2015 Player of the Game Results

While it isn’t used as much as it once was on the site in deference to more standardized all-encompassing stats, I still use the stat I created, called the Player of the Game stat, for scoring every game of the season and evaluating players. For more info on the number, check the Player of the Game page, but to keep it simple, it includes all offensive, defensive and pitching performances including some things that are not generally counted like non-steal baserunning. Each event is assigned a point value (such as a single being worth .33 points) and the points are added at the end of each game to determine who aided the Indians most in their quest to win.

Because the Indians found it necessary to use to use 50 players in some capacity or another this year, the following list is a little daunting, but it breaks down Player of the Game scores of every player who got into a game for the Tribe in 2015. These are broken down into the categories of hitting, base running, defense and pitching. Keep in mind that defense includes all unearned runs scored in addition to the bonus from positive and negative defensive plays. This is why most players have a negative contribution.

While the defensive scores aren’t fairly representative of each player’s actual value (we use UZR and DRS for that generally), the base running scores are. Here, there are two players that are particularly of note, Carlos Santana and Abraham Almonte. While Santana did get a little more credit this year because of his steals, he has always been an above average base runner.

My favorite part about the Player of the Game stat is that it allows me to record events that conventional stats don’t and part of that is times a runner took an extra base and times they were tagged out on the base paths. These numbers make up the majority of the base running score and doing a simple +/- considering times an extra base was taken (including steals) and times the runner was out, Santana was number two on the team this year behind Jason Kipnis. The chart below shows the breakdown for the 15 most used Indians players. The first column is extra bases taken, the second times caught, the third the amount of times save minus those caught and the final column each players success rate.

Because taking extra bases on hits, wild pitches and errors has a lower risk than stealing bases, players who take advantage of situations like Santana, Lonnie Chisenhall and Abraham Almonte rather than creating them themselves, like Kipnis, Francisco Lindor and Michael Bourn are safe a much greater percentage of the time. Lindor in particular had a poor year on the bases, the only aspect of his game that wasn’t MLB ready.

Almonte also deserves a ton of credit here as almost half his Player of the Game score came from base running and he lead the team in success rate among those with at least 15 attempts (kudos to Roberto Perez for never getting out on the bases this year). Not included in this were his many drag bunt singles as Almonte used his legs to get on and then to make things happen. He only stole six bases this year, so his contribution could easily go unnoticed, but he took 21 other bases during his limited time with the team, only being caught once. No one else was nearly this active at aggressively trying to move up except for Kipnis.

On the defensive side, there were 260 plays of note this year for the Tribe of which Lindor had an incredible 52. Second on the team was Urshela with 29 with Kipnis (26), Lonnie Chisenhall (21) and Jose Ramirez (20) who all managed 20. The top defensive pitcher was Bryan Shaw, who fielded his position well in limited opportunities.

On the other side of the ledger, the Indians committed 156 errors, plays that should have been called errors and other stupid mistakes in the field. The most guilty of this was Ramirez with 18 as he was often either great or terrible, with little in between. Other fielders with more than ten mistakes were Aviles (15), Kipnis (15), Santana (14), Lindor (13), Chisenhall (11) and Yan Gomes with 10.

Of course, the entire purpose of the Player of the Game stat is to award the title to an individual at the end of every game, so we should at least give some credit to the winners. Below is the list of all who won at least four this year. There were 21 other players who won between one and three this year.

The system was created to give everyone a fair shot to win, whether a pitcher or hitter, but this year showed that when a pitcher is dominant, no one else can be as important in any individual game. Trevor Bauer lead the way with 16 wins as he was either excellent or terrible in many of his starts. The rest of the rotation wasn’t far behind with Carlos Carrasco, Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar finishing 2-4. Even Cody Anderson and Josh Tomlin finished in the top 12.

Among hitters, it isn’t surprising to see the only players who made it into 130 games or more this year near the top as Michael Brantley finished fifth with 11, Santana and Kipnis 7th with eight. What could be surprising is Brandon Moss right in the mix with nine as he only played in 94 games, but did hit 15 home runs and knock in 50. The most impressive finishes by any were Lindor, who didn’t win his first until game 98, then won five of the final 63 and Tomlin, who didn’t win until game 115.

None of this is the be-all-end-all of anything (no one stat is), but hopefully it gives a little further insight into the 2015 Indians that can’t be found elsewhere. It certainly helps me as many of the minutiae of the game can be forgotten over the long stretch of the season.