Most games played in left field in Cleveland Indians history

Instead of switching back to the infield, in honor of the recent announcement of the new inductees to the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame, we will jump over to left field where two of the inductees played most of their Tribe career. This includes Albert Belle of the 1990s juggernaut squads, and the all-time leader in games played in left, Charlie Jamieson.

At the conclusion of the '00s, 352 players had appeared in left field for the Blues/Bronchos/Naps/Indians. The only player to crack the Top 25 in the past six seasons should be an obvious one, Michael Brantley. He has climbed all the way up to ninth on the career list. He could have been in seventh had he not had to spend the entire 2012 season in center. Not to mention Terry Francona's proclivity for shifting him to center to play an infielder in left (Aviles, Ramirez, Santana). Depending on when Brantley returns from his injury, I think he'll have a tough time passing Leon Wagner for seventh. But by the time his Cleveland career is over, he has a decent shot of jumping into the Top 5, as long as he isn't shifted to first base before then.

It is pretty odd that just over a full season of games (189) would get someone to crack the Top 25, but when Jamieson and Jack Graney account for 25% of the teams' career games in left, it really isn't that too hard to fathom.

But since 2009, 32 new players have resided at that position for at least one game, and that total does not include Brantley, who got into eight games in left in 2009. Here is the full list of new players in the past six seasons:

Aaron Cunningham, Anderson Hernandez, Austin Kearns, Brent Lillibridge, Carlos Santana (!),Chris Dickerson, David Murphy, Ezequiel Carrera, J.B. Shuck, Jason Donald, Jason Kubel, Jayson Nix, Jerad Head, Jerry Sands, Johnny Damon, Jordan Brown, Jose Ramirez, Luis Valbuena, Matt Carson, Michael Bourn, Michael Martinez, Mike Aviles, Nick Swisher, Nyjer Morgan, Russ Canzler, Ryan Raburn, Shelley Duncan, Thomas Neal, Travis Buck, Tyler Holt, Vinny Rotino, Zach Walters.

And onto the top 25:

With Brantley entering the Top 25, he ended up bumping John Lowenstein off the list. Again, since this list is very top heavy with career games, only 22 players have passed the 200 game mark, or just 5.7% of the total. Only 30 more have over 100 games, leaving 332 under the 100 game mark. And that includes 54 guys with just a single game, including Anderson Hernandez, Carlos Santana, and Michael Bourn of the new guys.

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