The Cleveland Indians have struck gold with one of the most undervalued players in baseball, Jason Kipnis.
Just this last June, Kipnis was named the American League Player of the Month, hitting .419 with 13 doubles, 1 triple,
4 home runs, 25 RBIs and 17 runs scored.
Here is a breakdown of Jason Kipnis through the first half of the 2013 season:
Kipnis has proven to have difficulty with breaking pitches as the majority of his hits come off fastballs.
Something to note about this is that most of his outfield hits to the opposite field have been from fastballs
and most of his outfield hits that he pulls to right have been from off-speed pitches.
This is interesting because so far in the 2013 season, the pitch location of his hits off fastballs tend to
be in the middle and upper portion of the zone where as the pitch location from off-speed pitches tend to be
in the lower and outer portion of the zone.
Kipnis has been a large part of the Indians offense by drastically improving since last year. His batting average
is up from .245 to .301 and he has improved on hitting certain pitches. Last year, the pitch he hit worst was a changeup,
but this year he has either gotten a hit or sacrifice on 21% of swings off changeups. Half way through the season, he already
has as many homeruns (14) and doubles (23) as he did all of last year.
One weakness is that he has trouble laying-off breaking pitches in the dirt. The two charts below compare outs and
strikes from pitches that were thrown out of the strike zone only. Kipnis has recorded 23 outs from pitches low and
out of the zone and only 3 have been from a fastball or changeup.
He does a good job at holding up on high pitches out of the zone and has been forced to swing at outside pitches
due to umpires stretching the plate on him. 17 of his 23 outs from pitches low and out of the zone were swing and
misses for strike three. With improvement on taking pitches he should lower his number of strikes outs and increase
his run production.
NOTE: Chart does not include outs and strikes thrown inside the strike zone
Kipnis is a young player, but has shown he can hit the ball in all directions of the field. He is a second basemen with
similar power and characteristics to Robinson Cano and Dustin Pedroia, who both played in front of him in the 2013 All Star game. Kipnis is on pace for 28 home runs and is currently seventeenth in the league in OBP, fourth among active second basemen. Additionally, in comparison to second basemen in both leagues, he is seventh in batting average, first in stolen bases and third in runs, RBIs and home runs.
Although Kipnis and Cano both have similar spray charts as well as overall statistics, Kipnis has lacked respect for
what he has accomplished in the league compared to players like Cano. As Kipnis is looking to lead the Indians into
the playoffs, it will be interesting to see if he can keep up with his current offensive production.
* Chart statistics according to ESPN
NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 7/20/13
By Danny Malter, AriBall.com Sportswriter
