Cleveland Sports Forum

Anthony Castrovince ‏@castrovince 3h3 hours ago

So now former "player to be named" Michael Brantley is a player named MVP finalist. Great honor for a great season by a great person.

2. The AL MVP, non-Trout division

The great thing about announcing these finalists the week before the award is that it gives the public, at large, proper appreciation of the seasons that will fall just short of actual hardware. Let's say Mike Trout runs away with the AL MVP, as most of us are anticipating. At least now, the sensational seasons of Victor Martinez and Michael Brantley are -- for a few days, at least -- headlines, not footnotes.

I'm pretty surprised Jose Abreu (.317/.383/.581 slash line with 36 homers and 107 RBI) wasn't an AL MVP finalist, but his team's spot in the standings probably didn't help his cause, and there's simply no faulting the inclusion of Martinez and Brantley in the top three. Martinez, at age 35, hit .335 with a league-best .409 OBP, 32 homers, 103 RBIs and just 42 strikeouts. An insane season. And Brantley was arguably every bit the all-around impact player that Trout was, with less of the name recognition and, obviously, a team with fewer wins. To the numbers we go.

Brantley: .327/.385/.506, 20 HR, 23 SB, 154 OPS+, 7.0 WAR
Trout: .287/.377/.561, 36 HR, 16 SB, 167 OPS+, 7.9 WAR

Trout will win it, but I don't think many people realized just how close those two guys were. Well, thanks to this declaration of finalists, now you know.

Since Victor is an excellent DH and Michael is a position player who showed fine defensive abilities he should get the award for the Non-Trout MVP trophy. Quite a breakthrough season for our PTBNL.

I am back.

Cleveland Indians

Signed: RHP Tyler Cloyd (re-signed),
RHP Trey Haley (re-signed),
RHP Julio Medrano,
RHP Dalbert Siri [never heard of him; call Siri and ask her if he's a relative.]

Removed from 40-man: C Chris Gimenez (outrighted to Triple-A)

If Cuddyear would rather take $21M for two years than $15.2M for one year, he doesn't seem to expect himself to be worth much in 2016. Why do the Mets?

Wow, Kluber wins Cy Young!

MLB Network PR @MLBNetworkPR
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2014 AL #CyYoung winner Corey Kluber on what he'll do tonight: “Probably go home & give my daughters a bath or something boring like that.”
4:53 PM - 12 Nov 2014
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Wow, that is great news on Kluber! I knew he was a frontrunner, but I figured he wouldn't win.

Congrats to Corey Kluber.

Writers got it right. Best pitcher in the AL.

Now he has to avoid the dreaded Tribe Kiss of Cy.

Gaylord Perry ......traded

C C Sabathia......traded

Cliff Lee.....traded

Cory Kluber..... back up the money truck!

He can't be a free agent until 2019