Cleveland Indians predictions contest 2015 - Michael Brantley

This post is part of a series allowing the LGT community to weigh in with their predictions for the 2015 season. Bragging rights are at stake! There will be two separate contests, one for hitters and one for pitchers. Last year's contest was scored against the field, however, this year's points system will work relative to the stats - the closer to final number in each category, the more points you can earn, despite what other participants predict. You need not submit predictions for every single player in order to win, but doing so will increase your chances to win.

For position players, you'll be asked to predict each player's plate appearances (PA), home runs (HR), stolen bases (SB), batting average (AVG), on-base percentage (OBP), and slugging percentage (SLG).

Comments for each post will remain active until the night of Sunday, April 5th, 2015.

Click here for previous entries in this series.

Michael Brantley

The good Doctor had a breakout year and garnered an All-Star nomination, Silver Slugger and 3rd place finish in the AL MVP voting to show for it. Not bad, not bad. He broke out in every possible way he could at the plate while even increasing his threat on the basepaths. You can read more here, here and here and here!

Courtesy of FanGraphs

The Predictions

It was to be expected that the projection systems would anticipate some decline from last year, but I think the drop off is a bit more surprisingly than we expected and certainly steeper than we're hoping for. It isn't unreasonable to assume that the average falls with some regression in BABIP, but everything is showing regression to a bit above 2012/2013 levels, which seems unlikely given what we saw on a daily basis from Brantley last year.

What I Think

He isn't going to repeat last year, but he doesn't have to. He'll also outperform projections, again, with a bit of ease. The average is going to come down and so is the power, but not so much that we're going to be concerned.

PA: 650
HR: 16
SB: 18
AVG: .308
OBP: .363
SLG: .464

Your Turn

Feel free to make numbers up if you'd like but, if you'd rather be more scientifically accurate, you can use these calculators to help you get there:

• Batting Average
• On-Base Percentage
• Slugging

To submit your entry, simply copy and paste the text below into a new comment and fill in your predictions!

PA:
HR:
SB:
AVG:
OBP:
SLG: