Dissecting Brantley's 2011 Season

after reading some things about Brantley's season being "mediocre" at best, i decided to put the facts out there that clearly disprove that. i'm sure people have forgotten how in April and May, Michael had either the 2nd or 3rd highest batting average in the lineup every game. but that's okay, let me remind you.

here are Michael's official final #s for the 2011 season:

in 114 games, and 451 at bats, he had a .266 batting average, 63 runs scored, 120 hits, 7 home runs, 24 doubles, 4 triples, 46 RBIs, 34 BBs, 13 SBs, .318 OBP, and .702 OPS. his fielding % was .988 and he committed 3 errors.


it's time to dissect his season fairly, so i'm going to break it down month by month up until he started playing injured. (again, how do people not love a player like that, with the attitude that "i know i'm hurt, but i'm going to play every day until they tell me i can't play anymore." so selfless. can't ask for much more than that as a fan.)

April 2011 batting average: .297, 2nd highest on the team for the month. nothing mediocre about that.

May 2011 batting average: .278, 2nd highest on the team for the month.

June 2011 batting average: .231. up until June 6, he had a solid .290 average. this was his slump month. but that happens to every player at some point and as you will see, he does get out of it.

July 2011 batting average: .294, highest on the team for the month. hell of a way to bounce back. and according to his interview on January 18, 2012, he said he was beginning to experience his wrist problems during this month. so let's break this down further.

July 19, his batting average was .281. on July 25, also .281. after that point, his average dropped, so it's easy to conclude that his injury was really starting to bother him then. at the end of July, his overall average was .274.

now let's talk about August. he only played 14 games and his batting average was .211. he was officially shut down on August 26. he so desperately wanted to play through his injury, hoping that it would eventually go away, but surgery derailed his plans. bless his heart for pushing through as much as he could, which unfortunately brought his batting average down to .266 before they realized he was going to need surgery. this was something he had no control over and it was so unfortunate not to be able to see him finish out the year and bring his numbers back up.

his other August #s: in 57 at bats, Michael still managed to have 12 hits, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 6 RBIs, and score 7 runs.

the injury really took its toll on his stats, 19 games/78 at bats with a messed up wrist can do some big damage to your final numbers, but the fact that he so badly wanted to be on the field and sacrifice his body to help the team win makes up for those lowered #s in my book. but let's look at his numbers if we remove the games in which he played while injured.

the 14 games he played in August, he was definitely hurt. i will also take out the last 5 games in July. and if you do that, that gives Michael a .281 batting average for the 2011 season when he was healthy. that's real good for him. does that not equate to a good player? is .281 when healthy still mediocre? had he remained healthy and played a full August and September, who's to say his batting average wouldn't have gone up a little bit? based on how he played in the early months, i think he could have finished between .285-.290. hard to say. i don't believe he would have finished with a .266 though.

it's not like Michael is an injury-prone player. this was his first DL stint. he's not one of those guys who spent more time on the DL than the baseball field in the past 2 years. this is not a trend that's going to continue. he's got nowhere to go but up. and i cannot wait to see him (hopefully) get a full year in in 2012, so the non-believers can finally get on his side about him being a good player and important part of our team.

in conclusion, calling Brantley a mediocre player simply because he ended up with a .266 batting average and didn't finish out the final month of the season is a tad on the ignorant side. i didn't even get into how he was still performing stellar defense in the outfield during the latter part of his year. no, he's not perfect, but who (especially on our team) is? who would you rather see in left field other than Michael on a daily basis? cut this kid some slack people and get on the Brantley train.


bonus "fun" fact: at the end of our 2011 season, the person with the highest batting average on the team was A-Cab, with a .273. think about that for a second... .273, playing all year and not missing significant time, vs. .266 while playing injured and ending his season early. i'm not picking on Cabby at all, i'm just saying and making a point. there's no need to be so hard on or dismissive of Michael. absolutely no need.

Wrapping Up The Tribe's 2011 Season

this should have been done a few weeks back, but better late than never lol i remember before the season even started, a startling number of people were not sold that the team would do well this year. some predicted we'd even lose as many as 90 games. i on the other hand, knew that that would be next to impossible. i made a list of 8 points about why we would improve from the previous (2) season(s). we ended up finishing 80-82 (i predicted 82-80 btw), which was good enough for 2nd place in our division. but some people are not satisfied with that because 2nd place is the 1st loser. to that i argued we were not even supposed to be in contention this year, and the improvement should provide satisfaction going into 2012. the experience all the young kids gained will prove to be valuable for the 2012 season, just as the kids' experience in the 2010 season helped them improve in this past 2011 season.

it's been said by many all along that 2012 was the year we would emerge as serious competitors. so why did numerous fans believe 2011 was going to be another bad season? how did fans think we would go from losing 90 something games one year (in 2011), to losing 80 or less another year (in 2012)? that's not usually how things go in baseball. i mean, i know it can happen, but i'd never expect that kind of jump with the Tribe. we tend to do things more gradual. which is precisely why i knew we would do better this year. and we should continue to improve next year. i recall writing in a blog on my old CF account that 2011 would be a huge stepping stone towards a big 2012. so far my written words seem prophetic.


now, let's look back on my original pre-season 8 points. and remember, all these were made assuming nobody would be injured.

1. Asdrubal looks back to form and i like the Cabrera-Cabrera part of the infield.

2. Santana is back for a whole season. that alone has to add a few more wins into the equation.

3. Brantley will be here for the whole season and i have to believe the kid is going to produce.

4. we have Choo. i don't need to say anymore than that do i?

5. we're getting Grady back, and even though we may not get him in the same capacity as he was a couple years ago, he should still add some punch to our lineup.

6. Chiz is going to be up here by June, i'm calling that right now. and if his bat can do what it did in spring training, look out.

7. Fausto's lookin like he might be back to his 07 form according to Manny. i think he will be an ace this year. and if the rest of the starters aren't performing well, we've got some excellent talent waiting to be called up from Columbus.

8. Chris Perez is a legit closer. if we've got the lead going into the 9th, he's going to save the game.


okay so let's see how i did.

1. A-Cab had an amazing start to his season. things cooled off for him after the ASG, but he was easily still our MVP for the year and he should use this season as a learning experience to not tire out next year. O-Cab did not stay with us past the trading deadline, but his defense at 2nd was solid before Kip was ready to take his turn in the majors. i'd say #1 panned out pretty good.

2. Santana did last a whole season, and led the team in home runs when all was said and done. people want to complain about his defense, but more experience will help him. Rome wasn't built in a day and i still see big things coming from this kid in the future. i think i'm 2-for-2 so far.

3. Brantley started out HOT, which was no surprise to me lol the thing that hurt him was that damn wrist injury/hamate bone situation. his batting average went down right when it started becoming a problem, and that is why his final #s for the year look worse than they really were. and again, this year in the bigs will only help him for the future. 3 for 3.

4. here's where things get dicey. Choo never played like his Choo self and was pretty much a non-factor for the entire season. and yet we still managed to remain competitive and in contention for our division until September. think about that... let's just hope next year he doesn't drink and drive and nobody plunks his thumb.

5. another fail here. Grady showed a few bright spots for a few weeks, but other than that he was not much of a contributor. if he hadn't totally sucked and gotten injured again and again, i believe his bat would have made a difference (along with a healthy Choo), and we prob could have really given Detroit a run for their money.

6. in ST, everyone wanted Chiz to be on the Opening Day major league roster. well he wasn't. and after a quick start once he finally did get up here, he was not great offensively or defensively. who was? Kipnis, a non-mention in my 8 points. if Kip had not strained his hamstring and did not spend any time on the DL, it's probable we could have squeezed out a few more wins and few less losses.

7. well Fausto was up and down, and down again. when he was on, he was so on. and when he was off, we were down 9 runs and the bullpen was warming up before the 3rd inning was over. BUT, Huff and Gomez were ready and waiting down in C-bus when a gap in our rotation arose, and both did pretty damn good. i'll be happy with either in the 4th or 5th spot next year.

8. Perez had a couple blunders, but for the most part, when we gave him the game to close, he shut the door. didn't do so great in non-save situations, but that's relative to most closers so it's not a concern of mine. can't wait to see lots more Rage in 2012.


now i'm not going to blame anything on injuries, but regarding the points of mine that didn't pan out, if you take injuries out of the equation (minus the Grady situation), there are more things to be positive about for the upcoming 2012 season. i personally would never go into a season assuming somebody is going to be hurt and a non-factor, hence ruining the team's chances in avoiding mediocrity, so i think my points were pretty solid even though some did not end up coming true. and i enjoyed the season, even though the last 2 games i went to were Brantley-less. i went to a record 7 games, got 27 autographs, took 252 videos, and 3,825 pictures. it was a good year for me personally lol

but let's get our 1st base situation figured out, aka find someone to split some time there with Santana, and find a right handed OF, and i don't see how people cannot be excited for next year. i of course am. Go Tribe!