Cleveland Indians’ Mike Napoli Is Having a Party

Cleveland Indians first baseman Mike Napoli just hit his sixth home run in his last nine games and has been among the hottest hitters in baseball since the All-Star break.

When the Cleveland Indians signed Mike Napoli in January to a one-year, $7 million contract, they likely kept their expectations in check. After hitting at least 20 home runs each season from 2008 to 2013, Napoli dropped to 17 homers in 2014 and 18 homers last year. His pre-season projection for this year (from the Fangraphs Depth Charts) called for a .229/.334/.418 season, with 20 home runs in 525 plate appearances. Napoli is blowing that projection out of the water, currently hitting .253/.340/.517 with 28 home runs in 441 plate appearances.

It didn’t start out this way. Napoli struggled mightily in April, hitting .205/.262/.410, with 33 strikeouts in 84 plate appearances (39.3 percent K%). Then something clicked in early May. Over his last 82 games (including today), Napoli has 24 home runs and 68 RBI. In his 11-year career, he’s only had two seasons with more than 68 RBI.

Napoli has been particularly hot since the All-Star break, hitting .300/.402/.714 prior to today’s game. His 196 wRC+ is 8^th in baseball since then and he leads all hitters in home runs after the break.

Napoli’s cool April and warmer May, June and July has matched Cleveland’s season. The team started the year by going 10-11 in April. They were in fourth place and six games out of first when the calendar turned to May. Since then, they’ve gone 52-35 (including today’s game) and are now leading the AL Central by 2.5 games.

The good times on the field have spread to the fans in the stands. A Cleveland fan with the Twitter handle @HipsterTito brought a handmade sign that read “Party at Napoli’s” to a Cleveland game earlier in the season and the slogan caught on. He had a t-shirt made with the same message and sent it to Napoli. When Napoli wore it after a game, it became a big hit, with some of the proceeds of t-shirt sales going to Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital.

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After the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title in June to end the city’s 52-year championship drought, “Party at Napoli’s” was all over Twitter, with Napoli himself chiming in along with teammates Jason Kipnis and Yan Gomes. The Cleveland Browns football team has never won a Super Bowl, but did win an NFL Championship in 1964, which leaves the baseball team with the longest championship drought in Cleveland, dating back to 1948 when Bob Feller and Satchel Paige were on the team (Party at Satchel’s?).

The “Party at Napoli’s” theme has spread from a sign at the ballpark to t-shirts for charity to, most recently, an inscription on Mike Napoli’s bat that reads “Handcrafted For Party At Napoli’s.” If Napoli continues to hit like he has and the Indians bring home a title, the “Party At Napoli’s” bat could join the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson‘s “Black Betsy” and Roy Hobbs’ “Wonder Boy” in baseball bat lore.

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Hey, whatever works. We don’t have a breakdown of how many dingers Napoli has hit with his “Party at Napoli’s” bat, but with six home runs in nine games since July 30^th, there’s a party going on in Cleveland.