With the Kansas City briefly forgetting how to be bad well, they travel to Cleveland where they will face a MUCH better team and likely recommence their march to their worst season in franchise history. Cleveland has had a comfortable lead in the American League Central standings for what seems like a decade. That their record is not particularly impressive—both prospective Wild Card teams have a better record—is not an indicator of their true talent. As was the case for the first half of last year, Cleveland has underperformed, but there is little doubt that they’re better than these Royals.
Game times and pitching matchups are as follows:
- Monday, September 3 — 3:10 PM CDT — Jakob Junis versus Adam Plutko
- Tuesday, September 4 — 6:10 PM CDT — Danny Duffy (L) versus Mike Clevinger
- Wednesday, September 5 — 12:10 PM CDT — Brad Keller versus Corey Kluber
All stats courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball Reference
Kansas City at Cleveland pitching matchups
Pitcher | G | IP | K | K% | BB | BB% | ERA | FIP | xFIP | SIERA | fWAR | rWAR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pitcher | G | IP | K | K% | BB | BB% | ERA | FIP | xFIP | SIERA | fWAR | rWAR |
Game 1 | ||||||||||||
Jakob Junis | 25 | 147.0 | 139 | 21.9 | 40 | 6.3 | 4.53 | 4.75 | 4.23 | 4.02 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
Adam Plutko | 12 | 58.1 | 44 | 18.1 | 19 | 7.8 | 4.94 | 5.57 | 5.51 | 5.07 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
Game 2 | ||||||||||||
Danny Duffy (L) | 27 | 154.1 | 141 | 20.6 | 69 | 10.1 | 4.72 | 4.60 | 4.88 | 4.70 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
Mike Clevinger | 27 | 170.1 | 172 | 24.7 | 56 | 8.1 | 3.17 | 3.47 | 3.91 | 3.91 | 3.7 | 4.3 |
Game 3 | ||||||||||||
Brad Keller | 37 | 113.1 | 76 | 16.2 | 43 | 9.2 | 3.26 | 3.81 | 4.35 | 4.62 | 1.6 | 2.8 |
Corey Kluber | 28 | 186.2 | 180 | 24.9 | 27 | 3.7 | 2.80 | 3.22 | 3.21 | 3.34 | 4.5 | 5.5 |
Let us turn the clock back to the trade deadline in 2010 for a second. Cleveland was out of contention. Jake Westbrook had reëstablished his trade value a bit after missing all of his penultimate arbitration season to recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Cardinals were making a playoff push and trying to solidify their rotation. The Padres wanted Ryan Ludwick, so they sent projected major-league reliever/swingman Nick Greenwood to St. Louis. Oh, and they sent a 24-year-old fringe prospect in AA—a fourth-round draft pick out of Stetson in 2007 who never made Baseball America’s Padres top 30 organizational prospect rankings list but had decent strikeout numbers and an intriguing four-pitch mix that was yet to feature his sinker or cutter, two pitches integral to what would eventually be a shocking two-time Cy Young Award winner. Thanks, San Diego.
Jake Junis has at least a slight advantage in his pitching matchup with Adam “Don’t Call Me ‘Nick,’ Even Though I Should Totally Be A ‘Nick’” Plutko. Plutko is not very good, with each DIPS ERA estimator putting him above 5.00. Of course, one guy in this game gets to face one of the worst offenses in baseball and one does not. Plutko is primarily a fastball/slider guy, with a get-me-over cambio and a garbage Uncle Charlie getting mixed in just under 10% of the time apiece.
Mike Clevinger—another guy grabbed in a deadline deal after being drafted in the fourth, four drafts prior (this time for Vinnie Pestano, whose move to Anaheim meant a meaningful drop in the opportunites for Ryan Lefebvre to painfully pronounce his name like he was in a Chef Boyardee commercial from 1974)—has also emerged as a serious all-star caliber pitcher, giving Cleveland an embarrassment of riches.
Cleveland position players
Name | Pos | PA | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | fWAR | rWAR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Pos | PA | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | fWAR | rWAR |
José Ramírez (S) | 2B/3B | 591 | 37 | 92 | 95 | 29 | .289 | .401 | .593 | .412 | 161 | 8.0 | 7.6 |
Francisco Lindor (S) | SS | 626 | 29 | 111 | 78 | 22 | .284 | .360 | .517 | .372 | 134 | 6.6 | 6.9 |
Michael Brantley (L) | LF | 544 | 14 | 76 | 70 | 10 | .304 | .358 | .467 | .355 | 122 | 2.6 | 2.3 |
Jason Kipnis (L) | 2B/CF | 518 | 14 | 56 | 57 | 6 | .227 | .313 | .376 | .303 | 87 | 1.8 | 1.2 |
Yan Gomes | C | 371 | 12 | 44 | 41 | 0 | .257 | .307 | .427 | .314 | 95 | 1.8 | 1.7 |
Edwin Encarnacion | DH/1B | 481 | 29 | 63 | 92 | 3 | .234 | .323 | .478 | .341 | 113 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
Josh Donaldson | 3B | 159 | 5 | 22 | 16 | 2 | .234 | .333 | .423 | .325 | 103 | 0.6 | 0.6 |
Yonder Alonso (L) | 1B/DH | 494 | 22 | 56 | 76 | 0 | .243 | .310 | .432 | .319 | 98 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
Melky Cabrera (S) | RF/LF | 201 | 6 | 23 | 31 | 1 | .282 | .333 | .448 | .334 | 109 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
Erik González | IF | 125 | 1 | 16 | 15 | 3 | .286 | .320 | .403 | .314 | 94 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
Rajai Davis | LF | 191 | 1 | 30 | 6 | 16 | .246 | .293 | .309 | .267 | 63 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
Yandy Díaz | 1B/3B | 60 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 0 | .310 | .333 | .379 | .310 | 92 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
Eric Haase | C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -100 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Brandon Guyer | OF | 177 | 6 | 20 | 22 | 1 | .191 | .282 | .357 | .284 | 74 | -0.2 | -0.4 |
Greg Allen (S) | CF | 238 | 2 | 28 | 15 | 14 | .240 | .278 | .312 | .258 | 57 | -0.6 | -0.5 |
Roberto Pérez | C | 179 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 1 | .151 | .244 | .224 | .217 | 29 | -0.8 | -0.6 |
Cleveland is slashing .258/.328/.435 with a .328 wOBA and 105 wRC+. Their position players have amassed 23.4 fWAR the sixth-best mark in baseball, 0.1 behind the Dodgers. Joining a very good squad is last week’s acquisition, Josh Donaldson. Donaldson is three years removed from an MVP award, but he has been injured for much of the past two seasons, including missing the bulk of this season (on the DL dating back to May 29) with a calf strain. Donaldson got placed back on the DL today, getting assigned to AAA - Columbus for a rehab assignment, but he could make them significantly better for the stretch run.
Poll
How will the Royals fare in Cleveland?
This poll is closed
-
5%
Royals sweep
-
29%
Royals take two of three
-
50%
Cleveland takes two of three
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14%
Cleveland sweeps