Before I share my thoughts I thought I'd show where I formed these thoughts in the first place. On Lookout Landing they did a fantastic look into the Mariners approach to first pitch strikes. In sharing the information on the Mariners they also posted all of the other major league teams numbers and rank. As I was reading this I noticed a trend that was forming under the Cleveland category.

The Indians swing at the first pitch 20.93% of the time. The lowest number in the majors. The major league average is just over 27% so that means the Indians don't swing at the first pitch slightly 6% more than the average major league team. That alone could be a trend that other teams use to help formulate ways to attack our hitters.

To show how important it is to gain the first pitch advantage Lookout Landing also showed the difference between a pitcher getting ahead with a first pitch strike and the batter gaining the early count advantage.

We all know by heart the pitching mantra of getting ahead in the count and the oft-repeated number of first pitch strikes thrown to hitters. You might even have an awareness of how beneficial it actually is for a pitcher to throw strike one as opposed to ball one. In case you didn't; the average hitter has a .737 OPS. If the count goes to 1-0, the average hitter now posts a .838 OPS. If the count goes to 0-1, the average hitter now posts just a .616 OPS. (Source: Baseball-Reference).

Lookout Landing also compiled the number strikes/balls that all of the teams swung at that were either a) missed b)fouled out c) hit into fair play.

Every time the Indians swing and miss on a first pitch they are swinging at a ball 50% of the time. That's seventh in the entire major leagues. The worst team at this is Anaheim with an extremely high 71.70% ball percentage. Each time they foul off a first pitch it is a ball 30.6% of the time. That's good for 6th in the majors.

Both of these numbers are pretty damn respectable so the trouble does not seem to be here. However, this next number is pretty embarrassing to see as a fan of this team.  When the Indians do put the ball in play they are swinging at balls 33.50%. That is 25th in the majors and very troubling.

Lookout Landing went even deeper and showed the outcome of said balls hit in play. When the Tribe is hitting strikes into play their average is a scorching .351 and their slugging is a strong .580. When we put balls into plays, which happens a relatively large amount of the time, those numbers dip to a respective .288 and .394. For comparisons sake our team BA is .241 and the team SLG is .394.

Lookout Landing finishes up by showing that 43.4% of the Tribe's first pitches are thrown for strikes which ranks as 22nd in the major leagues.

So what does all that mean? I'm really not sure, but I think it shows that the Tribe is not doing a good job of making contact on the first pitch. When we do decide to swing we either foul the strikes out of play or just plain miss them. And when we do put the ball in play we aren't hitting anything well.

So..what do you think?