CLEVELAND: Michael Brantley is back in the minors after his second brief trial with the Indians.
As in his first test (32 AB), Brantley’s bat failed him. In his two stints with Cleveland, Brantley is batting only .157 in 26 games. After being called up from Columbus July 4, Brantley received 70 at-bats.
“”He looks better than he did the first time,” manager Manny Acta said this afternoon. “”He hit the ball harder. The move was not made because of his performance. We were just overloaded with outfielders and thin on infielders. He will be back soon.”
After returning to Triple-A on April 19, Brantley started slowly but eventually built his batting avaerage to .315 in 59 games (241 AB).
The demotion of Brantley was necessitated by the call-up of Josh Tomlin, who will make his major-leaqgue debut tonight as the starter against the Yankees and former Tribe ace C.C. Sabathia.
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If someone can give me ONE good reason why we should be anxious for a non-impact, low on-base, .150 hitter to return to the lineup….I’d really like to hear it.
Might it just be that we’ve vastly overrated this kid, much like Luis Valbuena? I mean, just because they’re “young” and we traded for them…doesn’t mean they’re going to be even an average major leaguer. People say “play the kids, play the kids.” Well, surely there’s a “kid” who would hit higher than .150. If not, we’ve got bigger problems.