Indians Rewriting Statistical History in 2016

Every year at the end of the season we take a look back and see how much the most recent incarnation of the Cleveland Indians has changed their franchise record books and they certainly were busy this year. In addition to some truly impressive (and not so impressive) numbers for the 2016 season, many players are reaching the point in their careers where they should start to be considered among the greatest to ever play the game in Cleveland.

In general, we’ll be looking at mostly the major counting and rate stats and only at the very top of the top, generally defined as the top ten. In some situations, if it merits a note, we’ll go a little beyond. We shall begin with the limited amount of changes at the plate, then move to the base paths and finally the pitching staff, where the majority of the movement is going on.

Carlos & the K Machine

When it comes to long term players making their name in franchise history, Carlos Santana is #1 on the list (mostly because Michael Brantley missed nearly the entire season). He moved into 12th all time in home runs thanks to his career high 34 and now has 151, just 12 behind Ken Keltner for #11 and 39 behind Rocky Colavito to get into the top ten. Unfortunately, there is a good chance that 2017 will be Santana’s final season with the team and that he will be unlikely to break into that select group.

Of course, there’s something Santana does even better than hit home runs and that is walk, much to the dismay of many casual Indians fans. He moved into 9th in career walks this year thanks to 99 in the 2016 season and now has 638. This is a group he could advance in during the 2017 season as he is within 100 walks of Earl Averill in fourth place. Santana is yet to play in 1,000 games for the Tribe (he will pass this mark next year) while the rest of the top ten have all played in at least 1,225. Looking at a more fair comparison given his lack of playing time, Santana is second to Jim Thome in walk rate, walking in nearly 16% of his plate appearances. He also moved into 8th in career strike outs, but unlike walks, does not rank among the leaders in strike out rate.

Speaking of strike outs, Mike Napoli set a new franchise record with 194, blowing away Jim Thome’s mark from 2001 of 185. While this did get some publicity, the fact that Jason Kipnis‘ 146 was 11th all time (tied with Jhonny Peralta in 2007 and Jim Thome in 1997) did not.

Rajai Hood Steals from the Catchers & Gives to the Tribe

Stealing bases isn’t in vogue right now, especially considering the increase in home runs all around baseball this year, but the Indians found a way they could take advantage of their team speed to make their offense a little more potent even without a line-up full of sluggers. They lead the AL in steals and success rate and stole more bases as a team, 134, than they had since 1999 (147). Not only did they attempt to steal a lot, but they were better at it than ever before, setting a franchise record with an 81% success rate. The previous best was 79% in 2014, but they only stole 104 bases that year.

The primary thief was Rajai Davis, who took 43 in 49 attempts. While this wasn’t near the team record for most total, it was the sixth best SB% (88%) in a single season with at least 25 attempts. For their careers, quite a few Indians have similar numbers. Below is the updated list of the top 10 Indians career stolen base percent leaders with at least 50 attempts:

Already, three current Indians rank in the top ten as Kipnis and Brantley retained their positions and Ramirez qualified for the first time. If we moved the arbitrary number of 50 attempts down to 30, we would see Davis at #1, Francisco Lindor appear at #3, Kipnis moved down to #6 and Brantley down to #10. It’s worth noting that Lindor and Lonnie Chisenhall each have stolen base success rates above 80% with at least 20 attempts.

Hold Me Like Bryan Shaw

These are the numbers that most people will care the least about given the unpopularity of the hold as a stat and it’s recency, but for the latter reason, it is one that sees the most movement each year.

First, since we’re focusing primarily on Shaw here, he moved into the top ten in games played in a single season again this year with 75. This ties him for 6th all-time along with Paul Assenmacher from 1997, but he already holds the #1 spot as well as the #8. He and Cody Allen are the only Indians pitchers to ever throw in 72 games more than once in their career with the team and Shaw is the only one to do so three times.

In those many appearances, Shaw held a lead of three or less 25 times, fourth most in Indians history along with Rafael Perez (2008) and Joe Smith (2013). In addition, by reaching 84 holds in his career, he has tied Rafael Betancourt for second in an Indians career, just four behind the all time leader, Smith.

For one last note on relief pitchers, while the hold doesn’t mean a lot in itself, it can have value when combined with saves and blown saves to show how often a reliever did his job. I call this percent a reliever’s conversion rate and we’ll move on from Shaw to look at the new #2 in Indians history (with at least 25 chances), Zach McAllister, who has completed 22 of 25 save or hold opportunities (92%). Allen currently ranks sixth in this stat and has moved up to  3rd all time if you only consider save conversion rate, behind only Mike Jackson and Bob Wickman. Allen has also advanced to 6th in Indians history in career saves and is only two away from being in the top five.

The Kings of K

Now that we’re back into real stats, we’ll start off with a record set by Josh Tomlin this year. No, he did not break the Indians single season record for home runs allowed in a year (he finished second, one short of Luis Tiant), but he did set the record for least amount of walks by a qualifying pitcher in a single season with 20. Who’s record did he break? Josh Tomlin from 2014 (and Bill Bernhard from 1903). His BB/9 of 1.03 was the lowest by an Indians pitcher since Addie Joss in 1908 when he walked 30 in 325 innings.

Even the great Bob Feller couldn’t compete with the Hall of Famer Joss on a rate level (Joss is second in career ERA and first in career WHIP in MLB history), yet the Indians had a second player near his accomplishments this year. Corey Kluber‘s WHIP of 1.06 was his third season in a row at or below 1.10, making him the first pitcher to have three seasons that low since Sonny Siebert (1965 through 1967) and the third pitcher ever to do so, along with Joss who did it each year from 1903 through 1909.

Kluber also has an impressive career WHIP of 1.14, currently ranked seventh in Indians history while Allen’s 1.16 ranks tenth. Also with impressive numbers in this category are Tomlin, who ranks 16th of those with at least 300 IP, Carrasco, who ranks 21st and Salazar, who ranks 30th.

These numbers should show at least a little that this staff is more than just a team who strikes out a ton of batters while still walking a ton. Strike them out they do, though. The team’s K/9 rate of 8.7 was the third highest in franchise history behind 2014 and 2015 and the same is true of their total 1,398 strike outs. As a bullpen, they finished second in franchise history with 514 to the 2001 team and first in K/9 at 9.1. Each of the one through four spots in single season K/9 are held by the teams from 2013 through 2016, further promoting the good work of Shaw and Allen.

On an individual level, Kluber’s 2016 K/9 was ninth best in Indians history at 9.5, not quite matching his marks from the previous season that still rank fourth (2014) and sixth (2015). Carlos Carrasco‘s 2015 season remains in second all time.

For the Indians career K/9, there is a new all time leader, depending on where you arbitrarily place the cut off. I’ve placed it at 300 IP and Allen surpassed that number this year and his career mark of 11.5 finally qualifies. Using this parameter, Danny Salazar now ranks #2 all time with a 10.9 in 484.1 innings with Carrasco coming in at #10 (8.6), Trevor Bauer #12 (8.3) and McAllister #13 (8.1).

Finally, Kluber is making progress in his encroachment of the greats. The best pitchers in Indians history had a tendency to stick around for a long time and build up insurmountable totals in nearly every stat, so taking over the leaderboards in the rate stats is significantly easier. Even so, he currently ranks 11th in Indians history with 936 strike outs and is only 105 from breaking into the top ten. Since he is signed through 2020, he should not only easily jump into the top ten next year, but has a very legitimate chance of being the Indians third greatest strike out pitcher by the time he’s done in Cleveland.