Indians’ Struggles By The Numbers

Taking a page from Rick’s book today, I’m here with some illustrious stats about the Cleveland Indians. These aren’t the prettiest, so you might want to spare your kids from seeing these.

-51 – Indians’ run differential this season, sixth-worst in MLB. The team with the sixth-worst record is Houston at 32-43 (.427).

12-3 (.800) – CLE’s record in one-run games, the best percentage-wise in MLB. Baltimore is second-best at 13-6 (.684). This might explain how the team is shockingly still at .500 on the season. For comparison’s sake, no team has finished with a win percentage better than .636 in one-run games over the past three seasons.

10-9 (.526) – Indians’ record in two-run games, tied for 12th-best percentage-wise in MLB. San Francisco is best at 11-5 (.688). While this isn’t sensational, it’s still above average.

15-25 (.375) – Cleveland’s record in games decided by three runs or more, fourth-worst in MLB. San Diego is worst at 11-25 (.306). Yeah, that’s pretty bad. Chris Perez was right in saying the Indians tend to get blown out a lot.

29-2 (.935) – Indians’ record when leading after six innings, the sixth-best percentage-wise in MLB. Atlanta is best at 34-1 (.971). Kudos to the bullpen (more on them later).

262 – CLE’s walks on offense this season, sixth-most in MLB. Tampa Bay leads baseball with 281. At least we’re patient?

.216/.299/.326 – Batting stats for Indians against LHP this season, ranking 29/23/29, respectively, in MLB. The major league average against LHP is .250/.315/.401.

.195/.286/.288 – Batting stats for Cleveland left fielders this season, ranking 28/25/30, respectively, in MLB. The major league average for left fielders is .262/.331/.430.

.217/.276/.330 – Batting stats for Indians first basemen this season, ranking 24/28/29, respectively, in MLB. The major league average for first basemen is .253/.329/.430. So, in other words, a right-handed bat that plays LF and 1B would be super cool right about now. Carlos Lee, anyone?

258 – Walks allowed by Cleveland pitchers this season, seventh-most in MLB. San Diego has allowed the most at 291. There goes the whole patience thing.

4.62 – Indians team ERA this season, third-worst in MLB. The Colorado Rockies are worst at 5.43. Hooray, we’re better than Ubaldo Jimenez’s old team!

1.87 – Cleveland’s K/BB ratio this season, third-worst in MLB. The Chicago Cubs are worst at 1.83. Jon’s been talking about this all year. This is not a good sign.

2.70 – Combined ERA by Chris Perez, Vinnie Pestano and Joe Smith this season in 90.0 IP. That’s darn impressive.

5.87 – Combined ERA by all other Cleveland relievers this season in 133.1 IP. That’s not so good. Lots of decisions are need to be made soon about guys like Jeremy Accardo, Tony Sipp, Nick Hagadone and others that keep struggling.

Bonus number: .548 – Strength of schedule for the Indians’ remaining 11 games before the All-Star Break. Cleveland plays four games against Baltimore (41-33), three games against the LA Angels (42-33), and then four games against Tampa Bay (40-35).