2003 Cleveland Indians Baseball Graphs Review

Cleveland hung in there in the American League Central until the All-Star break, at which point they slowly faded away. The primary reason for their second half fade was the Pythagorean impact.

The Indians finished five games below their projected won/loss record for the season, but this negative variance all occurred in the second half; their first half projected wins were exactly equal to actual wins.

A high Defense Efficiency Ratio (DER) was the key to Cleveland's defense (that's them right under the Angels). Their fielding was about average (indicated by circle size). Judging the pitching, the Cleveland's pitchers achieved an above-average DER and a below-average FIP.

The Cleveland bullpen was very good. Riske, Betancourt, Cressend and Baez all had great FIPS and usually very good DERs. Looking at specific Indian starters, Sabathia was obviously the star, with a low FIP and average DER. The jury is out on other Indian starters, though Cliff Lee is off to a nice start. He's one pitcher who definitely benefited from a high DER. You can view these stats for all AL pitchers here.

In like a lamb, out like a lamb; the first and last months of the season were not good for the Indians. Their slow start can be pinned on the offense, but they just didn't put things together well in September (their basic stats were all about even with previous months). They played doormats to the division contenders, and even lost three straight to the Tigers.

The Indians were 54-56 during the months in between, and they looked to be a decent team during that time. The only bad string of games occurred right aftger the All-Star break, against the Yankees and White Sox.

Cleveland Indians' Win Shares

Player          Team    Pos     Hit     Field   Pitch   Sum     WS 	
--------	-----	----	----	----	-----	-----	---	
M Bradley       CLE     OF      14.68   3.09    0.00    17.76   18	
J Gerut         CLE     OF      11.27   2.31    0.00    13.59   14	
C Sabathia      CLE     P       0.20    0.00    12.89   13.09   13	
C Blake         CLE     3B      7.74    3.35    0.00    11.09   11	
D Riske         CLE     P       0.00    0.00    10.03   10.03   10	
M Lawton        CLE     OF      8.42    1.33    0.00    9.75    10	
D Baez          CLE     P       0.00    0.00    8.82    8.82    9	
B Broussard     CLE     1B      7.30    1.21    0.00    8.51    9	
J Bard          CLE     C       3.24    3.80    0.00    7.04    7	
B Anderson      CLE     P       0.00    0.00    6.84    6.84    7	
C Crisp         CLE     OF      4.47    2.33    0.00    6.80    7	
T Hafner        CLE     DH      6.22    0.44    0.00    6.66    7	
J Westbrook     CLE     P       0.00    0.00    5.91    5.91    6	
R Ludwick       CLE     OF      4.93    0.76    0.00    5.69    6	
S Spencer       CLE     OF      4.51    0.80    0.00    5.31    5	
J Davis         CLE     P       0.00    0.00    5.31    5.31    5	
E Burks         CLE     DH      5.07    0.07    0.00    5.15    5	
O Vizquel       CLE     SS      1.63    3.20    0.00    4.83    5	
J Peralta       CLE     SS      1.32    3.09    0.00    4.41    4	
B Phillips      CLE     2B      0.00    4.38    0.00    4.38    4	
J Cressend      CLE     P       0.00    0.00    4.13    4.13    4	
R Betancourt    CLE     P       0.00    0.00    3.99    3.99    4	
T Laker         CLE     C       1.59    1.99    0.00    3.59    4	
J Boyd          CLE     P       0.00    0.00    3.28    3.28    3	
B Traber        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    3.04    3.04    3	
J Stanford      CLE     P       0.00    0.00    2.93    2.93    3	
T Mulholland    CLE     P       0.00    0.00    2.83    2.83    3	
V Martinez      CLE     C       1.04    1.79    0.00    2.83    3	
C Lee           CLE     P       0.00    0.00    2.77    2.77    3	
J Santiago      CLE     P       0.00    0.00    2.33    2.33    2	
J McDonald      CLE     2B      0.11    2.09    0.00    2.19    2	
D Miceli        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    1.56    1.56    2	
C Magruder      CLE     OF      1.22    0.10    0.00    1.32    1	
A Escobar       CLE     OF      0.64    0.67    0.00    1.31    1	
C Sadler        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.94    0.94    1	
A Santos        CLE     2B      0.11    0.83    0.00    0.94    1	
R Rodriguez     CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.64    0.64    1	
D Lee           CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.52    0.52    1	
R Gutierrez     CLE     SS      0.00    0.38    0.00    0.38    0	
J Bere          CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.33    0.33    0	
Z Sorensen      CLE     2B      0.00    0.32    0.00    0.32    0	
B Selby         CLE     3B      0.00    0.30    0.00    0.30    0	
K Garcia        CLE     OF      0.00    0.22    0.00    0.22    0	
G LaRocca       CLE     3B      0.13    0.07    0.00    0.20    0	
B Tallet        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.13    0.13    0	
N Bierbrodt     CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
D Cortes        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
C Durbin        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
D Elder         CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
A Herrera       CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
A Myette        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
C Paronto       CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
J Phillips      CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
J Riggan        CLE     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	

I don't know about you, but David Riske was certainly a surprise to me. The key elements to his improvement were better control and the DER gods. He does give up a lot of home runs.

Milton Bradley finally had the type of year everyone has been expecting of him, and Jody Gerut had a nice rookie season.