Jason Kipnis has been scorching hot for and ought to win the American League Player of the Month award and be named to the AL All-Star team this week. Kipnis' slash line for June: .419/.517/.699. He had 17 extra-base hits in the month and drove in 25 runs (he also stole 9 bases). I wrote about his recent performance last week, then he went and had another incredible series, this time against the White Sox (in his hometown of Chicago, where he's killed the ball during his young career). Kipnis' June has had me wondering when the Indians last had someone with a month this good at the plate, so I decided to find out.
There are a few different ways of defining "best," some more objective than others. There's likely to be some imbalance between the highest counting totals (home runs, hits, etc.) and the highest rate stats (batting average, OPS, etc,). Generally speaking, I think rate stats give you a better sense of how good someone has been, with the caveat that a player needs to have played a fair amount before his stats are considered against anyone else's.
Using rate stats (batting average, on-base percentage, etc.), you're going to find a lot of season from the mid to late 90s and early 2000s near the top of any list, because offense was at such high league-wide levels in those years, so you want to account for that sort of thing. OPS+ does that, but it undervalues getting on base. RC+* is similar, but a bit better, because it more accurately reflects how valuable OBP is. What should the playing time cutoff be? There isn't a right answer, but I'm going with 100 plate appearances for the month. It's a round number and roughly the number it takes per month to end up with a qualified season.
*For those unfamiliar, RC+ adjusts a player's production to account for the era and park(s) he plays in (because hitting in Denver's Coors Field in 1998 isn't the same as hitting in Seattle's Safeco Field in 2012) and scaled so that 100 is league average and every point above or below 100 equates to being one percentage point better or worse than league average (110 means 10% better, 90 means 10% worse, etc.).
The only problem I ran into with using RC+ is that it's only available for monthly splits going back to 1974 (at Fangraphs, if you'd like to peruse the numbers yourself). So, I'm going to present the top months from the last forty years using RC+, then do a separate list for 1916-1973, using OPS+ (via Baseball-Reference). I can't tell you what Nap Lajoie's monthly splits for the Tribe looked like, because there isn't complete game-by-game data for 1915 or before.
Top RC+ in a month by an Indian, 1974-2013 (min. 100 PA):
Rank |
Player |
Month |
PA |
BA |
OBP |
SLG |
OPS+ |
RC+ |
1 |
Jim Thome |
July 2001 |
124 |
.381 |
.516 |
.804 |
246 |
238 |
2 |
Jim Thome |
August 2002 |
112 |
.337 |
.500 |
.819 |
247 |
234 |
3 |
Albert Belle |
May 1994 |
110 |
.416 |
.527 |
.809 |
246 |
232 |
4 |
Jason Kipnis |
June 2013 |
118 |
.419 |
.517 |
.699 |
239 |
231 |
t5 |
Albert Belle |
Sept/Oct 1995* |
120 |
.313 |
.420 |
.929 |
252 |
227 |
t5 |
Jim Thome |
August 1996 |
119 |
.407 |
.538 |
.813 |
249 |
227 |
7 |
Travis Hafner |
August 2006 |
122 |
.361 |
.484 |
.856 |
243 |
226 |
8 |
Albert Belle |
August 1995 |
137 |
.381 |
.456 |
.847 |
230 |
225 |
9 |
Manny Ramirez |
Sept/Oct 1999 |
103 |
.360 |
.524 |
.800 |
241 |
223 |
10 |
Manny Ramirez |
May 1995 |
112 |
.394 |
.459 |
.808 |
228 |
221 |
t11 |
David Justice |
April 1997 |
106 |
.386 |
.509 |
.747 |
231 |
218 |
t11 |
David Justice |
August 1997 |
122 |
.385 |
.475 |
.769 |
224 |
218 |
13 |
Jim Thome |
Sept/Oct 2002 |
111 |
.341 |
.477 |
.727 |
219 |
211 |
14 |
Manny Ramirez |
Sept/Oct 2000 |
140 |
.383 |
.493 |
.765 |
227 |
209 |
15 |
Travis Hafner |
July 2004 |
103 |
.360 |
.451 |
.744 |
207 |
206 |
*September and October are traditionally counted as one month of the regular season, and I've stuck with that for this project. March and April work the same way, but the Indians have only played in March in three seasons, and none of those March/Aprils made the list.
Kipnis comes in at #4 for the last forty years, just behind two of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Jim Thome has 4 of the top 15, while Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez each have 3, and Travis Hafner and David Justice each have 2. All 15 seasons come from just six hitters, and it's very impressive company that Kipnis is keeping (and mostly beating) by landing on the list.
Top OPS+ in a month by an Indian, 1916-1973 (min. 100 PA):
Rank |
Player |
Month |
PA |
BA |
OBP |
SLG |
OPS+ |
RC+ |
1 |
Tris Speaker |
Sept/Oct 1923 |
147 |
.445 |
.561 |
.709 |
253 |
- |
2 |
Tris Speaker |
July 1923 |
155 |
.489 |
.536 |
.766 |
242 |
- |
3 |
Larry Doby |
August 1950 |
103 |
.349 |
.476 |
.747 |
233 |
- |
4 |
Joe Sewell |
August 1923 |
112 |
.456 |
.529 |
.700 |
232 |
- |
5 |
Tris Speaker |
June 1916 |
116 |
.412 |
.474 |
.559 |
230 |
- |
6 |
Al Rosen |
May 1954 |
125 |
.366 |
.452 |
.752 |
228 |
- |
7 |
Tris Speaker |
July 1916 |
125 |
.424 |
.529 |
.505 |
227 |
- |
8 |
Larry Doby |
Sept/Oct 1953 |
100 |
.363 |
.485 |
.713 |
226 |
- |
9 |
Tris Speaker |
July 1920 |
147 |
.455 |
.532 |
.636 |
225 |
- |
10 |
Lou Boudreau |
August 1948 |
126 |
.449 |
.516 |
.645 |
222 |
- |
11 |
Al Rosen |
Sept/Oct 1953 |
116 |
.392 |
.491 |
.680 |
220 |
- |
t12 |
Tris Speaker |
May 1920 |
120 |
.392 |
.491 |
.629 |
219 |
- |
t12 |
Earl Averill |
July 1936 |
142 |
.451 |
.486 |
.759 |
219 |
- |
14 |
Earl Averill |
Sept/Oct 1934 |
142 |
.322 |
.418 |
.653 |
214 |
- |
15 |
Earl Averill |
May 1938 |
109 |
.366 |
.459 |
.688 |
211 |
- |
Tris Speaker sure, could hit couldn't he? He leads the older list with 6 of the top 15 seasons, including 3 of the top 5. Of the 30 months on these lists, 1 came in April*, 5 in May, 2 in June, 6 in July, 8 in August, and 8 in September/October. It seems notable that so many of them came iate in their respective season.
*Seasons started later in earlier season, so there weren't a lot of players collecting 100 PA in April back then.
My choice as the best for each month:
April: David Justice, 1997
May: Albert Belle, 1994
June: Jason Kipnis, 2013
July: Jim Thome, 2001
August: Jim Thome, 2002
Sept/Oct: Tris Speaker, 1923
Tris Speaker's September/October of 1923 has the highest OPS+, and while his RC+ would probably be lower (for the 15 seasons in the 1974-2013 list, RC+ is an average of 12 points lower than OPS+), I suspect Speaker would still take the top spot for RC+, if it was available.
Tris Speaker's September/October of 1923 gets my vote for best month by an Indians hitter, but Kipnis is in the discussion. Speaker, Thome, and Belle are the only hitters to have a month I'd put ahead of the one Jason Kipnis just completed. If you see the man, tip your hat.