Indians on Pace to Make Terrible Offensive History and Match Cleveland Spiders
By Sean Facey
The Cleveland Indians offense is bad. Historically bad.
The Tribe are on pace to hit a paltry .232 as a team. That would be the lowest mark for any Cleveland major league team since the Cleveland Spiders also hit .232 way back in 1890. We know you're hurting out there, Indians fans.
If the Indians finished the year with their current team batting average of .232 it would be the lowest by Cleveland's major league team in 129 years: since the seventh-place 44-88 Cleveland Spiders hit .232 in 1890.
— Jim Ingraham (@Jim_Ingraham) June 17, 2019
It's astonishing, yes, but not altogether surprising. They're without slugger Edwin Encarnacion, and the production from star infielder Jose Ramirez has fallen off of a cliff.
Not a single qualified batter is hitting above .300, and only two of them, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Santana, are even hitting above .250.
Both Jose Ramirez and Leonys Martin, starting lineup regulars, are in danger of falling below the Mendoza line. They're hitting .203 and .204, respectively.
In the middle of a larger-than-life slump for Jose Ramirez, every day is the first day of the rest of his season https://t.co/jb5w1ypSyN
— SI MLB (@si_mlb) June 12, 2019
Their .314 team on-base percentage would be the lowest mark they have posted since 1991.
For a team that had playoff aspirations heading into the season, this is a prime example of everything going wrong in catastrophic fashion.
We thought the Cleveland Indians would coast to a division crown. Boy, was that wrong.@MichaelBaumann: https://t.co/to9kb7ZMom
— The Ringer (@ringer) June 16, 2019
Posting the same batting average as a team that played baseball just 25 years removed from the Civil War is a dubious feat nobody wants to achieve. Cleveland needs to wake up and fast.