What Is Wrong With The Cleveland Indians? How About Bad Luck?

The Cleveland Indians have unspectacularly left the gate in their defense of the AL Pennant. Is it way to early to freak out? Of course!

The Cleveland Indians are 4-5 through nine games. After sweeping the Rangers to start the year, the Tribe’s had a slow go of things.

Indians starters form one of the best rotations in all of baseball, but nine games in, you wouldn’t know it.

Tribe starters rank dead last in the Majors with a 6.14 ERA. Opponents are batting .271 off the rotation. Talk about a recipe for disaster.

Not everyone should be treated equally in this way too early freak out, though.

Josh Tomlin has pitched poorly. The Little Cowboy is coming off the shortest outing of his career against the White Sox April 13. He blasted just 1 2/3 innings, surrendering eight hits and seven earned runs. He’s now 0-2. with a 18.47 ERA.

Tomlin allowed five earned runs during the first inning of his most recent outing. The hole was so deep to dig out of, that the Indians resorted to using utility man Michael Martinez to eat up innings.

Terry Francona said everything Tomlin threw kept coming back over the middle of the plate. In the big leagues, that’s kind of ginormous problem.

Trevor Bauer was unspectacular in his first start of the season, but we’ll at least do him the favor of waiting until he makes two starts before piling on, even in a “Way Too Early” column.

Corey Kluber was better in his second start, but still took the L as the Diamondbacks proved to be to hot for the Tribe to cool down. Kluber has a 5.25 ERA, which is inflated thanks to his rather unspectacular Opening Day start–a game that the Tribe still won!

Carlos Carrasco has been the best starter in the early going, as the 30-year-old is 1-0 with a 2.13 ERA covering two starts. He’s also struck out in 12 2/3 innings, while only walking one.

Gomer Homer: It didn’t mean much in figuring out the final score, but it was nice to see Yan Gomes snap an 0-for-12 skid by launching his first homer of the season Thursday night.

After a decent spring, Gomes has unfortunately picked up where he left off last season. He’s batting .091 with a .200 on-base percentage. Perhaps bad luck is still haunting Gomer, his .063 BABIP would suggest that’s the case.

Hopefully he gets on track, fast. His first home run of the season might have been meaningless, but he needed it and hopefully it means he’s turning the corner.

Who is this guy? List Edwin Encarnacion as the player who makes me look away when he comes up with runners in scoring position as the thing I never thought I’d think.

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Encarnacion is too good to slump much longer, but certainly, his .156 average, to go along with 13 strikeouts in 39 plate appearances has been a bummer.

In looking at his wRAA (Weighted Runs Above Average), a stat that  measures the number of offensive runs a player contributes to their team compared to the average player, Encarnacion is in the negative (-1.4 wRAA)! Talk about a rough start!

See you soon: Yandy Diaz had an excelling spring, and deserved to make the team, but he’s looked like a rookie in the early going, hitting .242. Diaz will likely be sent down to the minors when Jason Kipnis comes off the DL. This isn’t meant to slam Diaz, but Kip can’t get back into the lineup soon enough. He’s an All-Star who makes the Tribe’s lineup better when he’s in it.

It’s still early! Overall, let’s end this freak out by celebrating the four wins the Indians do have. Francisco Lindor is batting .333, everyone else is batting a combined .189. The statistic that matter’s most is the win-loss column, and the Indians could easily be worse off than they are now.

Next: Top Prospects Update

The Indians’ .256 BABIP suggests Tribe bats have been unlucky, that’s especially true when you consider the Indians rank third in the American League in hard hit balls and in the bottom two of soft hit balls, according to FanGraphs.com.