Indians Spring 2018 Recap, Player Evaluations, and Predictions

hey, Indians fans! Happy Opening Day Eve! well, we made it through another offseason and spring training! after a 169-day waiting period, the Tribe will begin the 2018 campaign and embark on their journey toward a championship in just a mere 27 hours! who's ready?👏👊

in the meantime, what do you say to a recap of the Tribe's spring? i've divided this blog into several sections including a quick Cactus League overview, a summary of our offseason free agent signings, and of course, my player evaluations. you'll also find a couple Tribe predictions that i made here, as well as predictions for the American League Championship Series, National League Championship Series, and World Series matchups. in addition, i incorporated my final thoughts and some miscellaneous game talk at the end, too. so scroll through everything and let me know what ya think!😉

real fast though, let me first welcome the new visitors who i noticed checked out my blog during the offseason. if you are from Cambodia, New Zealand, and/or Kuwait, thank you very much for stopping by!👋 i'm so grateful and honored that you found All Things Brantley, All Things Tribe and i hope you continue to read my posts during the 2018 baseball season! feel free to leave comments and have your say about any of the topics that interest you.💭💻

Indians Spring 2017 Recap, Player Evaluations, and Predictions

hello there, Indians fans! how happy are you that Cactus League play is finally over? i know a lot of us have been very anxious for the 2017 season to get underway ever since things did not end how we wanted them to on the night of November 2, 2016. and now, after a shortened offseason and a longer spring training, we are just TWO DAYS away from meaningful game action and Indians Opening Day! this may arguably be the toughest weekend of the year for Tribe fans. so while everyone's waiting, let me present a recap of the Tribe's spring, including a review of player performances, as well as some predictions about how the reigning American League Champions will do this season!

before i start though, i want to acknowledge all the new readers who discovered my blog over the winter. so here is a special welcome to the viewers in the following countries: Netherlands, Indonesia, Brazil, India, Croatia, Singapore, Finland, Georgia, Portugal, Venezuela, and Turkmenistan. many thanks to each one of you for reading, and i hope you enjoy the blogs i post this year! and if i left you out, let me know you were here by telling me where you're from in a comment below!


Spring Training 2017 Overview

Indians Cactus League games took place from February 25 - March 31, consisting of three split-squad days and just two

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 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!

Brantley Finishes 7th in Sporting News' 2014 Player Of The Year Vote

today, on October 23, it was announced that Michael Brantley finished 7th in the Sporting News 2014 Player of the Year vote! this is still another new career first for Michael. congrats!

SN's POTY is voted on by major league players from both the American League and National League. 244 players voted this year. Sporting News established this award in 1936.

here are the complete POTY voting results:

1. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers (76)
2. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (73)
3. Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins (32)
4. Victor Martinez, Detroit Tigers (22)
5. Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox (16)
5. Jose Altuve, Houston Astros (16)
7. Michael Brantley, Cleveland Indians (2)
7. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees (2)
7. Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee Brewers (2)
10. Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners (1)
10. David Price, Tampa Bay Rays/ Detroit Tigers (1)
10. Josh Donaldson, Oakland Athletics (1)


okay, you know i'm going in hard about these results. first off, i don't think pitchers should be considered in this kind of vote. what pitchers do and what hitters do is very different and their awards should be differentiated as such. (which is also why i've never liked the idea of pitchers receiving the MVP award.)

secondly, how is it possible that the guy with the 3rd best batting average in the league and the only player this season to have at least a .300 BA, 40 doubles, 20 HR, 90 RBI, 90 runs, and 20 SB placed in a 3-way tie for 7th? TWO votes? out of 244? i'm going to assume that the 2 votes he got came from Cleveland Indians players, which if true makes me sad because i thought Michael was finally getting respected around the league by his peers. he got voted to the All Star game by his peers, but only 2 players voted for him for player of the year? something's not adding up there, literally.

third, and much like my first point, i don't think rookies should be included in this list either. they get their own entire category with ROTY. so stay outta this one for crying out loud.

and look at some of the other players and where they placed in this vote. i mean, it's pretty laughable. and laugh i will do because this is a vote that's not at all worth getting upset over. it's an honor that Michael was deemed good enough to even place on this list. but when he finishes higher in MLB's MVP vote, we will all know that this SN list was wrong =P

congratulations again, though, Michael! you kicked ass this season! =D