Brantley Finishes 2nd in Baseball Prospectus' 2014 AL Player Of The Year Vote

it was announced this morning, on November 10, that Michael Brantley achieved another career first--he finished 2nd in Baseball Prospectus' 2014 AL Player of the Year vote!

BP's POTY is voted on by the staff of Baseball Prospectus and is part of their Greg Spira Memorial Internet Baseball Awards, or IBAs. Spira established the IBAs in 1991 and managed them until his death in 2011. other than POTY, the IBAs also include pitcher of the year, rookie of the year, and manager of the year (which was added in 1998), with both the American League and National League earning separate honors. pitchers are eligible for player of the year as well as pitcher of the year.

the point system on the Baseball Prospectus player of the year ballots is the same as the BBWAA's system. there are 10 slots, with a first place vote equaling 14 points. slots 2 through 10 are then worth 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points.

39 members of BP's staff submitted ballots this year and all but one voter ranked Mike Trout 1st.

here are the complete AL POTY voting results:

Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	POINTS
1. Mike Trout	38	1									541
2. Michael Brantley		7	10	4	2	6	2	2			227
3. Josh Donaldson		9	2	6	2	3	1	4			182
4. Corey Kluber		2	6	6	4	1	3	1		1	153
5. Jose Bautista		3	1	7	4	3	4	2	2	1	150
6. Alex Gordon		3	4	3	3	5	3		1		137
7. Jose Abreu		2	4	1	5	1	3	1	2	4	115
8. Victor Martinez		6	2	1	3	1	2	1	1	1	114
9. Felix Hernandez			1	4	5	4	3	2	1		106
10. Robinson Cano		3	1	1	4	1	3	2	2	1	94
11. Adrian Beltre		2	1	2	1	3		2	3	1	74
12. Jose Altuve			1	1	1	1	2	2	3	4	50
13. Miguel Cabrera		1	1		1				2	4	31
14. Kyle Seager			3		1						30
15. Adam Jones			1	2	1						28
16. Nelson Cruz				1	1				2		19
17. Chris Sale					1			3	1		17
18. David Price	1										14
19. Steve Pearce						1		1			8
20. David Ortiz					1					1	7
21. Ian Kinsler							1		1		6
22. Yan Gomes							1				4
T23. Nick Markakis										1	1
T23. Ben Zobrist										1	1

according to this chart, Michael received votes ranging from 2nd place down to 8th. he's the only player other than Mike Trout with over 200 points. this is another award voted on by fans and, where Michael is concerned, i think they got it right this time.

now if you compare this list to the 3 finalists for AL MVP chosen by the BBWAA, then it looks off. Victor Martinez finished 8th here, but most likely will place 2nd when the MVP winner is announced this Thursday. some fans are fickle i guess. or biased lol like that David Price 1st place vote. come on, really?

regarding Indians players, the results of this award are very similar to the Baseball Bloggers Alliance's 2014 AL Stan Musial Award, where Michael also finished 2nd and Corey Kluber finished 4th. and in the FanGraphs 2014 POTY ballot, Michael finished 7th and Kluber again finished 4th. that award is voted on by fans, too, just like with Baseball Prospectus, but it differs in that it combines both leagues.

Kluber finishing 4th and even getting two 2nd place votes here is impressive and in no way surprising. he was THAT good this season. what is surprising though is seeing fellow Indians player, Yan Gomes, on this BP list. one fan voted him 7th out of 10 and that placed him 22nd overall in the final results. okay, no offense to Gomes, or that fan who voted for him, but i personally think there are a lot of other American League players who should get a top 10 player of the year vote before Gomes. and 38 other BP staffers agree with me lol but good on you, Gomes. that's cool for you.

so congratulations to Michael for even more recognition and validation that he was one of the best players in the league this year! it's well-deserved! =D

Brantley's Thoughts About Winning His 1st Career Silver Slugger Award

Michael did some phone interviews today, on November 7, to talk about winning his 1st career Louisville Slugger AL OF Silver Slugger Award. he also talked about his AL MVP candidacy, his approach at the plate this season, and teammate Yan Gomes receiving a Silver Slugger for the first time, too.

photo courtesy of TribeVibe blog

photo cropped from a video on Indians.com

"it's a great honor, it really is. when i sit back and kind of reflect on the season, from the coaching staff, teammates, to the trainers, to my family's support, just everybody that helped me get through the season, and the fun season we had together... to be recognized for these awards, it's a blessing and an honor."

on how his offense improved this year: "one of the biggest things was that i changed my mental approach. i came into the season ready to drive the ball. i wasn't up there just trying to walk or work counts. i was really trying to get a fastball early and put a good swing on it. in the past, i never tried to do that before really. i used to try to work counts, get on base, make sure i was getting the perfect pitch. i hit more like a leadoff hitter. this year, i wanted to be more aggressive. i wanted, i figured, maybe there's a good first pitch fastball to hit early. i was ready to swing and try to put a good swing on the ball.

with the adjustments of growing up in the major leagues and having more time under my belt, it made it easier to relax and trust my skills and make sure that, i could swing at a bad pitch every now and then, but if i got a good pitch early on, just put a good swing on it."

because that worked out so well, he has no plans to change his offseason routine. "i really pride myself on just kind of working hard in the offseason. i've been kind of doing the same routine for the last couple years. i'm just making sure i stay consistent. i think it's consistency and your workout routines and eating right and making sure that you come in healthy to spring training and ready to play. i'm not a position player that feels like i take spring training to get ready. i want to come into spring training ready to play, so that, you know, once the first game, i'm acclimated and i'm ready to go."

on fellow Silver Slugger winner, Yan Gomes: "it's very exciting, because you see all the hard work that he puts in each and every day. he's a great teammate. he's one of the leaders on our team. he's in the cage with me side by side. he works hard each and every day. as a catcher, it's not easy to catch as many games as he does. to be his teammate and to watch how hard he worked this year, like i said before, i couldn't be more happy for one of my teammates. he deserves it."

what does his father, Mickey, think of all his nominations and his 2014 season? "we were just talking the other day. after kind of a couple awards came out and i was nominated for a couple things, i looked at him and i said, 'hey, pops. i had a pretty good season, huh?' he just laughed at me. he said, 'son, you had a great season.'"

"i've never been that player that is really stat driven. i care about wins and losses and i care about my teammates. that's what comes first and foremost for me. my goal, just like every other year, as soon as i step into spring training, is to get to the postseason and win the World Series. that's a group effort, and we all know that in the locker room. that's #1 on my list."

Michael's full interviews can be found here and here.

Brantley Wins Louisville Slugger's 2014 AL OF Silver Slugger Award!

tonight, on November 6, it was revealed that for the very first time in his career, Michael Brantley won Louisville Slugger's 2014 American League Outfielder Silver Slugger Award! finally, Michael wins an award! and it is well deserved! he's the first Indians outfielder to win the award since Grady Sizemore in 2008. that's my boy!

photo courtesy of @Indians twitter

photo cropped from a video on Indians.com

and can i just say, i love the commentary in the reveal video. "baby boy all grows up" and "Smooth Criminal" had me lol-ing, but my favorite part without a doubt was when they declared Michael the team leader over Swisher and Kipnis. hell yes! i've been saying that for 2 years.

Louisville Slugger's Silver Slugger Award is Major League Baseball's top offensive honor. four members of each major league team's coaching staff vote for the players they believe to be the best offensively at each fielding position in both leagues, plus the DH in the AL and pitcher in the NL. however, these managers and coaches are not allowed to vote for players on their own team. several offensive statistics are taken into account when voting for this award, including a player's batting average, on-base percentage, and (clearly) slugging percentage. the value a player brings to his team offensively, as determined by managers and coaches, is also an important factor.

created by Louisville Slugger bats manufacturer Hillerich & Bradsby, the Silver Slugger Award began in 1980. its purpose was to be an extension of the Silver Bat Award, a silver-plated bat given to the batting champions in the AL and NL by Louisville Slugger. the Silver Slugger Award is three feet long and features the winner's name engraved on it, as well as the other Silver Slugger winners from each position in their respective league.

here's how Michael's 2014 season numbers compare with all of the qualifying outfielders in the American League:
1st in batting average (.327), hits (200), and doubles (45)
2nd in OBP (.385)
tied 2nd in fWAR (6.6)
3rd in OPS (.890), extra base hits (67), total bases (309), runs (94), and wRC+ (155)
4th in SLG (.506)
5th in RBI (97)
7th in stolen bases (23)
tied 9th in home runs (20)
he had the lowest strikeout rate (8.3%) among AL outfielders, too.

the rest of the American League Silver Sluggers for 2014 are
1B Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox
2B Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
SS Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox
3B Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers
DH Victor Martinez, Detroit Tigers
OF Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
OF Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays
C Yan Gomes, Cleveland Indians (way to go, Gomer!)

now let me clear up any confusion about the OF Silver Slugger Award winners. this honor is awarded to three outfielders and the position which they actually play has no bearing. it's possible that one or two OF positions is not represented annually. but this year, it just so happened that each outfielder chosen mainly played in different spots. while Michael did see time in both left and center, he was primarily a left fielder. Mike Trout always played in center field and, perfectly rounding out the outfield, Jose Bautista was mostly in right field this season.

oh and because Yan Gomes also won a Silver Slugger, he and Michael are the first pair of Indians to win this award since Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez both won it in 2000. other Indians who have won Silver Slugger Awards in the last 15 years are Juan Gonzalez in 2001, Victor Martinez in 2004, and most recently until today, Asdrubal Cabrera in 2011.

so congratulations, Michael, Mr. Silver Slugger! no question you were one of the top outfielders of 2014 and i am so happy that you're being recognized for that with this award! enjoy that $50,000 Slugger bonus! =D


to see what Michael had to say about winning this award, read:
Brantley's Thoughts About Winning His 1st Career Silver Slugger Award

Vote Brantley For MLBPAA's 2014 Heart & Hustle Award!

back on July 22, i wrote a blog about how Michael Brantley was the Cleveland Indians' recipient of MLBPAA's 2014 Heart & Hustle Award.

photo courtesy of Indians mailing list

to recap, the Heart & Hustle Award is given annually to active players who demonstrate a passion for baseball and best embody the values, spirit, and traditions of the game. this honor was created by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association and is awarded to 30 preliminary winners, one player on every team. it is the only award in baseball that is voted on by former players.

the MLBPAA has 30 committees made up of alumni players with established relationships to each major league team. these committees choose one player from each team based on his passion, desire, and work ethic both on and off the field. then at the end of the season, fans, alumni, and active players can vote for the final winner of the award from the 30 individual team recipients.

tonight, i was made aware that fans can finally vote. i'm not sure, however, if voting has been open prior to today, and if it has, i'm very sorry that i couldn't alert my readers to it sooner. my Tribe sources should have been a little more on top of this, for the love of Brantley lol anyways, fans can now vote until November 8 at 11:59 pm EST. the fan vote counts for 5% of the total vote, so in all honesty it's probably not going to make much difference. regardless, you can still VOTE FOR MICHAEL HERE.

the final winner will be presented with his Heart & Hustle award on November 18 at the 15th annual Legends for Youth dinner in NYC. good luck, Michael!

And The Winner of Rawlings' 2014 AL LF Gold Glove Award Is...

...not Michael Brantley =(

today was the day that the Gold Glove winners were finally revealed. as i wrote on October 23, Michael was a first time finalist for his performance in left field this season. unfortunately, he did not win. on November 4, the American League Gold Glove was given to Kansas City's Alex Gordon. and that's who i think everyone, including myself, assumed would win.

Gordon finished the 2014 season with 8 assists, 2 errors, and 0 double plays in 1372.2 innings, giving him a .994 fielding percentage in left field. offensively, he had a .266 batting average, 150 hits, 34 doubles, 19 home runs, 74 RBI, 87 runs, 12 stolen bases, 65 walks, and 126 strikeouts in 156 games.

i pretty much knew Michael was a long shot for this award, but it's nice to see that the managers and coaches in the American League voted enough in order for him to be a finalist. however, i think the continued great play of Alex Gordon this season, combined with sabermetrics counting for 25% of the total selection process, was too much against Michael.

still, this does NOT take away from Michael's fantastic season in the outfield. he's sure as hell the best left fielder on the Tribe. screw those unkind sabermetric numbers. the most important thing is that people in the American League are now recognizing Michael's talent and that's good enough for me.

and who knows, maybe he'll get that GG next year! ;D **fingers crossed**

Brantley Named Finalist For Baseball Writers' Association Of America's 2014 AL MVP Award

i've been waiting for this announcement since before the season even ended. this evening, on November 4, it was revealed that the Baseball Writers' Association of America named Michael Brantley as one of three finalists for the 2014 American League Most Valuable Player Award! this MVP nod is the first of his career! he's nominated along with Mike Trout of the Angels and Victor Martinez of the Tigers. congratulations!

photo courtesy of @Indians twitter

if you're unsure how MVP candidates are chosen, let me provide a brief explanation. two writers from each American League city vote for AL MVP, totaling 30 votes overall. there are 10 spots on the MVP ballot and the finalists are the players who finished in the top 3. all players, including designated hitters and pitchers, may be chosen for most valuable player. writers of the BBWAA submit their picks before the postseason begins.

each spot on the ballot equals a certain number of points. a 1st place MVP vote is worth 14 points. the rest of the ballot spots are worth 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points from 2nd place down to 10th. BBWAA's secretary/treasurer, Jack O'Connell, tallies the votes before the finalists are revealed in November. the full results will be posted on the BBWAA website after the winner is announced.

as a general rule of thumb, writers define the MVP in terms of 1. the value a player has to his team, offensively and defensively, 2. the number of games he played, and 3. the player's general character, disposition, loyalty, and effort.

Michael certainly put up MVP type stats this year. to refresh everyone's memory, here are some of his tremendous #s:
.327 batting average
.385 OBP
.506 SLG
.890 OPS
200 hits
45 doubles
20 home runs
97 RBI
94 runs scored
52 walks
23 stolen bases
56 strikeouts
309 total bases
12 outfield assists
7.0 WAR
156 games

everything minus the walks and strikeouts was a career high for him this season. Michael also led the American League with his .376 BA with RISP, .346 BA with runners on base, and .337 BA against right-handed pitchers.

now let's look at the other 2 finalists' numbers:

Mike Trout: 173 hits, 39 doubles, 36 HR, 111 RBI, 115 R*, 83 BB, 16 SB, 184 SO**, 338 TB*, 7.9 WAR, 157 games, .287 BA/.377 OBP/.561 SLG/.939 OPS

Victor Martinez: 188 hits, 38 doubles, 32 HR, 103 RBI, 87 R, 70 BB, 3 SB, 42 SO, 317 TB, 5.3 WAR, 151 games, .335 BA/.409 OBP/.565 SLG/.974 OPS*
*MLB lead
**AL high

Michael's up against some tough competition and it would be a huge surprise if he won. the MVP frontrunner is Mike Trout, especially since he lost out on the award the previous 2 years. however, Michael just being a candidate for an AL most valuable player award is outstanding. to be recognized as a potential league MVP, that really is a hell of an honor. i am so freakin' proud of Michael! [insert happy tears here lol]

no Tribe player has been named MVP since 1953 when Al Rosen won the award. before him, Lou Boudreau won it in 1948 and George Burns was MVP in 1926. and that's it. only those 3 players have won MVP in the history of the Indians.

if Cleveland fans had their way, Michael would be the 4th. during Michael's final game of the season on September 27, fans started "M-V-P!" chants every time he came to the plate. when the media told Michael about this after the game, he was humbled and appreciative. "that's a remarkable feeling. i want to thank the fans for that. it's not something you hear very often. it's not something that's just thrown around. my hat's off to them. i can't thank them enough."

the winner will be announced on November 13 at 6 pm EST on MLB Network and you can count on me to write a follow up blog with all the details. congrats again, Michael! you're definitely my MVP! =D

Brantley Finishes 7th in FanGraphs' 2014 Player Of The Year Vote

today, on November 3, it was announced that Michael Brantley finished 7th in the FanGraphs 2014 Player of the Year vote! add that to the ever-growing long list of career firsts that Michael has obtained in 2014! =D

FanGraphs' POTY is a new award that was just started this year. it was created as a way to honor the player who performed at the highest level in Major League Baseball. this particular award recognizes the most outstanding performer of the season without splitting up leagues and player types.

the FanGraphs player of the year award is voted on by 10 authors at FanGraphs. one additional ballot is comprised of votes by FanGraphs readers. so in total, there are 11 ballots of votes.

here are the complete POTY voting results:

Player	Ballots	Avg Rank	Avg Score
Clayton Kershaw	11	1.5	77.3
Mike Trout	11	1.7	75.3
Andrew McCutchen	11	3.4	52.6
Corey Kluber	11	5.6	34.5
Jonathan Lucroy	10	6.0	32.6
Giancarlo Stanton	10	6.1	28.9
Michael Brantley	11	6.6	25.0
Felix Hernandez	8	6.8	19.1
Anthony Rendon	6	7.3	11.9
Jose Bautista	6	8.3	11.1
Buster Posey	5	8.0	8.6
Chris Sale	6	9.0	6.4
Josh Donaldson	2	8.5	3.2
Alex Gordon	1	9.0	0.9
Victor Martinez	1	9.0	0.5

**chart copy and pasted from FanGraphs website

according to this, Michael was on all 11 ballots that were cast. as usual though, i think some of these rankings are off. first of all, i find it odd that not one person voted for the guy who won the AL batting title--Jose Altuve. then there's Alex Gordon, who's the favorite to win the left field Gold Glove this year, along with Victor Martinez, who had the 2nd highest BA in the American League. somehow both of these players were only on 1 of 11 ballots. i'm not even going to get into the rest of the voting break downs.

i honestly don't like awards that are structured like this, grouping everyone in baseball together. each league has its own best player. i don't think the AL and NL should be combined and competing for top billing. also, you guys who have been reading my blogs for the last couple years know that i think pitchers and hitters should be awarded for their work separately. when you put them all together, that's when these rankings can be skewed because you have to compare everybody and almost literally pick favorites. i mean, doesn't it seem strange to see Corey Kluber finish 4th and Felix Hernandez finish 4 places underneath him?

speaking of Kluber, it's somewhat shocking to me that he finished so high and ahead of Michael. not every voter had Corey above Michael, but enough did so that the final results placed him 4th. (if you want to see who each voter included on their ballot, their rankings, and explanations for their rankings, click here.) can't say i'm too happy that Michael's teammate was viewed as more valuable than Michael in this vote.

now let's do some comparisons. if we weigh this POTY list against Sporting News' 2014 POTY vote, Michael again finished 7th. however, Corey Kluber was nowhere to be found in SN's top 10. and keep in mind, the SN list was voted on by major league players. essentially, this FanGraphs award was voted on by fans and bloggers. if faced with the choice, i'm going to put a little more stock into who the players think is POTY over fans and bloggers who could very well be biased (like i am LOL).

and looking back at Baseball Bloggers Alliance's 2014 Stan Musial Award, Michael finished 2nd, 2 places above Corey. granted those were American League specific results, but they still had Michael ahead of Corey. just saying.

in the grand scheme of things, this is another of one those awards that's really not something to get all worked up about. it's nice that Michael finished 7th on this list and while i don't necessarily agree with that, i'm still happy for and proud of him. the fact that he continues to even place on all these lists is a great accomplishment.

tomorrow we find out the winners of the Gold Gloves and if Michael won for left field or not. then on November 13, the results of MLB's AL MVP come out. those are 2 awards that i'm very anxious to see the results of. until then...

congratulations once again to Michael on being recognized for his amazing 2014 season!