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1) Putting Jason Kipnis’ production in June into perspective goes beyond the Thesaurus. It goes to history. Kipnis was that good -- hitting .419 with four HRs, 25 RBI and 12 doubles. His OPS was 1.216 and his slugging percentage .699. Those are big-time numbers, he wrote, using the Thesaurus lamely.
2) Those numbers are all well and good, and they are very much well and good. But Kipnis is in Tris Speaker stratosphere with this month of his. Speaker played in Cleveland from 1916 through 1926, and is probably the greatest Indians hitter that too few people talk about. He had a career average of .345 and a career OPS of .928. In a six-year stretch with the Indians from 1920-25 he hit .388, .362, .378, .380, .344 and .389. With apologies to the guys in the ‘90s, Speaker may have been the greatest hitter in Cleveland Indians history. Kipnis joins Speaker as one of 15 Indians with an OPS of 1.2 or more in a month (also in the group: the immortal Johnny Grubb). Speaker did it five times; no other Indians player has done it more than once. Kipnis’ 1.216 is the 12th best OPS in a month in team history.
3) Go deeper into the labyrinth of BaseballReference.com, and it gets better. Kipnis is the only player in Indians history who had that high an OPS who also had 25 RBI and nine stolen bases in a month. Only five Indians have ever had an OPS of at least 1.216, 25 RBI and a .400 batting average in a month: Jim Thome, Speaker, Earl Averill, Joe Sewell and Kipnis. Kipnis is early in his career, Thome will be a Hall of Famer and the other three are. Kipnis becomes the 124th major leaguer to hit those numbers, but only the second to have that OPS with that average with those RBI and nine stolen bases. The other: George Sisler, yet another Hall of Famer. Kipnis’ .419 batting average for the month is the 13th best in Indians history. It matches Robbie Alomar’s September/October in 2000. Speaker has three of the best five monthly averages in team history. … Jason Kipnis, come on down.
4) Ranking ninth on the list of best monthly averages in Indians history is a gentleman who hit. 433 in July of 1959. Guy by the name of Francona, Tito Francona. Father of the guy calling the shots in the Indians dugout.
5) Kipnis has erased that horrid start when he hit .200 in April and saw his average hovering at or near the Mendoza Line. Kipnis now is just short of .300 with an OPS of .918. He ranks sixth in the American League in stolen bases, third in Wins Above Replacement, fifth in doubles, fourth in runs created, fifth in offensive win percentage and first in assists by a second baseman. All-Star? Sure. Why the heck not? (For more and more complex numbers on Kipnis, I’d suggest going to the blog written by Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. He dives deeper than numbers ought to let a person dive.)
6) There are some baseball historians who believe Speaker deserves consideration as the greatest center fielder in baseball history; he obviously could hit, and he was that good defensively as he was renowned for playing the shallowest center field possible. In April of 1918 he completed two unassisted double-plays by catching a ball in shallow center and beating the runner back to the bag. Speaker’s life is fascinating. He had three uncles who fought for the Confederacy, he started playing left-handed when he broke his arm twice after being thrown from a bronco and he may have been a member of the Ku Klux Klan (imagine the Twitter response to that today). He started his career with Boston, but was traded to Cleveland when he held out after management threatened to cut his pay after the Red Sox won the World Series -- from $18,000 to $9,000. In 1947, he was hired by Bill Veeck to coach Larry Doby and help him as he moved from second base to center field. “A man’s man who hunted, fished, could bulldog a steer, and taught Will Rogers how to use a lariat, Speaker was involved in more than his share of umpire baiting and brawls with teammates and opposing players,” wrote Don Jensen of the Society for American Baseball Research. “But when executing a hook slide on the bases, tracking a fly ball at the crack of an opponent’s bat, or slashing one of his patented extra-base hits, Speaker made everything he did look easy.” The man was a contemporary of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Cy Young. There are several good biographies written of him, but one of the best is “Spoke: A Biography of Tris Speaker” by Charles Alexander. It’s well worth some summer hours in the lawn chair.
7) Some touchstone points for this season seem to revolve around Nick Swisher. In April, he walked into a silent clubhouse after a thumping by the Royals in Kansas City, turned on the music and told the team they had to get ready to play the second game of a doubleheader. Backed by Mike Aviles, Swisher did not let the team feel sorry for itself, and that started the Indians’ 18-4 streak. Later, hampered by a bad shoulder, Swisher went through a brutal stretch at the plate, but refused to come out of the lineup until he was forced to miss eight days to strengthen the shoulder. Since his return, the Indians have won six of eight, with Swisher providing the game-winning RBI twice. The shoulder may mean that Swisher’s numbers do not approach where he typically has been, but clearly his presence means something.
8) The last couple seasons it seemed that Detroit hit a point when it looked up, realized it was getting toward “that” time and flipped the switch. The Tigers then pulled away. That may happen again, especially with the Tigers always-dangerous lineup. But the Tigers have serious issues with the bullpen -- which is why they are not winning even with the excellence of Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Max Scherzer (12-0). They have converted two in three save chances, their closer has a 5.59 ERA, and the bullpen ERA of 3.99 is 22nd in baseball. Yes, the Indians are 21st, and yes, the Indians have a lower save-conversion percentage (57) than Detroit (67). And yes, the Indians clearly need to sort out their left-handed situation. But the return of Chris Perez, in theory, should help folks settle back in comfortable roles. Detroit, on the other hand, is searching. Which is why the possibility of the Tigers going out and getting a guy like Jonathan Papelbon should not be dismissed.
9) Just for reference … and to illustrate what has happened when Detroit flipped their internal switch … in 2011 the Indians were 43-37 on July 1 and finished 15 games back of the Tigers. A year ago, the Indians were 40-38 and finished 20 games back. This season’s team clearly is different, with different players, a different manager and a different vibe. But it shows what the Tigers are capable of doing. Detroit went 50-34 a year ago after July 1, and in 2011 the Tigers went 51-29.
