Reigning AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber is still winless. What gives?
Suffice is to say that the Cleveland Indians are not off to the start they envisioned in 2015. After a sneaky good 2014 season in which they won 85 games, the Tribe were a sexy playoff pick this year. Sports Illustrated even picked them to win the World Series. That, of course, led to fears about the infamous SI cover jinx. Maybe there’s something to that jinx after all.
The Indians are an American League-worst 10-17 heading into Friday’s action. They’ve won just one series this year, the very first of the season. They rank near the bottom in most team offensive and pitching categories.
And no player personifies the team’s early season struggles more than pitcher Corey Kluber. Kluber is the reigning AL Cy Young winner after a breakout 2014 season when he went 18-9 with a 2.44 earned-run average and struck out 269 batters. In April he signed a five-year extension worth a reported $38.5 million. But things have gone downhill since.
Say what you will about “pitcher wins” and its value as a baseball stat, but it’s glaring to see that after seven starts Kluber is still winless. He’s officially 0-5 with a 5.04 ERA, and the Indians are 0-7 in his starts. His strikeout rate is down only slightly from 2014 at 9.3 SO/9 (from 10.3), but his walks are up slightly and in his last four starts he has averaged just over five innings per start and has a 7.43 ERA. His teammates aren’t helping much, averaging just 2.49 runs of support in his starts.
On Thursday night in a loss to the Royals, Kluber got off to a particularly rough start:
Kluber’s rough start has made a bit of history. His 0-5 start matches the record for the most winless starts by a pitcher after a Cy Young season. Zack Greinke (2010) and Frank Viola (0-7) also went seven starts without a win.
So what gives? Is Kluber that bad? The short answer is probably not. August Fagerstrom of MLB.com summed it up:
Though Kluber hasn’t been particularly good over his last four starts his first three were partcilarly good, and he had some hard luck losses. In his first three starts he averaged over seven innings, had a 2.49 ERA, struck out 25 batters and only surrendered 13 hits in 21.2 innings. What did he have to show for those three starts? One loss – a 2-0 loss to the Astros – and two no decisions.
We’re going to go with Fagerstrom on this one and assume that Kluber will be just fine and will right the ship, even if the Indians as a team may not.
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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
