I've been thinking a fair bit about this, and I've decided not to be extremely strict about it as long as your final position for your guys makes at least a decent amount of sense. Here's the position guys I've drafted thus far and the positions I think it would be fair to throw them at based on what they did in Cleveland:
- Albert Belle: LF, RF, DH - Belle never played an inning in the majors in CF, so I think slotting him there would be a bit past the scope of what we're trying to do here. He was predominantly a LF in Cleveland and a RF in Baltimore, so I'd say it's fair that he had the skillset to handle either corner OF spot.
- Jose Ramirez: 3B, 2B, SS, DH - Ramirez has spent most of his time as a third basemen, but also logged a fair amount of innings at both second and short, so I think any of those three positions are fair (as of now, I have him at 2B). He also has spent some time in LF, but I don't think it's enough to list it as a true secondary position for him.
- Omar Vizquel: SS, DH - Vizquel had over 22K innings at shortstop in his career, and even though he spent some time at 3B and 2B for other teams when he was a journeyman at the end of his career, I think Vizquel should stay with solely shortstop eligibility.
- Grady Sizemore: LF, CF, RF, DH - Sizemore was predominantly a centerfielder, but also did play innings in both corner spots in his career. I think in his prime, his fielding profile would've allowed him to have success in all three OF spots, but he'd be best utilized in CF.
- Andre Thornton: 1B, DH - He's played a few spot innings at both 3B and in the OF, but nothing even close enough for me to push him out of sole 1B eligibility.
- Yan Gomes: C, DH - Again, Gomes has spent negligible innings at 1B and 3B in his career, but the guy is a catcher, and would be expected to play at catcher or DH in the scope of this draft.
- Ken Keltner: 3B, DH - Keltner's only non-3B innings came in 1950, when he was washed up in Boston and spent a whopping two innings at 1B in a ballgame. He's strictly a third basemen in this draft.
Hope that kind of helps. I don't want to be super anal about it, but I also don't want to see Jim Thome in LF and Francisco Lindor playing first.
Same thing goes for pitchers. Any relievers can be your set closer (if you even want a set closer) and any predominant closers can be normal relievers.