Given that the Cleveland Indians prominently feature so many left-handed hitters, and they occasionally make Phil Hughes look like a Cy Young contender, there exists a narrative that the Tribe cannot hit against left-handed pitchers. If seeing the Indians dominant Chris Sale and stick around against Jose Quintana was not enough of a hint -- it turns out they can, in fact, hit against left-handed pitchers.
As a team, the Indians are currently batting with a .315 weighted on-base average (wOBA) against every type of pitcher be they left-handed, right-handed, blue-handed, red-handed. Against just lefties, they are hitting slightly worse, with a wOBA of .303. It may be tempting to jump on this and say "well look at that they do struggle to hit against left-handed pitchers, case closed your post is stupid and you have wasted your life." Well, before you press the enter button on that Facebook comment, take that 0.012 Delta between the two wOBAs into consideration.
Among all American League teams, the Indians rank ninth when it comes to how much worse a team hits against lefties than against both righties and lefties. The absolute worst is the Detroit Tigers, who have a wOBA of .329 against all pitchers (second-best n the AL), but hit just .295 against lefties, leaving a Delta of -.034. On the opposite end are the Tampa Bay Rays, who wOBA .321 against all opponents, but .353 against lefties.
Team | wOBA vs. Both | wOBA vs. LHP | Delta |
Tigers | .329 | .295 | -.034 |
Twins | .295 | .261 | -.034 |
Orioles | .330 | .304 | -.026 |
Royals | .308 | .288 | -.020 |
Astros | .310 | .293 | -.017 |
Mariners | .329 | .314 | -.015 |
Yankees | .302 | .288 | -.014 |
Angels | .309 | .295 | -.014 |
Indians | .315 | .303 | -.012 |
Athletics | .294 | .286 | -.008 |
Blue Jays | .312 | .315 | .003 |
Red Sox | .363 | .374 | .011 |
Rangers | .315 | .326 | .011 |
White Sox | .311 | .324 | .013 |
Rays | .321 | .353 | .032 |
And keep in mind, for the Indians, three of these starts have come against Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Chris Sale again. They did have John Danks to beat up in the second game of the season, but they also faced Drew Smyly, Matt Moore, and Steven Matz. Bottom line is that they have not just beat up on a bunch of sub-par left-handed pitchers. They have had to go up against several great ones and also Tommy Milone.
The Indians hitters that are struggling against the left-handed pitchers so far in 2016 are the usual suspects. Mostly, anyway. If you expected Jason Kipnis to struggle against left-handed pitchers in 2016, congratulations: You were right. Here's a star. However, if you thought Lonnie Chisenhall would be one of the worst on the team against lefties because some idiot blogger on this website (also known as me) thought he should be platooned, give me back that star and slap yourself in the face. Lonnie is killing what few lefties has faced this year.
Take a look at the full chart:
Player | PA vs. Both | wOBA vs. Both | PA vs. LHP | wOBA vs. LHP | Delta |
Carlos Santana | 193 | .346 | 53 | .205 | -.141 |
Jason Kipis | 197 | .329 | 62 | .257 | -.072 |
Juan Uribe | 128 | .283 | 39 | .217 | -.066 |
Jose Ramirez | 144 | .340 | 38 | .330 | -.010 |
Marlon Byrd | 117 | .306 | 39 | .303 | -.003 |
Rajai Davis | 154 | .315 | 55 | .314 | -.001 |
Mike Napoli | 177 | .323 | 51 | .338 | .015 |
Tyler Naquin | 65 | .326 | 6 | .356 | .030 |
Michael Brantley | 43 | .240 | 8 | .314 | .074 |
Yan Gomes | 139 | .253 | 41 | .332 | .079 |
Francisco Lindor | 197 | .344 | 57 | .444 | .100 |
Lonnie Chisenhall | 88 | .308 | 10 | .511 | .203 |
To be fair, Lonnie only has 10 PA against lefties this season, but he already has three hits, including a double, a triple, and two walks. The general idea heading into the 2015 offseason was that the Indians were looking for a right-handed platoon partner for Chisenhall, as he had a career slash of .244/.295/.381 against lefties. Small sample sizes be damned; maybe with Marlon Byrd struggling to hit against everything it's time to give a Lonnie a shot at full-time right field duties.
When it comes to players with a significant number of plate appearances against lefties, Francisco Lindor leads the Tribe with a ridiculous .444 wOBA. Lindor is 24-for-54 on the season against southpaws, including a 3-for-5 performance Tuesday against one of the best lefties in the league, Chris Sale.
Is this kind of performance sustainable? We probably will not know that for a while. The sample sizes are still small for full batting records this season, let alone splits against left-handed pitchers. But, no matter what actually happens in the coming months, the Indians have hit well against every left-hander thrown at them, including some of the best in the league. No one can take that away from them. And it is also worth keeping in mind that the Indians actually hit better against lefties last season compared to all pitchers.