At the end how can we decide positions for guys? Just whatever they played when they were in Cleveland? I have Speaker and Averill who both played CF, and neither of them really played outside of CF (Speaker played a little 1B and Averill had a couple innings in RF, but when he went to Detroit he played LF). My most effective OF probably would be Choo in RF, Speaker in CF and Averill in LF in my mind.
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.