The Union Square Browns Backers of NYC: A WFNY Documentary
December 3, 2014Browns to roll with Brian Hoyer against Colts
December 3, 2014Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year is an annual must-read. Sadly, that the national recognition rarely has anything to do with the teams or individuals whom we cover. In turn, WFNY will soon announce its choice for 2014’s Cleveland Sportsman of the Year. Here’s one of the nominations for that honor by an WFNY writer.
The 2014 American League Cy Young award was won on a beautiful July Wednesday at Progressive Field. Nobody in the mostly empty stands knew it, but after witnessing a pitching performance for the ages, it sealed the fates of that night’s two incredible starters.
It was Wednesday, July 30. The game was highly anticipated as it was set to feature a battle of the best: Seattle’ Felix Hernandez against Cleveland’s Corey Kluber. King Felix was in the middle of a legendary record-setting streak. Kluber was the up-and-comer, the underdog, the late-bloomer who was making a sudden Cy Young charge.
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The game was a baseball purist’s birthday wish. Completed in 130 minutes. No home runs. Only two walks and two runs total. Both were charged to Hernandez. Not only did Kluber defeat the five-time All-Star, but he did so in spectacular fashion.
Kluber’s final stat line: nine shutout innings, eight strikeouts, three hits and zeros everywhere else. In the process, he tossed 85 pitches, only 16 balls and faced just 28 batters. It was his second straight complete game with 28 batters faced. It was the fewest number of balls thrown in a nine-inning shutout since at least 1998. It was the ultimate kind of Greg Maddux.
When someone asks about Corey Kluber’s surprise 2014 Cy Young award, this is the night you should point out. Not his September, where he overtook Felix in season-long stats and went on a strikeout rampage. No, the Cy Young award was won in late July in an old-fashioned duel. The Texas gunslinger won.
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I will admit it boldly: I never thought Corey Kluber would be much as a major league starter. When he was acquired at the 2010 trade deadline, he was mostly an afterthought. Sure, he was a 24-year-old hard-throwing right-hander and the lone return in the three-team Jake Westbrook deal. But he seemed destined for a long-term future as a fifth starter or reliever. That was the majority opinion.
Look at the stats: He had a 5.19 ERA in 38 High-A minor league games. In his first Double-A stint, he walked 34 against only 35 strikeouts in 45 innings. It was a mild surprise that he was even added to the 40-man roster after the 2010 season, a few months after the trade. It’s not like he gave the organization that much more confidence afterwards, either.
In 2011, his first full season in Triple-A with Columbus, he went 7-11 with a 5.56 ERA. The walks were still too high. It wasn’t really until 2012, at the not-so-ripe age of 26, when he cemented his long-term major league future. Early on, he was leading the minors in strikeouts and all of professional baseball in strikeout ratio. The signs were starting to appear.
Yet, there I was, still on the bullpen bandwagon. In early May: “Last September, Kluber made three relief appearances for the Tribe and that likely will be his future stop in the pros.” In late May: “I’m pretty certain he could be an effective reliever soon for the big-league club.” In August, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Kluber eventually transitions to the bullpen.”
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By nature, an 85-win team is a largely forgettable one. The 2014 Cleveland Indians weren’t good enough to follow up entirely on last year’s wild card momentum. They weren’t bad enough to make the local fan base angry for immediate change.
If it weren’t for Kluber, however, the season would have been far, far worse. He finished with an 18-9 record and 269 strikeouts in 235.2 innings pitched. He walked only 51 batters. The strikeouts were the fifth-most in Indians franchise history and the most since Sam McDowell in 1970.
Klubot flat-out carried the team through most of the year. He wound up with 7.35 jWAR, a ridiculous number for a non-position player. By the time the rest of the pitching staff turned around down the stretch, the offense was too flat and the season was just too late.
Corey Kluber’s Season: 34 starts, 22-12 team, 2.44 ERA, 10.3 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, .233/.279/.345 line
Non-Klubers April to July: 85 starts, 39-46 team, 5.05 ERA, 8.2 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, .284/.346/.453 line
Non-Klubers Aug & Sept: 43 starts, 24-19 team, 2.86 ERA, 9.0 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, .231/.288/.327 line
The non-Klubers in August and September were nearly as good as Kluber’s entire season! That’s incredible, especially given how horrendous they were in the first four months. Carlos Carrasco’s shocking improvement was the big story, but T.J. House, Trevor Bauer and Danny Salazar also were quite effective too.
As FanGraphs’ August Fagerstrom wrote recently, the Indians arguably have baseball’s best and cheapest rotation. Kluber is a gigantic part of that. He is not arbitration eligible until after the 2015 season. That means he could very well make the minimum again next year. He is not eligible for free agency until after the 2018 season, his age-32 campaign. He should be in Cleveland for a long time to come.
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What led Corey Kluber to his meteoric rise to one of MLB’s best pitchers within two years? You can look at his fastball. Not just his velocity or location. But his choice of fastball. According to FanGraphs’ Eno Sarris, that’s what happened for Kluber back in his bad 2011 Triple-A season. He ditched the traditional four-seamer for a new two-seamer:
“I was getting hit around and was having trouble working consistently down in the zone,” said Kluber of 2011, when he had an ERA over five in Triple-A. Big league pitching coach Mickey Callaway and then-Triple-A pitching coach Ruben Niebla conferenced with the pitcher and advocated the two-seamer. The change has taken to Kluber — “I hardly ever throw the four-seamer any more.”
Tremendous credit does go to Callaway and the coaching staff for helping Kluber with this rapid development. As Harvard Sports Analytics Collective’s Kevin Meers showed, he made great strides from 2012 to 2013 to improve upon his weakest offerings. He mixed around his locations better. He improved against left-handed hitters. His curveball became a devastating weapon.
This all happened despite the Indians, yet again and historically so, having one of the game’s worst defenses in 2014. That’s why Beyond The Box Score’s Chris Teeter petitioned for Kluber to win over Hernandez and Chicago’s Chris Sale because of the degree of difficulty necessary:
Interestingly, Felix and Kluber have given up a very similar number of batted balls this season (574 and 577 respectively). Yet, Felix’ BABIP is .259, while Kluber’s is .307. So, despite similar balls in play, Kluber has had ~28 extra base-runners to deal with, at least partly because of his defense.
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If WFNY’s Sportsman of the Year award goes to the best professional athlete in Cleveland in a given calendar year, then the 2014 winner would undoubtedly be Corey Kluber. Sure, as a starter, he only impacted 34 games at all, but he was so special in those outings that the Indians assuredly would have been under .500 without him.
Kluber fits the mantra of the perfect recent Cleveland athlete. No, he wasn’t drafted by the team. He was a sleeper trade pick-up, just like Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana, Yan Gomes and so many of the best Indians players of the last decade. In fact, the acquisition of Kluber actually dates back to the draft selection of Jerry Dybzinski in 1977.
No, Kluber wasn’t a hot shot prospect. He still only has pitched two full big league seasons at age 28. He was stuck in Double-A at age 24. His Cy Young rival, Felix Hernadez, is two days older yet has pitched in the majors for an entire decade.
Instead, the pride of Stetson University overcame obstacle after obstacle to even punch his ticket into the starting rotation. He had seemed destined for bullpen work. Once he had his chance as a starter, he became a fan favorite in 2013 with his breakout season. And in 2014, he became even better, putting up one of the finest pitching for an Indians right-hander ever.
The stoic Corey Kluber is the anti-Johnny Football. He better represents Cleveland’s blue collar history, a town where you just show up and get better at your job every damn day. The nation awarded Kluber for his outstanding performance this year. It’d be a shame if Cleveland’s fans didn’t do the same.
2 Comments
So we traded for Kluber and McAllister in the same week. Now we just need Giovanni Soto to develop into something for the trifecta.
He gets my vote. Although I think that James guy will win.