Depth Chart of the AL West by Position—Who is the the best on paper—Part 1

Part 1
Everyone wants a prediction of how the Texas Rangers will do this year. Will it be better than last year’s 65 wins, above or below the betting line of 77 wins, or can the team actually compete and find a way to get into that magical 90+ win category to compete for a division title or wild card slot. One of the ways that people look at this is to look at a comparison by position of every team in the division, after all with the new schedule format teams play within their division more than ever before. For accounting purposes I am going to give each team a rank, and add up the numbers at the end to use this simple method to determine the order of finish. This may not be accurate, but since this is just a projection and paper let’s see how it turns out. I am also using who is listed on the top of the depth chart, which in some cases could change before opening day. A 5 is the best and 1 is the worst.

Catcher
The Rangers starter is Robinson Chirinos who had a breakout year last season, he is still young with a plus arm and a nice bat. How do the numbers look?
Career Stats                   Avg   OBP OPS    HR RBI AB
(TX)Chirinos                 .231  .285  .676  14  47     389
(Hou)Jason Castro     .243  .316   .716  40 149   1362
(ANA)Chris Iannetta .236  .357  .771  90 344  2281
(OAK)Stephen Vogt    .254  .298  .694  13  51    429
(SEA)Mike Zunino       .203  .266  .648  27 74    611

Clearly Iannetta from the Angels is the veteran with twice as much playing time as the next closest person. Seattle appears to be the weakest at this position, I would rank them like this:
5 Angels, 4 Oakland, 3 Houston, 2 Texas, and 1 Seattle

First Base
Career Stats                     Avg   OBP   OPS   HR    RBI       AB
(TX) Prince Fielder      .285  .388  .910  288   886     4882
(HOU)Jon Singleton    .168 .285  .620  13      44        310
(ANA)Albert Pujols     .317 .403  .991   520  1603 7943
(OAK)Ike Davis              .240 .336  .759  78     270   1848
(SEA)Logan Morrison .251 .333   .758  53     200   1631

Although Albert Pujols production has fallen over the past 3-seasons, he is clearly the best at this position. The rest are as follows:
Angels 5, Texas 4, Seattle 3, Oakland 2, and Houston 1

Second Base
Career Stats                            Avg     OPS   OPS    HR     RBI     AB
(TX)Roughned Odor           .259    .297  .402   9       48        386
(HOU)Jose Altuve               .302    .340  .741   21    160      2083
(ANA)Johnny Giavotella  .238   .277   .612   4      45        437
(OAK)Ben Zobrist                .264    .354   .783   114  511     3850
(SEA)Robinson Cano          .310    .368   .857   218  904    5930

Cano is the class at second, but the little man Altuve is darn good.
Seattle 5, Houston 4, Oakland 3, Texas 2, Angels 1

Short Stop
Career Stats                     Avg    OBP     OPS     HR     RBI    AB
(TX)Elvis Andrus          .272   .335    .680   20      305    3523
(HOU)Jed Lowrie          .261   .330    .741   56      284     2253
(ANA)Erick Aybar       .277   .318    .702   45     373     3830
(OAK)Marcus Semien .293    .380   .673   8        35        300
(SEA)Brad Miller           .302   .389    .691   18     58        673

It is somewhat hard to judge this because the young guys with not very many at bats look really good. The veterans are consistent and all very close together, but to follow along this is how I would rate them.
Angels 5, Texas 4, Houston 3, Seattle 2, and Oakland 1

Third Base
Career Stats                      Avg     OBP     OPS      HR    RBI       AB
(TX)Adrian Beltre          .285    .337    .816    395   1384     9145
(HOU)Luis Valbuena    .229    .313    .686    45      173       1809
(ANA)David Freese      .280    .348    .765    54     292        2029
(OAK)Brett Lowrie       .266     .323    .748    43     157        1304
(SEA)Kyle Seager          .262     .328    .757    70    264        1981

Adrian Beltre is clearly the veteran, leader of the Rangers, and nobody else is close.
Texas 5, Seattle 4, Angels 3, Oakland 2, and Houston 1
If one is completely objective it would seem that the infield ranks Angels, Astros tied with Seattle, Rangers, and Oakland. Certainly, this is a good time to debate who is better, and keep in mind that I am using only the projections based on the depth chart.

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