How do the Cleveland Indians position players compare with the rest of the AL Central?

After wrapping up with the folly that is the bench, we now have covered all of the position players for each AL Central club. So let us now review just how dire the Tribe is when it comes to position players.

By talonk Mar 16, 2016, 3:00pm EDT

Will the Tribe offense celebrate a lot this year?

Heading into this offseason, there was much discussion as to whether or not the front office would tap into their strong rotation and add a bat to increase some offensive output. As spring training arrived, very little in the way of an impact bat was acquired and the Cleveland Indians front office decided to stand pat.

Through the review of the different positions, we can now take a look at all of the projection numbers and see just how bad the situation may or may not be.

A few changes have occurred since each article has been published, but the philosophy hasn't changed. We are now going to list the projected roster for each team and look at the projections as a whole. We will average the wOBA, wRC+ and WAR from Steamers and ZIPS into the table

Cleveland Indians

	Player	PA	wOBA	wRC+	WAR
C	Yan Gomes	433	309	95	2.4
1B	Mike Napoli	482	326	106	1.3
2B	Jason Kipnis	615	327	107	2.8
SS	Francisco Lindor	662	315	99	3.8
3B	Juan Uribe	334	307	93	1.6

LF	Michael Brantley	513	349	122	2.6
CF	Rajai Davis	372	300	88	1.2
RF	Lonnie Chisenhall	465	313	98	1.3
DH	Carlos Santana	608	345	119	2.0

C	Roberto Perez	223	282	77	0.9
IF	Jose Ramirez	420	301	89	1.5
OF	Collin Cowgill	205	287	79	0.5
X	Tyler Naquin	256	288	80	0.4

Chicago White Sox

	Player	PA	wOBA	wRC+	WAR
C	Alex Avila	315	302	88	1.1
1B	Jose Abreu	630	361	129	2.9
2B	Brett Lawrie	488	314	96	1.5
SS	Jimmy Rollins	443	297	85	1.0
3B	Todd Frazier	627	330	107	3.4

LF	Melky Cabrera	602	322	101	1.0
CF	Austin Jackson	555	307	92	1.5
RF	Adam Eaton	655	328	106	2.5
DH	Avisail Garcia	421	311	94	0.0

C	Dioner Navarro	260	304	90	1.1
IF	Tyler Saladino	312	286	77	1.3
OF	Jerry Sands	208	317	97	0.5
X	J.B. Shuck	242	286	77	-0.1

Detroit Tigers

	Player	PA	wOBA	wRC+	WAR
C	James McCann	410	286	77	1.4
1B	Miguel Cabrera	580	388	147	4.1
2B	Ian Kinsler	647	319	99	3.1
SS	Jose Iglesias	461	299	86	1.6
3B	Nick Castellanos	589	323	103	1.1

LF	Justin Upton	625	360	126	3.7
CF	Cameron Maybin	418	306	91	0.8
RF	JD Martinez	615	359	127	3.4
DH	Victor Martinez	515	335	111	0.8

C	Jarrod Saltalamacchia	287	306	91	0.9
IF	Mike Aviles	266	278	72	0.1
OF	Anthony Gose	469	294	83	0.6
X	Andrew Romine	227	266	63	0.1

Kansas City Royals

	Player	PA	wOBA	wRC+	WAR
C	Salvador Perez	520	314	96	3.0
1B	Eric Hosmer	646	341	115	2.4
2B	Omar Infante	410	276	70	0.1
SS	Alcides Escobar	646	282	75	1.6
3B	Mike Moustakas	575	324	104	2.7

LF	Alex Gordon	602	338	113	3.5
CF	Lorenzo Cain	567	324	104	3.8
RF	Jarrod Dyson	318	289	79	1.4
DH	Kendrys Morales	576	336	112	1.0

C	Drew Butera	90	251	53	0.0
IF	Christian Colon	343	296	84	0.8
OF	Paulo Orlando	343	278	72	0.1
X	Travis Snider	168	309	95	0.2

Minnesota Twins

	Player	PA	wOBA	wRC+	WAR
C	Kurt Suzuki	368	286	77	0.7
1B	Joe Mauer	572	323	103	1.5
2B	Brian Dozier	661	322	103	2.8
SS	Esuardo Escobar	429	306	92	1.4
3B	Trevor Plouffe	559	321	101	1.8

LF	Eddie Rosario	531	302	88	1.1
CF	Byron Buxton	439	309	93	2.1
RF	Miguel Sano	542	359	128	3.1
DH	Byung-ho Park	497	344	117	1.8

C	John Ryan Murphy	281	300	87	1.0
IF	Eduardo Nunez	229	297	85	0.5
OF	Max Kepler	323	305	91	0.5
X	Danny Santana	378	290	80	0.6

Totals

So for a quick recap, let's re-total up each of the WAR from each of the groupings as before with the slightly modified changes due to recent transactions:

	CLE	CHW	DET	KC	MIN
IF	11.9	9.9	11.3	9.8	8.2
OF/DH	7.1	5.0	8.7	9.7	8.1
Bench	3.3	2.8	1.7	1.1	2.6

Total	22.3	17.7	21.7	20.6	18.9

As you can see, even with all the teeth gnashing this winter, this group of position players still is projected to be the best in the division. Will that actually happen? Of course there are no guarantees. But if I was to rank the teams, I'd probably give the Tigers a slight edge overall, but that is really dependent on JD Martinez replicating his late blooming. I'd probably ank the Royals and Tribe tied in the second spot, with the Twins next and the White Sox last in place.

Previous entries:

How do the Cleveland Indians position players compare with the rest of the AL Central?

Share this story

Share All sharing options for: How do the Cleveland Indians position players compare with the rest of the AL Central?