Cleveland Indians: Three things that went wrong in April

Empty bases

It was eluded to earlier, but the Tribe are terrible at getting on base. Third-worst in all of baseball with a .283 team on-base percentage to be exact. This has been a big reason for the lackluster run-scoring. The clutch hitting may be bad, but if there aren’t many opportunities to knock in runs from second or third in the first place, how can one expect the run-scoring to get any better?

The situation has been particularly bad at the top of the lineup. The first two hitters in any MLB batting order have one main role, and that is to get on base so that the best hitters below them have the chance to drive them home. For the Indians, those top two hitters have, aside from the number nine hitter, been the worst at that job.

Collectively, the leadoff spot for the Tribe owns a .135 batting average and .252 OBP; both numbers are worst in all of baseball. It doesn’t get much better at number two in the order, as the numbers marginally improve from abysmal to a slightly less terrible .172 average, second-worst in the MLB, and a .294 OBP.

At the other end of the lineup, things are just as dire. The hitting at bottom three spots of the order combined to a .168 average and a .251 OBP in April. All of this means that half the lineup has struggled, mightily, to contribute anything towards the scoring of runs, either by getting on base or recording  a hit with a runner in scoring position. So, the burden falls almost wholly on the same four guys who have occupied the remaining four slots in the lineup. That is not sustainable.

If the Cleveland Indians can take solace in anything with regards to the lineup’s struggles to find a way to get on base it is this: things can only get better.