Brantley Ranked 21st in MLB Network's Top 100 Players Right Now

with spring training games right around the corner, MLB Network aired the 4th installment of their 5-part series entitled "Top 100 Right Now" tonight on February 27 at 9 pm EST. the show ranked the Top 100 major league players currently in baseball going into 2015. Greg Amsinger, Ron Darling, and Bill Ripken counted down players from 100-81, 80-61, 60-41, 40-21, and 20-1 in 5 one-hour specials over 3 days from February 25-27.

this annual list is based on the players' performances over the past three seasons, with a particular emphasis on the most recent (2014). other criteria taken into consideration for these rankings includes projected performance for the upcoming season, defensive position, individual accolades, and the intangibles they bring to game (ex. team leadership).

photo courtesy of @MLBNetwork twitter

a little more than one month ago, Michael had been ranked as the 3rd best left fielder in the game by MLB Network's The Shredder. because of that and the fact that Michael won the 2014 AL OF Silver Slugger Award PLUS finished 3rd in the 2014 American League MVP voting, i had high expectations. i wanted

Will Brantley Be "Worse" In 2015?

this has been a hot topic of interest lately. will Michael Brantley have a significant drop in production in 2015? of course i say no, but not everyone out there in the baseball world agrees with me.

i was inspired to write this blog partially in thanks to the ESPN blog that came out today ranking the top 6 baseball teams going into spring training, which i'm NOT going to link here because i dislike all things ESPN with a passion and am not going to promote them. my motivation also came from the fact that several other media members have been saying how Michael is going to regress in 2015 and won't put together the same type of season as the one he just had in 2014. now it's time for me to speak out with my rebuttal. get ready, cause i'm about to go hard for my boy lol ;D