Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Brantley Received Votes But Not Named To Sporting News' 2015 AL All Star Team

it's time for all the annual baseball lists and awards to start being unveiled, and today, on October 28, Sporting News announced who made its 2015 American League All Star Team. unlike last year, Michael Brantley was not selected to the team, although he did receive votes.

the Sporting News AL All Star team was picked by a panel of 22 American League, aka Junior Circuit, executives (general managers and assistant general managers). the decisions for this year's 90th anniversary team were made before the playoffs began.

the 3 outfielders chosen for this honor were Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays, and Lorenzo Cain of the Kansas City Royals. the first two players make sense. those were obvious choices. but Cain? he most likely got picked because
he's on the Royals team, a team that dominated in the 2015 season and potentially is going to win this year's World Series.

i guess i can understand Michael not being named to a spot on this All Star team considering he didn't play as many games as usual and played even less in the outfield. be that as it may, Michael still had many stats that were better than Cain's. let's compare:

Brantley: .310 BA, .379 OBP, .480 SLG, .859 OPS, 164 H, 45 2B, 0 3B, 15 HR, 84 RBI, 68 R, 15 SB, 1 CS, 60 BB, 51 SO, 254 TB, 60 XBH, 529 AB, 596 PA, 137 G, 8 A, 2 E, 3.8 fWAR
Cain: .307 BA, .361 OBP, .477 SLG, .838 OPS, 169 H, 34 2B, 6 3B, 16 HR, 72 RBI, 101 R, 28 SB, 6 CS, 37 BB, 98 SO, 263 TB, 56 XBH, 551 AB, 604 PA, 140 G, 6 A, 10 E, 6.6 fWAR

as you can see, of the 22 categories that i listed, Michael bested Cain in 12. so Michael was most definitely deserving of consideration for SN's All Star team again this year, just saying. glad to see some league execs recognized that as well and voted for him! congrats on that Michael!


Indians 2nd baseman Jason Kipnis was selected to the team for the first time in his career, however. he's the 8th Tribe player to be part of a Sporting News AL All Star team since 2001. the previous 7 were outfielder Michael Brantley (2014), shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera (2011), outfielder Grady Sizemore (2008), starting pitcher Cliff Lee (2008), starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia (2007), right fielder Juan Gonzalez (2001), and 1st baseman Jim Thome (2001).

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