Cleveland Indians: The historical dominance of Corey Kluber

The dominance of Corey Kluber for the Cleveland Indians is one of historic proportions.

The 2017 campaign for Corey Kluber was one Cleveland Indians fans will remember for a long time. Receiving all but two first-place Cy Young votes, Kluber was clearly the best pitcher in the American League. It was also the best season for the right-hander in Major League Baseball as he posted a career-best 2.25 ERA and only walked 36 batters in 29 regular season starts.

Kluber doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, and with the 2017 season being the finest in his career, it’s safe to say that we’re in the prime of Kluber’s career. Even a slight regression would keep him among the pitching elite. He posted an 8.0 WAR this past season, which Baseball-Reference refers to as “MVP Quality.” MVP voting can get muddled by media, but the voters did Kluber’s season justice by awarding him seventh in MVP voting, appearing as high as third on one ballot.

But what really made Kluber dominant this past season? Other than his laser-focused approach to each game, it’s the advanced stats that show off how incredible his season was. He had a career low in hits per 9 innings, at 6.231, the 58^th lowest season ever by this metric. That was low enough to put him first in the American League, and only behind Max Scherzer’s elite 5.651 in all of baseball.

Another mind-boggling stat that shows how good Kluber was in 2017 is his WHIP. Kluber’s .869 was low enough to be the best in the major leagues and ranked him 26^th on the all-time leaderboard (behind himself at 19 from his 2014 campaign).

One final stat that contributed to Kluber’s successful season was the increased rate at which he struck out batters. In 2017, he struck out 34.1 percent of batters he faced, a 7.6 percent increase over the previous year. One possible cause of this increase was the decrease in fastballs he threw. In 2016, 51.5 percent of his pitches were fastballs. That number went down to 42.5 percent in 2016, while his curveballs increased by 7.7 percent to 27.4 percent. Adding more curves to his arsenal seemingly caused batters to strikeout more often.

So, what’s to come for the 31-year-old pitcher? As mentioned earlier, a slight regression is possible, but only because the production he had was MVP caliber. However, Kluber is the definition of a workhorse pitcher and can be relied on to have a respectable appearance every time he starts. Despite all the accolades, he’s looking for something all members of the team are hungry for; a World Series ring.

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After having an incredible postseason the year prior, Kluber struggled in the American League Divisional Series against the Yankees in the 2017 postseason. Only pitching 6.1 innings over two games, he gave up nine runs compared to the seven runs he gave up the year before in nearly six times as many innings. When the team gets a quality start from Kluber, they’re difficult to beat; provided that the Indians can make it to the postseason again this year, look for the Klubot to be focused in on an entirely new level.

The Cleveland Indians are in a position to win the World Series right now. The future is now. It’s been here for the past two seasons, and it’s fitting that the team’s best player is in his prime. It’s an alignment of the stars that some franchises never get lucky enough to have.

Not only is the team competing for a title on a yearly basis, but they’re also young enough to be competing for years to come. If Kluber can extend his prime beyond what most starting pitchers are able to do, the Cleveland Indians could form a dynasty in the next five years.

Next: Indians dodge arbitration with Cody Allen

All stats are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and Fangraphs.com.

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