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Cleveland Indians: Season’s Finish By The Numbers

By Joe Russo

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A frustrating season is over for the Cleveland Indians. Though the end result for the team was not something anyone wanted, successful moments were achieved by their players.

It was a roller coaster season for our beloved Tribe. An ugly start, a near miss finish, and twists and turns all have occurred during the 2015 season for the Cleveland Indians. An 81-80 finish is not quite as exciting as the World Series finish Sports Illustrated cursed upon Cleveland.

As the playoffs continues to prove that the movie Back to the Future is correct, the Indians can only watch on. Here is a look back on some of the interesting numbers and statistical results from the 2015 campaign.

All Stats and Rankings are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

– Despite an inconsistent and often inept offense, OF Michael Brantley (45) and 2B Jason Kipnis (43) finished in the top two spots for the most doubles in the American League.

– Despite playing in only 99 games, SS Francisco Lindor lead the AL in sacrifice hits with 13.

– 1B/DH Carlos Santana ended with 108 walks which was the second most in the league, trailing only Toronto Blue Jays OF Jose Bautista.

– There’s a stat called Offensive Win Percentage. This calculates the winning percentage of a team if all nine players were the same player. Essentially if the best player played all nine positions on the field, how good would the team be?

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Los Angeles of Anaheim’s OF Mike Trout led the AL with a .769 win percentage, or a 124-38 record over the course of the season. Brantley actually ranked 8th in the AL with a .682 mark, which would have given the Indians a 110-52 record on the year.

– Brantley’s plate discipline is well-known to baseball fans. In fact, he led the AL in at bats per strikeout with a whopping 10.4 at bats per strikeout. He also led the American League in stolen base percentage, successfully stealing a base in 93.75% of his attempts.

– Two Indians pitchers landed in the top ten of Wins Above Replacement for the position. Corey Kluber was 6th with 4.2 WAR and Carlos Carrasco was 10th with 3.8 WAR.

– Kluber was the leader in another category, albeit a dubious one. He led the AL with 16 losses, a staggering number given his individual numbers. He also was 2nd in total innings pitched.

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– Three pitchers were in the top 10 for WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched). Kluber was 3rd with 1.054, Carrasco 4th with 1.073, and Danny Salazar 8th with 1.13. Those same three pitchers were in the top 10 of strikeouts per 9 innings. Carrasco was 3rd at 10.58, Kluber 4th at 9.93, and Salazar at 9.48.

– Despite all of the stats above, not one Indians starter was in the top ten in ERA.

– How crazy was P Trevor Bauer‘s season? He was 7th in strikeouts per 9 innings, but gave up the most walks in the AL with 79 and ended the year with a 4.55 ERA buoyed by an ERA over 6 in the second half.

– The Indians pitchers as a whole ended the year 4th in all of baseball in Wins Above Replacement.

– As a team, only three positions ended the year with a positive WAR– the pitchers, shortstops, and second basemen. Conversely, the outfield as a whole ended the year at -2.2 and yes, that includes OF Lonnie Chisenhall‘s 2nd place DWAR in right field and Brantley’s offensive WAR numbers.

– In fact, all non-pitchers scored a horrid -3.0 WAR with the worst single position being right field (-1.8) followed closely by first base (-1.7).

It’s a lot to take in, but as disappointing as a 81-80 finish is, there’s plenty of good news overall on the season. 2015 was not a total loss and there are plenty of reasons to think that 2016 can be another positive year. Remember, the numbers don’t lie…until they do.

Next: Former Tribe IF To Interview For Three Manager Jobs

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