Corey Kluber: Time to Panic?

Apr 10, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians starting pitcher

(28) poses with the

Award before the game between the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

One of the biggest headlines going in to the 2015 season was can Corey Kluber be more than just a flash in the pan? Before the breakout 2014 season, Kluber had been mid rotation arm with an ERA hovering around the mid 3s to 4s and really seemed to have plateaued as a big leaguer.

There are many fantasy owners that either believed in Kluber as a true ace or not, and those that believed, are wondering if they had been fooled all along. I’m here to tell you worried fantasy owners to relax and stay the course as you can’t count Kluber out just yet.

Last season I was one of those silly fantasy owners that cut Kluber too quickly after his early season struggles, and unfortunately had to watch Kluber’s surge to a Cy Young award on another guy’s team.

I will advise fantasy owners this year, to look past these recent ugly stretches and divulge deeper into his peripherals. If we look at Kluber’s six starts we see that Kluber came out of the gates like the ace we saw (2.49 ERA/25K’s)  and but over these last three starts we have seen the resemblance of his pre 2014 self (7.27 ERA/14K’s). 

Those are some ghastly splits and many fantasy owners have taken some huge hits in their pitching categories solely from Kluber alone. This may seem to paint a pretty bleak picture, but here is why you should hang on.

The Indians defense does Kluber no favors as they continue to show struggles and rank below average in team defensive categories. That leads me to Kluber’s 2.99 FIP, allowing me to feel a little reassurance that Kluber still shows that his stuff is still there. His K and BB ratios are also not too far off from the pace that he showed last year.

Then there is the issue that Kluber has gotten absolutely no run support, showing the reason why he currently sits at 0-4 on the year. Among SP in the AL, he currently only gets 2.33 runs a game, meaning that he has little margin of error as he tries to work through his struggles.

The point being that Kluber is certainly in a funk no doubt, but there are some peripheral stats that point to some underlying causes. Kluber is trying to work through his struggles amongst being surrounded by a poor fielding and low scoring team, if we compound that all together we can see why the stats are ugly.

Astute fantasy owners will hold course and count on Kluber and his talent, to turn the corner and regain his excellent command and dominance. If someone in your league has had enough of Kluber already swoop in and see if you can get him for cheap and reap the rewards of his eventual turnaround just like last season.