Definitely Interesting, Possibly Helpful Team Preview: Cleveland Indians
Baseball is almost here! With an eventful offseason in the books and spring training underway, it’s time to preview all 30 teams in Major League Baseball. With the help of RotoGrinders PlateIQ Premium, DFS ownership trends from Chris Gimino, and our resident Premium MLB guru Dave Potts (aka CheeseIsGood), we take a look at some information that is definitely interesting and possibly helpful for the upcoming 2019 MLB season.
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Cleveland Indians Preseason Overview
— Vegas Win Total O/U: 90.5
— World Series Odds: 10/1
— Key Additions: Carlos Santana, Jakob Bauers, Kevin Plawecki, Maxwell Moroff, Jordan Luplow
— Lineup Update 3/17/2019: The Indians appear to be addressing their outfield situation with some veteran help. Hanley Ramirez is fighting to stay with the club and could be an option at DH. They also signed Carlos Gonzalez to a minors contract and he could eventually enter the fray. Francisco Lindor isn’t ready for opening day, and Eric Stamets has been in his place often this spring.
Other Noteworthy Players for DFS: Maxwell Moroff, Yu-Cheng Chang, Jordan Luplow, Bradley Zimmer, Kevin Plawecki, Hanley Ramirez (minors contract)
— Outlook: The new look Indians are still on the short list of contenders in the American League. Francisco Lindor is recovering from injury and is questionable for Opening Day, but he’ll be a constant in the infield along side Jose Ramirez and two-time All-Star Jason Kipnis. Edwin Encarnacion and Yonder Alonso have departed, but they’ve replaced the power with former Indian Carlos Santana and powerful 23-year-old Jakob Bauers.
In the outfield, they are less potent after losing Michael Brantley in free agency. The current outfield lacks big bats with Greg Allen (.087 ISO), Leonys Martin (.170 ISO), Tyler Naquin (.092 ISO), Jordan Luplow (.174 ISO), and Bradley Zimmer (.104 ISO) all checking in with unimpressive isolated power last season. The team has run production potential, but they may be an outfielder or two shy of having enough to win the pennant.
The pitching staff is where we will truly find ourselves busy in DFS. Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, and Corey Kluber are three of the best top-end starters you’ll find on any team in baseball. Bauer’s 2018 season (30.8% strikeouts, 2.21 ERA, 3.21 SIERA) was the product of hard work and a ton of advanced analytics. He continues to work on his game and should be in line for another great season.
Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber are strong back-end starters, and they still have Danny Salazar waiting in the wings (recovering from surgery). Four of the five starters averaged a PlateIQ rating of 61.95 or more, which is a very good sign that we’ll be rostering them with regularity during the 2019 season.
— DFS Ownership Trends: The Indians were the fourth-most popular DFS team in 2018, but this could decline with the new look lineup. Early season production will help to influence their long-term popularity. Nobody wants anything to do with this Indians pitching staff when it comes to rostering the bats. Corey Kluber is the second-most feared pitcher for DFS according to DraftKings ownership numbers, while Trevor Bauer ranked 6th and Carlos Carrasco the 16th least rostered against. Take the hint from the crowd, and be extremely cautious using batters against any of them.
Definitely Interesting, Possibly Helpful Notes
— In 2018, Trevor Bauer averaged 104 pitches per games started, second-most in MLB behind only Max Scherzer. Couple his long leash with his increasing dominance in the strikeout department (Bauer had 10 games of 10+ strikeouts in 2018, compared to 9 in the previous six years combined), and you’ve got a bona fide ace. Twitter antics aside, Bauer is a pitcher who should be taken seriously as a DFS option in even difficult matchups in 2019.
— Last year, only four pitchers posted a strikeout rate north of 24 percent while walking fewer than 5 percent of batters: Justin Verlander, Corey Kluber, Ross Stripling, and … Shane Bieber. Bieber is getting a lot of hype as a potential breakout, which may seem odd for a pitcher who posted a 4.55 ERA in 2018. The unsustainably high .356 BABIP was largely to blame for Bieber’s surface numbers, though, and his 3.23 FIP is probably a better indicator of where he’s headed moving forward.
— In 1,881 minor league plate appearances, Francisco Lindor hit 21 home runs, or once every 89.6 plate appearances; in 2,590 MLB plate appearances, Lindor has bashed 98 out of the park, or one out of every 26.4 trips to the dish. The transformation of Lindor from defense-first prospect to legitimate power threat (who also rarely strikes out, by the way) has been amazing to watch. Though Lindor is slight of build, his power is real; he’s increased his launch angle dramatically in his last two seasons, leading to a career-high 54 barrels in 2018, ranking him among players who are giants compared to him (Matt Olson at 51, Nelson Cruz at 55, to name a few).