher since 1920 in a non-strike-shortened season. But Jake Arrieta had the same ERA in 30 2/3 more innings the following season and finished sixth for MVP. Huh?

To be sure, each year is different. You don’t hear the MVP groundswell for Kluber that you did for Verlander in part because Kluber’s position-player competition—most notably Altuve, Ramirez, Lindor, and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge—is more formidable. Still, since coming off the disabled list on June 1 Kluber has a 1.69 ERA in 154 1/3 innings, with 211 strikeouts and 21 walks.

My general preference is to vote for a position player who grinds it out every day. I had an AL MVP vote in 2011 and went with Jacoby Ellsbury first and Verlander second—in retrospect, I probably should have placed Verlander lower. For a starting pitcher to win the award, his season had better be historic, or darn close to it—Kershaw in ’14, Arrieta in ’15 and, for that matter, Zack Greinke and his 1.66 ERA in ’15. Don’t feed me the silly argument that a starting pitching usually will face as many or more batters than a position player makes plate appearances. The position player is on the field for countless more innings, also contributing with defense and baserunning.

Voters are instructed to consider, “actual value of a player to his team; that is, strength of offense and defense,” as well as “number of games played.” Pitchers, however, are not specifically excluded from consideration. The instructions also state, “There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means.” Allowing us, in essence, to interpret the instructions any way we want.

I’m not saying Kluber should be MVP. I’m saying he deserves the same consideration that Verlander received in 2011. Consistency, please.
Click to expand...
 
Michael Baumann from The Ringer wrote sort of an early primer on the four teams to clinch playoff spots so far and I love his "The Case For" passage regarding the Indians (especially the highlighted):

The Case For: Well, they went 94-67 last year and took the Cubs to Game 7 of the World Series, and this year they’re healthier and, in several key spots, better than they were in 2016. Imagine last year’s team but if Trevor Bauer pitched like Carlos Carrasco, Carrasco pitched like Corey Kluber, and Kluber pitched like turn-of-the-century Randy Johnson. That’s not an exaggeration—in MLB history there have been 10 instances in which a qualified starting pitcher has recorded a 180 ERA+ and a K/9 ratio of 11 or higher: six by the Big Unit, three by Pedro Martinez (all nine of those seasons between 1995 and 2002), and Kluber this year. Last year, José Ramírez was Francisco Lindor’s sidekick, but now he’s playing like Lindor’s clone, and Cleveland’s so good that Ramírez’s ascent to MVP contention has been pushed into “oh, by the way” territory.

Cleveland also leads the MLB in run differential and wins above average, the latter by a huge margin: 24.2 to 17.6 for second-place Arizona. Apart from win total, if you’re looking for one single number to determine how good a team is, run differential and wins above average are probably the best places to start.
Click to expand...
 
Since Zimmer and Brantley look like they both will not be available for the playoffs, should we put Allen on the playoff roster as a bench guy?
 
Brantley will just have to be our World Series spark plug, as Schwarber was to the Cubs last year
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-15: "Cavs Survive and Advance"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:15: Cavs Survive and Advance
Top