Brantley Ranked 43rd in Baseball Tonight's Top 100 Players

as promised, ESPN's Baseball Tonight unveiled their Top 100 Players going into 2015 on March 30 and 31. the players ranked 100-51 were revealed on the afternoon of March 30 online, while the players ranked 50-26 were revealed online in the afternoon today on March 31. and later tonight, an ESPN2 special, airing at 8 pm EST, will be announcing the Top 25 players.

unfortunately, in what came as a complete shock to me, i did not have to wait for the 8 o'clock show to find out where Michael placed on the list because

Brantley's On the Cover of Sports Illustrated!

what does finishing 3rd in the 2014 American League Most Valuable Player voting get you? your very first cover of SI! yes, that's right. today, on March 24, Michael Brantley made his debut on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine! he shares the honor with 2014 American League Cy Young Award winner and teammate, Corey Kluber. they are both featured in an SI MLB Preview discussing why the Cleveland Indians could win the World Series in 2015. how exciting! here is the picture:

Brantley Ranked 1st in Baseball Tonight's Top 10 Left Fielders

today, on March 23, ESPN's Baseball Tonight revealed their Top 10 left fielders going into 2015. not normally one to care much about ESPN rankings, i figured i would post this on my blog anyways because it's great for Michael.

a panel of MLB writers, analysts, and contributors were put together by ESPN to rank the Top 100 MLB players heading into 2015. a list of more than 300 players was provided to over 60 ESPN experts, who were polled in February and March. that list was narrowed down to the Top 100 based on how well the experts felt the players would perform, on a scale of 0 to 10, in 2015. those results will be announced on March 30 and 31 on a special edition of Baseball Tonight at 8 pm EST on ESPN2. i am very interested in seeing where Michael ranks on that list.

until then however, Baseball Tonight is revealing their Top 10 lists of each position around the diamond. today they kicked it off with the Top 10 left, center, and right fielders, but i am only going to cover the Top 10 left fielders here.

Brantley's Offseason Regimen & 2015 Preparations

the first spring training game is tomorrow--finally! but instead of waiting until spring is over to write a blog, i'm doing something different this year. i thought it'd be a good idea to write a blog about how Michael's offseason went, including what he did, things he worked on, and how he spent his free time, before he and the team get back to the grind.

so how exactly does an All Star/Silver Slugger/MVP Finalist prepare himself in hopes of having an even better season?

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

Another Brantley Bobblehead Giveaway!

today, on January 24, the Indians unveiled their 2015 promotional schedule at the 3rd annual Tribe Fest at Progressive Field. and i am very happy to report that there is a Michael Brantley bobblehead giveaway on the schedule for the Saturday, August 8 game against the Minnesota Twins! the first 15,000 fans will receive this bobble. game time is 7:05 pm and there will also be a Rock 'N Blast fireworks show after the game. you know i'll be there!

so the first thing i thought after seeing this promo was "is this the same bobblehead that they're giving away during spring training this year on March 7? the Silver Slugger bobble? or is it going to be different, and maybe somehow represent Michael being an MVP finalist or first time All Star?" since the specifics of the bobblehead were not made clear on the promo sched, i asked this very question,

Brantley Ranked 3rd in MLB Network's Top 10 Left Fielders Right Now

tonight, on January 22 at 10 pm EST, MLB Network aired a show entitled "Top 10 Right Now: Left Fielders." it ranked the top 10 left field players currently in baseball going into 2015 according to MLB Network's Shredder. The Shredder takes many statistical factors into consideration and operates without bias when compiling these rankings, much to the dismay of a lot of fans. needless to say, this isn't a list worth taking too seriously one way or the other.

photo courtesy of @MLBNetwork twitter

even though Michael spent time in both left and center field last year, i knew he would be in this Top 10 list, and because of his stats from 2014, i assumed that he would probably place near the top. however,

Brantley Finishes 3rd in MLB Network's 2014 Top Breakout Performers Countdown

tonight, on January 18 at 10 pm, MLB Network aired a show entitled "Top Breakout Performers Of 2014."

screenshot cropped off m.mlb.com/network

knowing how close Michael Brantley was to winning the Breakout Player of the Year GIBBY Award, i figured he would be pretty high on this Top 40 countdown.

And MLB Network's 2014 Face Of The Tribe Is...

...not Michael Brantley =(

yesterday i wrote that fans were able to vote for Michael for the Face of the Tribe by using the hashtags #MichaelBrantley and #FaceOfTRIBE on both twitter and facebook. this morning, MLB Network announced that the winner is Corey Kluber. congratulations!

photo courtesy of @MLBNetwork

on January 30, Kluber will go head-to-head with the Face of the Rays (who is being voted on right now) in his pursuit of becoming the 2014 Face of MLB. the bracket showing all the pairings can be found here.

i kind of assumed Kluber would end up winning because he won the 2014 AL Cy Young Award. but the vote was a lot closer than expected.