Donte Whitner dismisses Greg Little’s comments, bulletin board material in general
November 6, 2014LeBron James and Kyrie Irving have “healthy” exchange after Blazers beatdown
November 6, 2014
The Cleveland Indians have won 92 and 85 games the last two seasons. I don’t think I’ve seen enough recognizing them for that very difficult accomplishment. And I have no idea where the franchise would be today without the insane development of two stars.
Entering this season, Michael Brantley was a mostly mediocre outfielder. I had been so annoyed by talk of him being better than Carlos Santana. It wasn’t particularly close; Brantley was just an average left fielder with some flashy skills and timely hitting.
This season? Yes, he was a legitimate top-five (maybe not top three) American League MVP candidate. He had a .277/.330/.382 line with 26 homers in 514 games through 2013. In 2014, he batted .327/.385/.506 with 20 homers, 45 doubles and 97 RBI in 156 games. That kind of shocking jump just doesn’t happen.
Same with Corey Kluber. When the Indians acquired him for Jake Westbrook in 2010, I was working for the Akron Aeros. Kluber had some stuff – he always could strike guys out – but it was hard to see a guy with a 5.19 ERA in 38 High-A minor league games ever amounting to all that much. He seemed destined for future relief work.
Perhaps, after last year’s good season, Kluber’s elite 2014 made a bit more sense. He just stayed incredibly healthy and hardly ever missed a beat. The season – 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269 strikeouts – will go down as one of the best for an Indians pitcher ever. In my mind, he really should be the Cy Young winner.
It’s really, really incredible what a year those two had for the Tribe. Without them and their insane improvement, would the Indians have won even 75 games? Would heads be rolling? Would we be stuck talking about attendance issues for the entire offseason?
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News and Notes:
— Number Fire’s JJ Zachariason set out to write about the incredible decline from the Browns rushing attack. By the end, he also focused on Brian Hoyer’s efficiency decline too. Was Alex Mack that incredibly valuable?
— Northeast Ohio Media Group is printing excerpts from the recent book by Terry Pluto and Tom Hamilton about the ‘90s Indians. If you recall, I helped to proof-read and edit reader stories for the book. You should definitely go check these out.
— The Akron RubberDucks won Ballpark Digest’s logo/branding of the year award. Many kudos go out to owner Ken Babby, general manager Jim Pfander and the entire staff on a great season. Congrats, folks.
— Grantland’s Andrew Sharp – yes, that Andrew Sharp who wrote about his few days in Believeland last October – wrote about when we can really start to worry over the Cavs. He linked to some of my tweets on Big Three minute distributions.
— I’m so incredibly confused by this Akron Beacon Journal story on DEVO’s Mark Mothersbaugh designing a Wes Anderson-like theme park on the outskirts of Akron. Like, what?
— I’ll end on two calls for contributions. First, I’m participating in Movember for the first time this year. I’m joining alongside the fundraising campaign with the University of Oregon Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and the O Heroes athletic program office. Here’s our support page for you to contribute if you feel so inclined. My mustache will be pretty gnarly looking soon, I promise.
— Finally, if you’re an avid NBA reader, you might have heard of a fellow named Jim Cavan. He’s written at ESPN, Grantland, The Cauldron, Bleacher Report and more. Well, his young son is very, very ill. And he’s asking the Internet for any assistance possible. Here’s the gofundme page. Here’s SB Nation’s David Roth’s plea for all to help. I’d encourage you to support this really great guy.
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Tweets of the Week:
I really enjoy this Browns team, somehow. Fun players. They aren't good but they're the best kind of mediocre.
— David Zavac (@DavidZavac) November 2, 2014
I'm blessed we didn't have to spend the entire weekend with "the Cavs are 0-2" twitter.
— alex (@steven_lebron) November 3, 2014
Per @sbjsbd longtime colleague @PaulSwangard leaving @Univ_Of_Oregon #Warsaw school. tuff shoes to fill, great teacher, better person
— Joe Favorito (@joefav) November 3, 2014
#Browns have lost 17 straight AFC North road games. Since start of 2004, they are 2-29 against divisional opponents away from Cleveland.
— Tom Reed (@treed1919) November 3, 2014
A record 11 AFC teams are above .500 thru Week 9. 17 teams in the NFL above .500 is record in 32-team era. pic.twitter.com/ONVGmHSfwG
— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmarNFL) November 3, 2014
#GoDucks RT @jaredbkeller: BREAKING: Oregon legalizes recreational marijuana use http://t.co/b22mr6JWsn
— Adam Kramer (@KegsnEggs) November 5, 2014
#Browns defense ranks 8th in scoring (21.1 per game). 29th in yardage (391.8 per game).
— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) November 5, 2014
Comparing LeBron James shot selection from last year at this time to this year. 2013: 58.02 FG%, 2014: 40.3 FG% pic.twitter.com/fuAtZz0cLr
— Daren Willman (@darenw) November 5, 2014
#Browns coaches are scheming to help their O-line. @PFF tells us no QB has more yards on rollouts than Brian Hoyer pic.twitter.com/uGJg5h3rlz
— PFTonNBCSN (@PFT_Live) November 5, 2014
7 Comments
I’ll give you that no one saw him developing into an MVP caliber player, but sure who viewed Brantley as a “mediocre OF”? That’s bad analysis on their part…maybe a case of head buried in the stats. Guy was young and developing, always good fundamentals, patience and discipline at the plate, had a solid line drive producing swing, decent speed, and played great defense. Looks like he made the jump to elite level.
7.5 WAR the previous three years, which is certainly above average, but not a great player. I think a highly underrated part of his development into such a valuable player is that he’s not missing time. 456 games played over the last three years. I get that power comes later for a majority of MLB hitters, but that was a huge spike this year. I’m not sure if its real. And I wouldn’t call his defense great.
As far as anyone seeing Kluber coming – the front office did. They were excited about him even when he was putting up a 5.56 ERA in AAA in 2011.
Going into the season, I liked Michael Brantley, but viewed him as a barely above average type player (which to me is mediocre). Someone who could be the 4th or 5th best hitter on a team.
Well I guess I was higher on him then than others–so you guys are basically saying I’ve got a brilliant scouting eye:) As for defense, maybe I’m not accurately remembering, but seem to recall him having a great error less streak and playing a nice LF. This year not as.much for some reason. Oh well.
absolutely genius scouting eye that you have. no complaints there. speaking of, am I correct in stating that Roberto Perez is expendable because we have Gomes?
You are correct sir! Yeah I don’t know if we’ve got much in the minor league pipeline as far as budding catchers, but I’m not keen on Perez taking up a 40 man spot when Santana could catch 15-20 games.
I wouldn’t refer to an error less streak and “nice” at one of the easiest defensive positions as “great defense” I guess. I wouldn’t call him a liability (some of the numbers might though), but he’s far from a guy like Alex Gordon out there.
And a lot of people hoped that the smooth swing would lead to better results at the plate, but again, its this huge spike in power that’s driving so much more value. Can he be a 20 HR guy frequently? I hope, but I’m not holding my breath.