Brantley's Cactus League 2017 Rehab & Game Details

Brantley fans! i have the best news for you all on this, our Indians' baseball eve! it was just formally announced today that we will see Michael Brantley open up the season on the 25-man roster and bat 3rd in the Indians' starting lineup tomorrow, April 3! Happy Day Before Opening Day, indeed! i could not be more ecstatic!😁

when i last left off in my previous updates blog post, Michael was starting to take live batting practice in the indoor batting cages. since then, he's taken live BP on the field, played in some simulated games, advanced to playing in minor league games, and then received clearance to play in Cactus League spring games with the Indians. he hit every benchmark that he needed to and now he's ready to begin the regular season.

making it to this point took a lot of hard work on Michael's part; it was such a long road back. i'm sure nobody wants the 2017 campaign to get underway more than him so he can finally join his teammates on the field again instead of watching and coaching them from the dugout. lead by example this year, boy!

i'm going to do this similarly to how i did it a year ago, by splitting Michael's Cactus League rehab information into two separate blogs so that there's not an overwhelming amount of stuff in one huge post. this first blog contains his daily rehab updates, quotes, pictures, and videos throughout the duration of Indians spring games. all of Michael's hitting progressions are included here, as well as

Brantley's February 2017 Hitting Progressions (Pre-Spring Games)

Indians spring training games begin tomorrow! finally, the boys are back in action! well, all except one. sadly, Michael Brantley is not ready to play in spring games yet because the team is being extra careful with him and taking his rehab slowly. so as we wait for Michael to get the all clear, i thought i'd post an updates blog with details about his February hitting progressions--from tee work to batting practice!--prior to Cactus League games. there are a lot of photos of Michael in here, too!👍

and, in an unprecedented twist, FIVE different baseball writers published false information regarding Michael this month. not on purpose, of course, but it's quite astonishing that so many people would make mistakes within a similar time period and in relation to the same player. for three of these guys especially, that's a rarity because they are typically some of my most credible sources when it comes to all things Tribe. nevertheless, i called attention to those faux pas, as you would expect, and then corrected them, as you will soon discover.

before i get started though, if you'd like to see any of the updates between Michael's biceps tenodesis surgery on August 15, 2016, and Tribe Fest on January 28, 2017, check out

Brantley's January 2017 Hitting Progressions + Other News & Pics

hello there, Brantley fans! spring training is right around the corner and that's when we'll start to get a much better idea of where Michael is at physically and how he can handle the day-to-day activities that baseball requires of him. but for now, i have accumulated every bit of news that came out about Michael in the month of January, including his hitting progressions, rehab information, quotes, and pictures. so let's get into it!


January 3: Jordan Bastian tweeted that Michael began some non-contact swinging over the holiday break while back home and will continue his rehab in Cleveland this week.

January 4: in his first Indians Inbox of 2017 on indians.com, Bastian addressed Jonah Keri's statement on Michael--"this is a horrific, horrifically bad injury and there's some problems"--from December 23, 2016. Bastian sensibly pointed out that nothing else yet thus far supports Keri's claim and because this is the middle of the offseason, everything right now should be treated as speculation. he also remarked

Wrapping Up Brantley's 2016 Season

from Michael Brantley's perspective, i cannot say i'm sorry to see the 2016 baseball season go. for him, it was unlike any other and certainly will not be mentioned in the "best of" seasons of his career. we basically got a taste of what Indians baseball will be like without Dr. Smooth in the (hopefully far off) future. except, in an unexpected twist, the team did not seem in desperate need of its best hitter this year; not until the end, that is. on the other hand, Michael can now claim that he's already had a bit of experience as a coach in Major League Baseball once he's a retired player since his main role in 2016 became providing his teammates with his baseball knowledge, guidance, and pointers.

this final wrap up blog is somewhat different from how i've previously done it. that's due to the fact that Michael didn't play a full season, and so i couldn't really give justifiable comments about it or do fair comparisons of it to his past seasons. additionally, it's being posted later than usual because the Indians recently completed a long playoff run and i wanted to include my thoughts on that in here as well. nonetheless, this blog consists of some highlights from Michael's playing time with the Tribe, quotes, and

Brantley's 2016 Postseason October/November (w/ Rehab Updates & Pics)

it may not have ended how Michael Brantley, the Cleveland Indians, and all their fans wanted, but this was one hell of a postseason October/November. congratulations to the Tribe for extending their 2016 season into the early hour of November 3 (crazy right?! lol) and making it an exciting one.

despite Michael not appearing in any postseason games or series, i of course still had to write this blog. the format of it follows my more recent Brantley monthly blogs, where he didn't play at all and i provided a recap of the Tribe's performance for extra content.

there are four sections in this blog. the first covers the overall postseason for Michael and the Indians. the second focuses solely on the ALDS, the third is all about the ALCS, and the fourth discusses the World Series as well as some rehab updates! each section contains subsections that include an overview, Michael news and pictures, and/or win celebrations. had Michael been healthy and played in these playoff games with the Indians, i for sure would have created separate blogs for each series. but since i didn't have any numbers to document and breakdown, i decided to combine everything into one postseason blog.