The Cleveland Indians are currently 65-65, in 3rd place in the AL Central, 6.5 games out of the playoffs. This is quite a fall for a team that started the year by going 18-8 in April and 14-12 in May. Since their great start however, Cleveland has been dropping in the standings and losing players to injury left and right. Even the trade deadline acquisition of Ubaldo Jimenez couldn’t stem the tide of defeats. Now, perhaps the biggest blow of all is the loss of outfielder Michael Brantley for the duration of the season. Brantley will have surgery on his right hand at some point in the next few days.
Brantley’s season numbers will end with a .266 batting average, 7 HRs, 46 RBI, and 13 steals. As of today, he his 3rd on the team in ABs behind All-Star Asdrubal Cabrerea and catching phenom Carlos Santana, 2nd in hits, 3rd in doubles, and 3rd in batting average among starters. To this point, Brantley has been a catalyst in the offense and a model of consistency while fellow outfielders Shin-Soo Choo and Grady Sizemore made trips to the DL.
Sizemore hasn’t played a game since July and wasn’t very good when he was in lineup posting only a .237 AVG. Travis Hafner is having foot problems and could also be lost for the year. The Tigers have Justin Verlander who wins almost every time out and is a legitimate candidate for the AL MVP. The White Sox keep hanging around and have moved ahead of Cleveland in the standings. And now to top it all off, the Indians lose their 24 year old outfielder, the best guy they got in exchange for super-ace CC Sabathia, to a potentially power-zapping injury. I don’t see how it can get much worse. I’m calling it right now and making it official, any lingering playoff hopes in Cleveland are hereby dashed, Michael Brantley’s injured hand saw to that.
Stat of the Day: Wade Boggs got to 3,000 hits despite not playing his first full season until age 25.
-Max Frankel
