In the wake of Grady Sizemore's significant lower-back strain, Michael Brantley is the new slated starting centerfielder for opening day. The move from Brantley from LF to CF creates a domino effect that at its end, creates a need for a backup OF who can, in a crunch (or whenever Brantley's body goes crunch), play centerfield. The various OF candidates in camp lined up to compete for the spot, some of which are probably not viable at CF, include: Aaron Cunningham, Shelley Duncan, Matt LaPorta, Ryan Spilborghs (NRI), Felix Pie (NRI), Fred Lewis (NRI), Thomas Neal, Ezequiel Carrera, Chad Huffman (NRI) and Trevor Crowe (NRI). Without any particular comment, here is how they line up in terms of major league experience, experience in CF, defensive performance and offensive performance across a variety of categories.
Major League Experience (games played):
- Spilborghs: 619
- Lewis: 517
- Pie: 398
- LaPorta: 269
- Duncan: 229
- Crowe: 205
- Cunningham: 150
- Carrera: 68
- Huffman: 9
- Weglarz/Neal: 0
Centerfield Experience, ML games played (Minors games played at CF):
- Pie: 175 (326)
- Spilborghs: 122 (47)
- Crowe: 105 (289)
- Carrera: 55 (381)
- Lewis: 27 (117)
- Cunningham: 2 (106)
- Neal: 0 (7)
- Huffman: 0 (4)
- LaPorta: 0 (0), Duncan: 0 (0), Weglarz: 0 (0)
ML Career OPS (vs RHP/vs LHP)
- Spilborghs: 768 (747/799)
- Duncan: 754 (743/769)
- Lewis: 751 (780/622)
- LaPorta: 701 (725/629)
- Pie: 673 (706/513)
- Cunningham: 664 (620/741)
- Crowe: 625 (650/547)
- Carrera: 613 (680/482)
- Neal/Weglarz/Huffman: N/A
AAA Career OPS
- LaPorta: 953
- Spilborghs: 928
- Weglarz: 889
- Duncan: 883
- Lewis: 878
- Cunningham: 869
- Pie: 830
- Huffman: 789
- Crowe: 740
- Neal: 734
- Carrera: 700
ML Career UZR in CF (UZR/150 - via fangraphs)
- Pie: 4.9 (6.6)
- Carrera: -0.8 (-1.5)
- Lewis: -0.9 (-6.8)
- Spilborghs: -3.7 (-6.3)
- Crowe: -15.7 (-24.3)