The Cleveland Indians set an MLB record last season with 1,450 strikeouts as a pitching staff, 946 of them coming from the starting rotation. The staff ERA of 3.56 sat in the middle of the league, but that was largely thanks to the five starters who filled in the back end of the rotation behind Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Danny Salazar. Each of those starters made at least 14 starts and a few, particularly Justin Masterson, Zach McAllister, and Josh Tomlin, were terrible. Having banished each of those pitchers from the rotation (Boston, bullpen and DL respectively), the starting five is even better than the record setting staff in 2014.
Kluber still leads the pack and is second in the AL, third in all of Major League Baseball, with 154 strikeouts, but the rest aren’t far behind him. Carlos Carrasco ranks fourth in the AL in K’s (122), Danny Salazar fifth (116), and Trevor Bauer 13th (102). These four have been among the best in baseball all season and show well on the WAR rankings as well, with Kluber ranking second in the AL (but will not be featured in the All-Star game), Carrasco 9th, Salazar 17th, and Bauer 26th. Only the White Sox also have two starters in the top ten (Chris Sale at one and Jeff Samardzija at ten) and only the Athletics join the Indians with four within the top 30.
All that being in place, the Indians’ most impressive starter in recent weeks has been their newest addition, the number five starter Cody Anderson. Anderson has already set MLB records for consecutive games to start a career with at least six innings pitched and one or less runs allowed. He is now four games in and didn’t allow an earned run in his first 14 innings pitched and has already thrown his first complete game, an eight inning, one run loss against Pittsburgh. In addition to allowing one or less run in each start so far, he has allowed six or fewer hits, good for a 0.89 ERA and 0.66 WHIP.
CLEVELAND, OH – JULY 09: Starting pitcher Cody Anderson #56 of the Cleveland Indians pitches during the first inning against the Houston Astros at Progressive Field on July 9, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Mr. Anderson was the Indians top pitching prospect when he was promoted to fill the 5th spot, but he wasn’t considered one of the best around baseball. This start is a surprise to everyone, including Anderson, who never pitched through the eighth inning during his minor league career. Not a strikeout pitcher like the rest of the staff and bullpen, Anderson has been taking advantage of the improved Indians infield defense thanks to Francisco Lindor and Giovanny Urshela, both of whom played with Anderson in Columbus earlier this year. His 48.9% ground ball rate and this improved defense helps explain why he can have the second worst FIP on the team (3.51) along with the best ERA.
Last week, the Indians set a new Major League mark with four starting pitchers with at least 100 strikeouts before the All-Star Break, with 549 total between the ten starters used this year (Zach McAllister, T.J. House, Toru Murata, Shaun Marcum, and Bruce Chen were general disappointments before settling with Anderson) and 805 in total by the pitching staff. That’s 22 more than the next best Dodgers who have played two more games than the Indians.
Of course, with all this talent, the question could be why are their ERAs and win/loss records not up to the level of the best in baseball? The answer is generally why most who analyze baseball players have moved on from these stats (Ned Yost is not one of those who has moved on, however, hence all the Indians starters being looked over for the All-Star Game). For ERA, even with the improved defense, the Indians are still the third worst team in the AL (5th from the bottom in MLB) defensively, allowing 12 more runs than the average defense this year. This is almost entirely thanks to an extremely poor defensive outfield where Michael Brantley has often had to play out of position in center and utility infielder Mike Aviles often playing in left field. Starting right fielder Brandon Moss is nothing special with the glove and Michael Bourn has been a disappointment since signing.
As for the win-loss records, the bulk of the blame sits on the offense. The Indians have only averaged 3.9 runs per game anyway, but when their ace is on the mound that number drops to 2.3. What started as a joke of small sample sizes now seems a curse as Kluber has won just four games this year despite having nine starts (of 19) where he has allowed two or fewer runs in six or more innings. The most egregious offense was a nine inning, 12 K, one run no decision on May 18th that the Indians eventually lost in extra innings. Four of Kluber’s ten losses have come in games where he allowed two or fewer runs. If nothing else, hopefully this will help place the pitcher win in the category of pointless trivia in the future.
SEATTLE, WA – MAY 28: Closing pitcher Cody Allen #37 of the Cleveland Indians pitches against the Seattle Mariners in the ninth inning at Safeco Field on May 28, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. Cleveland defeated the Mariners 5-3. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
While this has been about the Indians starting rotation, it would be unfair not to credit Cody Allen, who is the emperor among Cleveland’s strikeout kings. Among AL pitchers with at least 30 innings, Allen is second in K/9 with a 13.98 (props to the Yankees’ Dellin Betances) and he ranks second in total K’s as well with 58. While he has posted a 3.13 ERA, Allen is another pitcher where a game-by-game analysis is necessary. In two appearances in April against Detroit and Chicago, Allen allowed eight earned runs in one total inning. He was hurt by the outfield defense particularly badly in one game, but lack of range has saved the team errors and hamstrung the starters with earned runs.
Since that second bad game on April 20th, Allen has a 1.35 ERA, a .167 BAA, 50 strikeouts in 33.1 innings and 16 saves in 16 attempts. Going back to May 26th, Allen has allowed a 0.00 ERA, a .143 BAA, 31 strikeouts in 19 innings, and ten saves in ten chances.
The current Indians five-man rotation is the best in baseball at the moment and the best in Cleveland since at least 1968. With a dynamite closer, solid set up men in Bryan Shaw and McAllister, and a rotation where each man can easily burn through a lineup three times, all the Indians need to win is the other half of a team, those guys who play defense and hit. The good news is they have some time to fix that aspect of the team, each of the current five are under team control through at least 2020 and are 29 or younger.
