Brantley's Career Low 51 Strikeouts

if you haven't heard the news yet, Michael was officially shut down for the rest of the season today after receiving a cortisone shot for his right shoulder inflammation. and because his 2015 season has now ended and all his current numbers are final, that means Michael has set one last record this year. he finished with a career low 51 strikeouts. his previous career low was 56 strikeouts, his season total in both 2012 and 2014.

now, some may argue this shouldn't technically be considered a new career record because Michael only played in 137 total games. that's less than most players who play a full season play. but despite missing more games than usual due to several injuries he battled this year, Michael is still a qualifying player and therefore i am calling this an official career low. congratulations!

Michael's last strikeout of the season came in the game versus the Minnesota Twins on September 28. the Indians were down, 3-1, in the bottom of the 1st inning when Michael came to the plate with 1 out to face left-hander Tommy Milone. after a 1-2 count, Michael swung and missed to give him his 51st strikeout.

Right Shoulder Inflammation Ends Brantley's 2015 Season

this is certainly not how i expected Michael Brantley's season to end, although it is sadly fitting that he's going out much like the way he began the year--with an injury. today, on September 30, it was announced that Michael's season is done, as the Cleveland Indians are shutting him down because of his sore right shoulder.

it all started in the game against the Minnesota Twins on September 22. Aaron Hicks was at the plate facing Danny Salazar in the bottom of the 3rd inning with 2 outs and Eduardo Escobar at 1st base. after a 3-1 count, Hicks sent a line drive to deep center field. Michael ran over a long way to try and make the diving catch, but when he hit the grass, the ball popped out of his glove and rolled onto the warning track. the Twins took a 1-0 lead, and the Indians were about to lose Michael.

Michael came to bat against Ervin Santana in the top of the 4th inning and grounded out to short on an 0-1 count. then when the Indians took their places in the field in the bottom half of the inning, Michael had been subbed out defensively because during his at bat, he felt something in his right shoulder on his extension. that was literally the beginning of the end for Michael's season, though we didn't know it at the time.

he missed the next 4 games from September 23-26 before

Brantley's 2015 #s Through August

Michael just got done putting together a colossal month in August and that moved him right into the thick of things regarding team highs, league rankings, and even the American League batting race. it was incredible and i am so proud of him! he now has up to 32 games to play in before 2015 comes to an end, and if Michael can do anything close to what he did in August in these final weeks, then strap in tight folks because we are gonna be in for a really fun ride to the finish line. go Brantley!



so far in 2015, Michael has a total of 516 plate appearances and 453 at bats in 117 games (885.1 innings). in total, he has 146 hits, 51 extra base hits, 95 singles, 40 doubles, 11 home runs, 73 RBI, 5 sac flies, 60 runs, 56 walks, 8 intentional walks, 2 hit by pitches, 14 stolen bases (13 - 2nd, 1 - 3rd), 1 caught stealing (3rd), 12 GIDP, 43 strikeouts (31 swinging, 12 looking), 32 first at bat hits, 219 total bases, 187 left on base, 181 putouts, 7 assists, 2 errors, and 1 double play.

2015 batting average through August: .322 (146-453)

OBP: .395

SLG: .483

OPS: .879


Michael's .322 batting average is currently the highest on the team out of all the qualifying players. he now has a 3-point lead on Jason Kipnis, who's batting .319.


note: never before in Michael's career has he been

Brantley's August 2015 #s

hey there, Brantley fans! thank you for reading my Brantley's July 2015 #s blog and Brantley's 2015 #s Through July blog last month. i hope you enjoyed them. i also want to take a minute to say a special HI! to the viewers from Hungary, Singapore, Russia, and the United Kingdom who all visited my blog in the past month! thanks so much for stopping by and reading about Michael!

the offseason is fast approaching now. it's hard to believe after this, i only have one more month of stats to calculate before the 2015 season is over. things are really starting to heat up not only for Michael, but the Indians as well. can they continue to rack up wins and potentially grab a wild card spot? and what will Michael do for an encore in September? i can't wait to find out! but first, let's all relish in what turned out to be an astounding August for Dr. Smooth.



August Overview

there was seemingly no stopping Michael in August--the man was scorching hot! it was quite reminiscent of his MVP-caliber performances every month last season, when he was setting career highs and achieving things he'd never achieved before on the regular. he certainly didn't look like a player fighting through injuries, going through the dog days of summer, and/or battling just to make it to the end of the year. instead, he currently looks primed and ready for a stretch run. and now i am so excited to get into his monthly statistics, some of which are historical! =D

in Michael's first 10 games, he bat .425 (17-for-40) from August 1-13. he was then shut down for a few days with a little left shoulder inflammation. when he came back from that brief 3-day rest (which probably also did some good for his back), he played in 14 more games, batting .393 (22-for-56) from August 17-31. he saw some extra time as the designated hitter this month until his throwing shoulder was ready to carry the left field load, but no matter what his role, Michael put up the best month of his 2015 campaign yet. he earned an August batting average of

Brantley's Career High 54 Walks

tonight, on August 26, Michael Brantley set his first new career high in the 2015 season. he set SO many career highs last season that i knew it was going to be tough to set many (if any) this year. add that to the health issues he's been battling (his back strain and shoulder inflammation) and the games he had to miss because of them, and it really didn't look like he was going to be able to shatter his old records. but he finally has, and as luck would have it, he did it in a category that he did not set a record in last season--one of just a few, and i do mean few. so i guess that makes it somewhat appropriate that this would be his first new record set this year lol here are the details.

in his 1st plate appearance in the bottom of the 1st inning in a scoreless game versus the Milwaukee Brewers, Michael faced right-handed pitcher Jimmy Nelson. there was 1 out and

Brantley's 4th Career Walk-off!

in a marathon 16-inning game versus the New York Yankees tonight, Michael Brantley came through in the clutch and was the Tribe's hero of the midnight hour.

earlier [yesterday] evening on August 11, the first meeting of the season between the Indians and Yankees began at 7:10 pm. it was a battle that lasted until approximately 12:14 am when none other than Michael delivered the winning run for his first walk-off hit of the year and 4th walk-off overall in his career!

photo courtesy of @Indians twitter

the Indians had a 2-0 lead through 5 innings until the Yanks fought back with 2 solo home runs off Carlos Carrasco. first, Stephen Drew hit a solo home run to right field in the top of the 6th inning to cut the Tribe's lead in half. then Carlos Beltran tied it up at 2 in the top of the 8th inning with a solo homer to right.

the game went to the 10th inning and Bryan Shaw came on in relief of Cody Allen. the Yankees loaded the bases after Shaw gave up a walk, single, and single. pinch hitter Chase Headley came into the game and

My Final Thoughts About The 2015 Michael Brantley Bobblehead

photo courtesy of an indians.com newsletter

before i got the Michael Brantley bobblehead courtesy of Progressive Insurance, i saw a photo of it and wrote a sneak peek blog with my first impressions about it. now that i've gone to the August 8 game versus the Minnesota Twins and have the Brantley bobble in hand, i can do a final analysis of it. i'm going to include pictures in here so you will know exactly what it looks like and what i'm talking about. all the pics were taken by me and have my watermark on them.

first, here are a couple photos of the box that the bobblehead came in (which, unlike last year, does not have an opening in the front making the bobble visible prior to taking it out of the box):

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 2015 #s Through July

sorry for the delay on this blog. as i said in the blog i posted yesterday, the worst thing that can happen at the end of a month is the Indians playing late night West Coast games because it cuts my calculation time in half. but everything's all done now so let's jump right into it.

Michael's been looking really good since he got those 4 days off during the All Star break, but as a whole, his stats so far just don't rank very high around the league. it's no secret he's been dealing with a back strain since the first day he reported to spring training, so i don't think you can expect much more from him at this point. that's not to say he's doing bad, but he won't be in the MVP race this year or win another Silver Slugger award. nonetheless, his numbers through July are much better than what some other players would be putting up if they had been playing hurt all season. (just check the stats of some of the Indians who played hurt last year.) with 2 months left in 2015, anything can happen, and for Michael, i hope it's nothing but positive things so he can finish the year out strong.



so far in 2015, Michael has a total of 408 plate appearances and 357 at bats in 93 games (734.0 innings). in total, he has 107 hits, 38 extra base hits, 69 singles, 30 doubles, 8 home runs, 56 RBI, 4 sac flies, 41 runs, 46 walks, 5 intentional walks, 1 hit by pitch, 11 stolen bases (10 - 2nd, 1 - 3rd), 1 caught stealing (3rd), 9 GIDP, 30 strikeouts (19 swinging, 11 looking), 28 first at bat hits, 161 total bases, 149 left on base, 145 putouts, 7 assists, 1 error, and 1 double play.

2015 batting average through July:

Brantley's July 2015 #s

how's it going, Brantley fans? boy this season seems to be flying by fast now. we've only got 2 months left...where has summer gone? anyways, i want to thank everyone who read my Brantley's June 2015 #s blog, Brantley's 2015 #s Through June blog, and Brantley's 2015 First Half #s blog. i also want to say a special "hello!" to the people who viewed my blog in the last month from Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Pakistan! i always get very excited when i receive views from outside the United States. it's so nice to see that there's interest in Brantley all over the world! welcome! =D

and i apologize that this blog is going up a little later than normal, but with the Indians finishing the month on the West Coast and playing late night games, i wasn't able to stay up as late to work on wrapping up his July #s. forgive me? ;D



July Overview

as always, i'm gonna be straight with you. at one point in the beginning of July, it was looking like this would be a long, sad month for Michael. in fact, i was mentally preparing myself for this to be his worst month of the season yet.