Cleveland Indians Player of the Week: April 9 - April 15

If you ignore 80 percent of the last week, it was a pretty fun one for the Cleveland Indians. Jose Ramirez homered twice, Lonnie Chisenhall homered, and the Indians won a blowout against another team’s ace.

But I guess we technically have to count those other four games.

Where last week’s vote had a pretty clear-cut winner in Francisco Lindor, I feel like this week could go down the same way but with Jose Ramirez. Frankie was great again, but he only had one home run and no dramatic grand slams.

Meanwhile, The Angry Hamster and his Cheeto-lookin’ hair were spectacular.

Jose Ramirez: 10-23, 1 (2B), 2 HR, 7 RBI, 3 BB

On top of that outstanding stat line (and outstanding hair), Ramirez only struck out twice throughout the week. The only Indians batter to have at least 10 at-bats over the last week and strike out fewer times was Lonnie Chisenhall, who didn’t whiff once in three games.

He also had this great moment with SportsTime Ohio’s Andre Knott trying to get him to speak English.

Francisco Lindor: 10-23, 3 (2B), 1 HR, 4 BB

Lindor was much more of a table-setter this week compared to last, scoring six runs but driving in just one. That’s not to say that Frankie was “not clutch” or anything; he came up to the plate with runners in scoring position seven times, walked twice and never struck out. So he was either getting on base or putting a ball in play. There just weren’t a ton of opportunities for him. But what he did do was lead the team in doubles and fall just short of tying Hamster for the team-lead in hits.

Lonnie Chisenhall: 5-11, 5 H, 1 (2B), 2 HR, 7 RBI

In his first week back from a spring training injury, Lonnie Chisenhall had just 11 plate appearances. But in that short span he managed to homer twice and rack up two singles and a double. Such a small sample size on this list almost feels like cheating, but Chisenhall was too good in limited action to completely ignore him. And if you want to believe in momentum and all that, the Indians offense didn’t truly come alive until he hit that pinch-hit grand slam against the Tigers on Friday night.

Abraham Almonte: 6-18, 6 H, 2 BB

The curious case of patient Almonte continued last week, as he walked two more times, bringing his season total to six. His career-high over a full season is 21 in 232 plate appearances. As of this writing, he has six walks in 31 plate appearances. While everyone else is working on swinging up and being more aggressive, Almonte is working a new strength, and it might have helped him win a job over Tyler Naquin.

Cody Allen: 5 G, 4.2 IP, 11 SO, 1 ER

Cody Allen gave up a run last week, which would discredit most relievers from winning a Player of the Week Award, but the guy was also good that he finished a negative FIP. His 11 strikeouts in 4.2 innings gave him a team-leading 21.21 strikeouts-per-nine last week, besting Danny Salazar’s 15.43 K/9 and even Andrew Miller’s 10.50 K/9.

Andrew Miller: 5 G, 6.0 IP, 7 SO, 0 BB

It’s just not fair, Andrew. You can’t keep doing this to people. Other people need to be allowed to play the game, too. They are all very hard-working individuals and you are making them looking like Little Leaguers. Last week, Miller induced swinging strikes 16.9 percent of the time and we saw him pitch more than one inning twice in the same week for the first time this season. Good luck, rest of baseball.