How poor is the Indians offense?

A holiday weekend (and here in Charlotte, brutal summer heat) is upon us. Our beloved Tribe is in a tailspin, having lost 4 in a row and seeing the Twins disappear in front of them in the standings. We have all noted the shortcomings of the offense, the resiliency of the starting pitchers, and the hard-to-believe turnaround of the bullpen. And here we sit at 25-24.

How bad is this offense? I thought I’d peruse the stats at mlb.com to see what I could find out.

Let me start by saying I use some of the more traditional statistics. I’m not that skilled at calculating the newer analytics, and I don’t have enough disposable income to subscribe to all the analytics websites to pull them down. So forgive me for seeming a bit elementary. However, I am up to speed enough to know that batting average is meaningless, and I refuse to analyze it.

When the season began, most analysis of the Indians went something like this: "The rotation is probably the best in baseball. The offense may struggle, especially the outfield. The bullpen was terrible last year, and they didn’t add anybody, so the bullpen will be terrible again. The division is terrible, with only Minnesota capable of winning 80 games, so Cleveland will probably win 90-93 games and cruise to the division title."

The rotation has been pretty good, falling a little short with the injuries to Kluber and Clevenger, and Kluber being very ineffective when he was healthy. The bullpen has been excellent (and we did add new pieces – Tyler Clippard and Nick Wittgren, who have been excellent). The offense appears to be as bad as predicted.

The median – the point where half the players are above and half are below – is a good place to start evaluating. Here are the medians for several important categories.

Category	Median
OBP	0.334
SLG	0.4575
OPS	0.7985
H	21.5
2B	4.5
3B	1.5
HR	3.5
RBI	12.5
BB	9.5
SB	2.5
R	13.5
K	18.5

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the top players on the Indians roster are Carlos Santana and Francisco Lindor. Of the two, Lindor’s stats are more impressive, because he has achieved these above-median stats in only 119 at-bats (which puts him in a tie for 208th in that category).

Category	Median	Santana	Lindor
OBP	0.334	0.411	0.338
SLG	0.4575	0.485	0.496
OPS	0.7985	0.896	0.834
H	21.5	48	34
2B	4.5	9	4
3B	1.5	0	0
HR	3.5	8	7
RBI	12.5	28	15
BB	9.5	34	10
SB	2.5	1	5
R	13.5	27	17
K	18.5	29	23

They both strike out more than the median, but otherwise, they are the offensive machines we have always known them to be.

It takes 151 at-bats to qualify, so that cut Jordan Luplow out of the stats list. His SLG, OPS, HR, RBI and BB are near or above the median. What is troubling is that in half the at-bats needed to qualify, his strikeouts (25) are well above median.

For all the mocking he has received from Tribe fans, especially me, Roberto Perez is doing just fine at the plate. His hits, HR, RBI and OPS are at above-median or respectable levels. He, too, strikes out way too much (34).

After that, the stats are dismal. The next-best player with more than a handful of at-bats is Leonys Martin, he of the .670 OPS. Jason Kipnis is dismal overall, but at least has been on base for 17 straight games, which has bumped his OBP to a respectable .299. If he can continue to get on base with a few more doubles instead of walks, he could end up with decent numbers.

Now, we know Jose Ramirez has been struggling, but it’s far worse than we knew. Of those that qualify, only EIGHT players have a lower OPS than Jose’s .602. (I found it shocking to see Jackie Bradley Jr. ranking last at .511 and amusing to see Yonder Alonso right behind Jose at .599. So we upgraded 1B a little bit.)

So yes, outside of 3 guys, our team can’t hit a lick. The doomsday predictions about the outfield are being fulfilled. Since we know the owner is intent on turning a profit so he can buy a 7th house, 11th car and 5th yacht, and couldn’t care less about the quality of the product on the field, the pitching staff is going to have to carry us if we have any hope of making the playoffs.