Brantley Placed on 15-Day DL with Right Shoulder Inflammation

i'm afraid i have some disheartening news for Michael Brantley fans. this afternoon, on May 14, the Indians announced that Michael was placed on the 15-Day DL with right shoulder inflammation. the move is retroactive to May 10, meaning he can potentially be activated on May 25. this marks Michael's second time on the disabled list this season, as he opened the year on the 15-Day DL while still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, and it's his third DL stint overall in his MLB career.

screenshot cropped from indians.com

i am stunned about this considering just yesterday Terry Francona said that any talk of putting Michael on the DL was

Brantley's April 2016 #s

Michael Brantley spent most of the month of April on the DL, as he was still trying to make his way back from offseason right shoulder surgery. during his rehab, he played seven games with minor league teams in advance of finally being activated by the Indians on April 25. despite him not playing very much with the big league team this month, the blog must go on. this one will be shorter than usual though, something i think everyone will appreciate after the previous two LONG blogs i posted about his rehabilitation. (if you have not read those yet, they can be found here and here.)

before i get into Michael's April, let me provide a quick rundown of how i do these monthly blogs, just in case you're a new or recent reader of my blogspot. last year, i began sectioning out specific topics of discussion so they'd be easier to see and allow you the option to skim through certain parts or skip to the sections you were most interested in. i'm going to continue doing that, and the divisions generally include:

--a monthly overview
--areas of concern
--lineup changes
--health ailments affecting Michael's performance
--team batting title competition
--HR:RBI ratio, LOB, K Rate, and Outs
--streaks and situational statistics (ie. hit in/reached in, RHP/LHP, home/away, RISP, runners on, bases loaded, bases empty, multi-hit games, multi-RBI games, go-ahead hits/RBI)

Brantley's 2016 Cactus League & Minor League Rehab #s and My Expectations

this is the second part of Michael Brantley's rehab information. it contains Michael's numbers and statistics from his rehab game appearances, spanning from March 17 - April 23, 2016, as well as what my expectations are for him for the 2016 regular season. if you're looking for a very thorough account of his daily progression during this time period and/or details about all his rehab game plate appearances, then please read this in conjunction with my previous blog: Brantley's 2016 Spring Training & In-Season Rehab Details.

because Michael's rehabilitation took longer than expected due to a setback and a brief shutdown period between March 23 and April 11, the overall blog that i had originally planned on doing became far too lengthy. therefore, i cut it into two separate posts--one detailing his daily update information and this one, focusing solely on his rehab numbers and statistics. you're welcome.


now that Michael's rehab is finally done, i will go over how it went and break down all the numbers for you the best i can. please bear with me, as this is not going to be one of my typical Brantley Spring Training #s blogs. once the month of April is over, i can get back to business and write a monthly blog like i normally would, excluding the handful of regular season games he missed, of course.

this blog is divided into different sections comprised of:

Brantley's 2016 Spring Training & In-Season Rehab Details

he's baaaaaaaack! yes, it's true. at long last, today, on April 25, Michael Brantley was cleared to come off the DL and has joined his teammates in Minneapolis as an active roster member! despite not being in tonight's starting lineup against the Minnesota Twins, i'm still very excited for him and i know he's gotta be over the moon ecstatic. he'll either make his 2016 regular season debut tomorrow, or perhaps tonight in one of the later innings as a pinch hitter or defensive replacement.

let me begin with a brief recap to explain how he got here. Michael had surgery on November 9, 2015 to repair a slight labral tear in his right shoulder. he suffered this shoulder impairment on September 22 in the game against the Minnesota Twins, and that eventually led to an early 2015 shut down. Michael attempted to resolve the issue without going under the knife, but he soon realized that that could not be avoided. he spent most of his offseason in Cleveland before flying out to Arizona on February 1 to carry on with his rehab there.

Michael tried his best to be ready in time for Indians Opening Day, because that was his goal all along, and he came really close to achieving that feat. he worked very hard in his rehab, so hard that he found himself weeks ahead of his initially projected post-surgery workout schedule. while he was not able to play in spring training games when the Indians first started on March 1, he was

Vote Brantley For MLB's 2016 All Star Game!

hey there baseball and Michael Brantley fans! it's the last week of April and you know what that means--it's time to start voting for your 2016 MLB All Star players!

photo courtesy of @AllStarGame on twitter

there's a very high probability that Michael will be activated off the DL tomorrow, on April 25. and if not tomorrow, then certainly later this week. just because Michael spent all of April thus far on the disabled list, that's no reason not to vote him to the Midsummer Classic. sadly, he was not selected to the American League All Star team last year, but he did make the 2014 team as a reserve. let's get him back to the ASG for his second appearance in three years, shall we?

in my humble opinion, Michael should not be penalized because

Tribe Spring Recap and 2016 Predictions, Thoughts, & Player Evaluations

real quick before i start: since i've begun posting excerpts of my blogs on the Baseball Bloggers Alliance website this year, i've noticed that i'm getting views from countries that i've never seen in my viewer audience before. maybe some came here from the BBA site or maybe that was just coincidence, but i am very happy to see my blog getting newfound circulation in Norway, Mexico, Slovakia, China, Hong Kong, Morocco, Ireland, Trinidad & Tobago, Syria, Spain, Australia, Japan, Israel, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, and Luxembourg. to all those first-timers, hi! i see you all and feel quite honored to have you here! thanks so much for checking out my blog!


hey there, Tribe fans! Happy day before Indians Opening Day! baseball is just about back and that means it's time for me to recap the Tribe's spring and give my thoughts about the roster and the team's chances in 2016. so here we go!


while spring training is an important part of a baseball players' preparation, as tedious as it may be, the outcomes of the games don't always mean a whole lot. this year, in 34 games, including the two exhibition contests in Texas on April 1 and 2, the Tribe's spring record was 18-12-4, 3rd best in the Cactus League. while that looks pretty good, it could have been even better. in the early spring games, there were many times when the Tribe had the lead and then relief pitchers who weren't going to make the team--either spring training invites or minor leaguers--came into the game and then blew it. those are losses you can't be too upset about. and, like always in spring training, there were also several games that

Brantley To Open Indians' 2016 Season On 15-Day DL

he tried to avoid it, but unfortunately it could not be avoided. today, on April 3, the Cleveland Indians announced that Michael Brantley was placed on the 15-day DL as he continues to recover from offseason right shoulder surgery. we've all known this was going to happen for some time, but the roster transaction did not become official until now. the good news about his DL stint is it's retroactive to March 25. that means, if Michael was ready, he could be activated as early as April 9 and would only miss the first week--just 4 games--of April, as opposed to missing the first two weeks or more of the season. while that once seemed like a real possibility, it now doesn't appear as though he will be back that fast.

note: i am presently in the middle of writing up Michael's daily health updates and the results of his spring/rehab games, but this is something that i felt needed to be posted about separately.

originally expected to miss April and part of May after his shoulder surgery on November 9, Michael attacked his rehab and did everything he could to be back on the field as soon as possible. he spent most of his offseason rehabbing in Cleveland, Ohio, then went out to Goodyear on February 1 to carry on with his rehab there. he started swinging a bat well before the initial projection date of March 9, beginning with hitting off a tee, then some soft toss, then progressing to indoor batting practice in the cage, and lastly graduating to

Brantley Ranked 4th in Baseball Tonight's Top 10 Left Fielders

now that Baseball Tonight's Top 100 list is complete, it's time for them to name their annual Top 10 players at each position going into the 2016 season. once again, the way in which this was revealed differs from last year.

today, on March 25, ESPN's Baseball Tonight unveiled all of their Top 10s in one day and at the same time online. the panel of MLB writers, analysts, and contributors who ranked the Top 100 also ranked the Top 10s, and some players who didn't make the Top 100 list did make it onto their respective position lists. my blog, however, is solely going to focus on the Top 10 Left Fielders.

this year, BBTN ranked Michael as the 4th best left fielder going into 2016. last year, he was ranked as the best left fielder going into 2015. so clearly their opinion of Michael has gone down, most likely due to the shoulder injury he suffered towards the end of the season. (although, if you've been keeping up with all my Brantley update blogs, then you already know there's now a chance that Michael could open the season with the Tribe.) whatever the reason, i disagree immensely.

here is BBTN's entire Top 10 LF list, featuring both American and National League players:

Brantley's March 2016 Hitting Advancements (Soft Toss to ON THE FIELD BP!)

so um, i don't know if you've heard...but i figure i should probably blog about the fact that...Michael Brantley is now playing in spring games! i repeat, Michael Brantley is now playing in spring games! how awesome is that?! bravo to a man who absolutely killed it in his rehab and crushed his original timetable.

when news of Michael's shoulder surgery broke back on November 9, 2015, i questioned whether or not he would be able to play in any games this spring, and if so, would he even get to play with the Indians in the big league camp? while the latter remains to be seen, hearing this good news is still very exciting and i'm extremely grateful for Michael's swift progress.

note: Terry Francona spoke with the media yesterday and officially announced that Michael would make his game debut on March 17 in a minor league game, but i wanted to wait and be sure it actually happened before i went ahead and posted this blog.

despite the month of March not being over, i didn't like the idea of combining Michael's hitting program updates with his spring training/rehab game info. therefore, this post will simply consist of Michael's continued hitting advancements in March up until today, his "game activation" point. then,

Brantley Ranked 80th in Baseball Tonight's Top 100 Players

i wasn't expecting Baseball Tonight to start its Top 100 countdown so soon. usually, they do that over two days at the end of spring training, both online and in a TV special. now, the Top 100 reveal is taking place over 10 days, from March 15-24. every morning, a new set of 10 players, beginning with #100-91, is posted on ESPN.com. and when it's time for the Top 10 to be announced on March 24, that will occur on a special edition of Baseball Tonight at 10 pm EST on ESPN2 and WatchESPN.

much like the change in the publication of this list, the way in which it was constituted differs from last year as well. a panel of 70 ESPN experts (vs. 60 previously), including MLB writers, analysts, and contributors, was polled in February and March after being given a list of more than 350 MLB players (vs. 600 last year). these experts evaluated the players by assigning them a number from 0 to 10 based on player projections for 2016.

a year ago, Michael Brantley made his debut on this list when he ranked 43rd on BBTN's Top 100. knowing that Michael's 2015 season was not as strong as his All Star 2014 season, and knowing that projections don't take into account the fact that Michael played hurt a lot in 2015 (which consequently hindered some of his stats), i presumed Michael wouldn't top last year's rank.

so where does Michael fall on this list?