So I rather enjoyed June 2016.

An undefeated calendar month at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario has the Tribe’s home record up to 23-12 on the year, their overall record eleven games over .500 and in first place in the AL Central by three games. For context, they posted one of the worst home records in baseball last season of 39-41. This is good.

Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer threw back-to-back complete games to end the month, allowing one run total between them. Bauer pitched 38.2 innings in June, the most of any Indians starter by almost 10. He allowed 8 earned runs, a .181 opponent batting average and just a single home run. His 38 strikeouts, 0.23 HR/9, 1.86 ERA and 1.5 WAR were all the best among Indians starters. This is good.

The starting pitching staff as a whole led all of Major League baseball in June innings with 143.1, 15 more than the second place Cubs. Their 135 strikeouts, 43 earned runs allowed, 3 complete games, 17.8 K/BB%, .218 opponent batting average, 1.05 WHIP, 2.70 ERA, 3.48 xFIP were all the best in the American League. This is good.

The Indians will close out the first half the week of July 4th with three games against Detroit and four against the Yankees, all at home. We’re 6-0 against Detroit this year, and the Yankees are currently a game below .500 and are 16-21 on the road this season. This is good.

Abraham Almonte can potentially return to the team from his suspension on July 3rd. Buster Olney reported this week that the Indians have told teams they will have some money to blow at the trade deadline. Terry Francona said Roberto Perez, who is recovering from surgery to repair a broken thumb in May, was “probably ahead of schedule” as of last Friday, and has started a throwing program and doing some catching drills. This is good.

The Cleveland Indians are in first place heading into July without Michael Brantley.

This is great.

KEEP THE CHIEF