Folks,
It has been way too long, and no I am not talking about since I last wrote a blog post (been a while, you guys), I am talking about since the last MLB games were played. Fortunately, spring training is back and in full force, and the baseball chatter is flying around.
With baseball being played, but nothing being official, it seems as though fans and writers use this time period to over-evaluate, over-judge, over guess, over-list-create, over-project, and so on and so forth. It gets rather ridiculous, but something must hold us over until the season starts, so I decided I will join the frenzy and begin my own series of lists. As many know, I am an open and unabashed Kansas City Royals fan, and this year more than any other of my life I have legitimate grounds for excitement (the year they signed Benito Santiago and Juan Gonzalez sadly was the next closest).
I wanted to see how legitimate my excitement was, so I decided to rank the American League Central’s positions 1-5 per team, and see just where the Royals ranked. I will rank each defensive position, the DH, the five starting pitchers for each team, and the closers. Let us begin:
Catcher
1. Carlos Santana, CLE
2. Joe Mauer, MIN
3. Alex Avila, DET
4. Salvador Perez, KC
5. A.J. Pierzynski, CWS
First Base
1. Prince Fielder, DET
2. Eric Hosmer, KC
3. Paul Konerko, CWS
4. Justin Morneau, MIN
5. Casey Kotchman, CLE
Second Base
1. Jason Kipnis, CLE
2. Gordon Beckham, CWS
3. Johnny Giavotella, KC
4. Brandon Inge, DET
5. Alexi Casilla, MIN
Third Base
1. Miguel Cabrera, DET
2. Mike Moustakas, KC
3. Lonnie Chisenhall, CLE
4. Brandon Morel, CWS
5. Danny Valencia, MIN
Shortstop
1. Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE
2. Alexei Ramirez, CWS
3. Alcides Escobar, KC
4. Jhonny Peralta, DET
5. Brett Carroll, MIN
Left Field
1. Alex Gordon, KC
2. Delmon Young, DET
3. Ben Revere, MIN
4. Dayan Viciedo, CWS
5. Michael Brantley, CLE
Center Field
1. Denard Span, MIN
2. Austin Jackson, DET
3. Lorenzo Cain, KC
4. Alejandro De Aza, CWS
5. Grady Sizemore, CLE
Right Field
1. Shin-Soo Choo, CLE
2. Jeff Francoeur, KC
3. Alex Rios, CWS
4. Ty Willingham, MIN
5. Brennan Boesch, DET
Designated Hitter
1. Billy Butler, KC
2. Travis Hafner, CLE
3. Ryan Raburn, DET
4. Adam Dunn, CWS
5. Trevor Plouffe, MIN
Number 1 Pitcher
1. Justin Verlander, DET
2. Ubaldo Jiminez, CLE
3. John Danks, CWS
4. Luke Hochevar, KC
5. Carl Pavano, MIN
Number 2 Pitcher
1. Francisco Liriano, MIN
2. Doug Fister, DET
3. Jake Peavy, CWS
4. Bruce Chen, KC
5. Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernandez Heredia), CLE
Number 3 Pitcher
1. Max Scherzer, DET
2. Justin Masterson, CLE
3. Gavin Floyd, CWS
4. Scott Baker, MIN
5. Jonathan Sanchez, KC
Number 4
1. Rick Porcello, DET
2. Felipe Paulino, KC
3. Chris Sale, CWS
4. Nick Blackburn, MIN
5. Josh Tomlin, CLE
Number 5
1. Jacob Turner, DET
2. Danny Duffy, KC
3. Phil Humber, CWS
4. Derek Lowe, CLE
5. Jason Marquis, MIN
Closer
1. Joakim Soria, KC
2. Jose Valverde, DET
3. Chris Perez, CLE
4. Matt Capps, MIN
5. Joe Thornton, CWS
After totalling up my rankings, with the lowest numbers being the best, the teams totals came out as follows:
1. Tigers- 32 points
2. Royals- 40 points
3. Indians- 45 points
4. White Sox- 54 Points
5. Twins- 56 Points
Amazingly, these totals came out to what I feel is quite a realistic projection with the Tigers as the hands down division favorite, the Royals and Indians in the next tier, and the White Sox and Twins battling to stay out of the cellar. But just to avoid any accusations of personal bias, I totaled up some projected team WAR totals based off of numbers I collected from the glorious baseball website www.fangraphs.com. The higher the number the better for these:
1. Tigers- 47.6 WAR
Tie-2. Royals- 40.3 WAR
Tie-2. Indians-40.3 WAR
4. White Sox- 39.9 WAR
5. Twins- 34.8 WAR
Pretty close huh? Please share your opinions in the comments section, I would love to hear how wrong or right I am in your opinion. Join me next Monday when I rank the players of the National League Central.
-Brett
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