Cleveland Indians: Three Players Ready for a Big July

Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana has long been a major recipient of complaints from the fan base as a whole. His value stems from his high on-base percentage and slugging abilities, but he often fails the “eye test” and routinely posts extraordinarily low batting averages. To make matters worse, he is not extra speedy on the base paths, and his defense constantly falls under criticism.

This said he has been a major part of the Cleveland Indians since 2011. While old-school fans may not love his work, I wrote a defense of his talents last July, arguing against some of the biggest complaints in the comments section. He may not be an MVP candidate, but he has been consistently above average for the pix six years.

After experiencing a down year last season, he has rebounded in 2016. His batting average is up a tiny bit, but the real source of improvement has been the power department. He currently owns a career-best in isolated power, which subtracts batting average from slugging percentage, and he is on pace to top his career high in home runs. Unfortunately, the 30-year-old has seen his walk rate decline; but given that he is swinging at the fewest amount of balls in his career, I would expect this statistic to rebound.

One big reason to believe that he will have a big month of July is that he has traditionally been a beast in that month. His career July slash-line of .268/.385/.486 is sure to please both old-school and new-school fans. Most important, he has amassed 626 plate appearance in July, so we can make some reasonable conclusions about this sample.

His power tends to be up during this month, and July contains a disproportionately large amount of his extra base hits. Just two years ago, he slugged an impressive eight home runs in 26 July games. Combining these factors makes it highly likely that Carlos Santana will have a big month of July this year.

Next: Danny Salazar Has Evolved into the Staff Ace

Finally, I would like to give yet another honorable mention to Danny Salazar. Like last month, his underlying statistics give me pause before placing him on this list. While I may have been wrong about June, his 1.91 earned run average was much better than advanced metrics suggest. Most concerning is his walk rate, which continued to inflate into the old Trevor Bauer region. Odds are that Danny Salazar will continue to be good, but it is more likely that Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber, and Carlos Santana will be better.