Showing posts with label November 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label November 3. Show all posts

Friday, November 3, 2017

Indians Exercise Brantley's $12 Million Option for 2018!

hello, Brantley fans! it is a good day! why? because today, on November 3, the Cleveland Indians announced that they have exercised Michael Brantley's $12 million club option for 2018!😂😌👏🙌 Josh Tomlin's $3 million club option was picked up as well. the deadline for the decision(s) was tomorrow at midnight. congratulations on continuing to be two of the longest tenured players in the organization!

photo courtesy of @SportsTimeOhio on twitter

"Josh and Michael have been integral parts of our team for the last number of years," President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti said via

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Brantley's 2016 Postseason October/November (w/ Rehab Updates & Pics)

it may not have ended how Michael Brantley, the Cleveland Indians, and all their fans wanted, but this was one hell of a postseason October/November. congratulations to the Tribe for extending their 2016 season into the early hour of November 3 (crazy right?! lol) and making it an exciting one.

despite Michael not appearing in any postseason games or series, i of course still had to write this blog. the format of it follows my more recent Brantley monthly blogs, where he didn't play at all and i provided a recap of the Tribe's performance for extra content.

there are four sections in this blog. the first covers the overall postseason for Michael and the Indians. the second focuses solely on the ALDS, the third is all about the ALCS, and the fourth discusses the World Series as well as some rehab updates! each section contains subsections that include an overview, Michael news and pictures, and/or win celebrations. had Michael been healthy and played in these playoff games with the Indians, i for sure would have created separate blogs for each series. but since i didn't have any numbers to document and breakdown, i decided to combine everything into one postseason blog.

My Thoughts on the Cleveland Indians' Loss to the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series

shortly before 1 am on November 3, 2016, the Cleveland Indians lost Game 7 to the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings and therefore lost the World Series. this came after the Tribe was up, 3-1, in the series. alas, they could not manage to win one game out of the last three, or even one of their final two games at home. and i'm stunned.

i had such a sweet, heartfelt blog draft started (much like how a lot of real writers pre-write their stories) for if the Indians won the World Series, and i'm really sad that it's never going to see the light of day. so instead, i have written a blog with my thoughts on their losing the 2016 World Series, something i honestly did not consider a possibility. warning: i am a diehard Indians fan who's taking this loss hard, and this blog does contain some harsh, explicit remarks and potential knee-jerk reactions.

the 112th Fall Classic was met with a very intriguing matchup between two teams with the two longest championship droughts in Major League Baseball. the Cubs had last won the World Series in 1908 and the Indians last won in 1948--that's 108 years ago vs. 68 years ago. except now, the Indians are the biggest losers in baseball and their drought will officially extend to 69 years at the commencement of 2017.

Chicago, a 103 game winner in the regular season, was the

Monday, November 3, 2014

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!