Goodbye Brohio (and the rest)

over the past 10 days, the Indians have done some dealing and today specifically, on August 7, a big deal went down. so i'm going to take a minute to say goodbye to the 5 men who started 2015 as Cleveland Indians and will now be finishing their years elsewhere. usually i reserve these types of blogs for the guys who've spent a long duration of time with the team, but i will recognize everybody here because i feel like that's the right thing to do.

i briefly acknowledged the David Murphy trade in my latest Brantley blog, but i didn't get into all the details. he was traded on July 28 to the Los Angeles Angels for Double A shortstop, Eric Stamets. Murph's only been with the Indians since 2014 and had the most impact this season, when he was platooning with Ryan Raburn and playing mainly against right-handed starters. he seemed like a nice guy, hell his nickname was "Good Guy." i never had any interaction with him. in all the games i went to in the past 2 years--17 to this point--he never once signed an autograph. never before a game or after in the players parking lot. that disappointed me. but i wish him, his wife Andrea, his daughters Faith and Madison, and son Cole all the best.

Murphy had this to say a few days after the trade:

Brantley's Career High 223 Total Bases

another game, another career high. tonight, on August 8, in the top of the 6th inning in the game against the New York Yankees, Michael hit a leadoff double down the left field line off former Cleveland Indian David Huff after an 0-1 count. (he would later score on David Murphy's 1-out single to left-center field.) this double gave Michael 223 total bases, a new career high. his old career high in this category came in 2012, when he had 222 total bases for the year.

with 46 games to go, it's obvious that Michael will continue to add to this new career high several times before the season is over. right now i think it's very realistic to assume that he finishes with at least 250 TB, and possibly as many as 275. we shall see.

so congrats, Michael! you are literally knocking stats outta the park this year with all your career highs. and although you may not care about individual statistics at the moment, especially since the Indians have lost these last 2 games that you set personal records in, i for one am loving this. thank you! ;D