12 August 2015

The Newest Most Under-rated Player

When I was filling out my All-Star ballot, there was one player for whom I voted (on several of my roughly 100 ballots) who did not make the team at all; indeed, his name was hardly spoken, as if he were Valdemort.

He's exactly the kind of player who falls through the cracks, or at least used to, before we realized that batting average, home runs and RBI are simply the outline, leaving out all the colors inside the lines.

He hits doubles and triples, plays excellent defense, earns his share of walks, employs his speed judiciously, doesn't make a lot of noise and plays for a last-place team in a second-tier market.

Since he became a regular in 2011, he's hit .296/.354/.431, stolen an average of 15 of 19 bases and played above-average defense in left and center field. He's also improved over that time, to the point that he hit over .300 with 20 home runs last season. His OPS is 20% better than average and he's earned 3.5 WAR/year with a third of this season remaining.

You get 23 guesses (that's his number) and you still won't name him: Indians outfielder Michael Brantley, who is batting .313 this year and leading the AL in doubles. He's swiped 12 of 13 bases and played 101 of the team's 110 games. Brantley's True Average ranks fifth among AL left-fielders, which means 10 other teams would love to employ him.

Tribe brass know what they have. They signed Brantley to a four-year, $33 million contract that buys out his arbitration years and one season of free agency. And if Cleveland can get a bullpen, a third baseman and a center fielder, Brantley might have enough pieces around him to capture some All-Star votes.


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