KC Royals: Evaluating Division Rival Cleveland Indians
By David Hart
Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber (28) – Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
What is keeping the Cleveland Indians alive this year is their starting pitching. Cleveland is second in all of MLB in strike outs just one behind the MLB leading Los Angeles Dodgers with 168 strikeouts. Corey Kluber has 31 of these strikeouts (fourth in all of MLB).
Trevor Bauer, Cleveland’s number two starter, has 26 strike outs and is second just behind Clayton Kershaw averaging 12.3 strikeout per nine innings. It doesn’t stop there with the starting pitching rotation, as Danny Salazar has 21 strikeouts, and Carlos Carrasco rounds out the typical four-man rotation with 18 strikeouts.
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Aside from these great early pitching statistics from Cleveland in 2015, there is recent history of the Kansas City Royals with their starting pitching rotation. Almost one year ago to this date, Corey Kluber pitched the best game for the Indians of almost 20 years and against the Royals, according to Jason Lukehart of Let’s Go Tribe.
Kluber struck out 11 in a complete game with no walks and struck out Eric Hosmer three times, but I will get back to this later on.
Corey Kluber is often referred to as “KluBot” because he is a robot in the consistency of his pitches. Since the beginning of 2015 season, however, his pitch choice reportoire is changing and drastically from his early career. Corey Kluber is evolving, like the Borg.
Next: The Evolution Of Corey Kluber