FanSided All-A.L. Central Team Voting

The rosters have been finalized for all of the American League divisions to go head-to-head-to-head.

The White Sox are very well represented with 2b Gordon Beckham, SS Alexei Ramirez, who should be on gold glove AND silver slugger watch this year, and pitchers John Danks, Mark Buehrle and Matt Thornton.

On paper, this race looks a lot tighter than the National League’s. My first inclination is to go with the A.L. East on star power alone, but it might not be that simple this time.

Head to THIS LINK to cast your vote. I’ll break the rosters down and reveal my pick after the jump.

I’ll rank the positions 1 through 3, grouping outfielders together, starting pitchers together and relief pitchers together. Everybody has their own way of doing it and this is mine.

Catcher:

Joe Mauer (1) def Matt Wieters (2) and Kurt Suzuki (3)

-Going against Mauer is kind of like going against Albert Pujols. You just don’t do it.

First Base:

Adrian Gonzalez (1) and Miguel Cabrera (1) def. Kendry Morales (2)

-I totally copped out by declaring a tie here, but you really can’t go wrong with Adrian or Cabrera. Gonzo is going to light it up at Fenway park. I’m talking 50 doubles, 40 home runs and a .320 batting average. But Cabrera can win the triple crown any given year in his own right. Sorry, Kendry.

Second Base:

Robinson Cano (1) def. Ian Kinsler (2) and Gordon Beckham (3)

-That’s a very, very distant 3 for Beckham.

Shortstop:

Alexei Ramirez (1) def Elvis Andrus (2) and Derek Jeter (3)

– All-Star appearances, gold gloves, silver sluggers…they don’t fool me. I once wrote a conspiracy piece about Jeter that you can find here. It came after the Rangers announced Michael Young was moving to third base in favor of Andrus. In this article I accused Andrus of being the second coming of Mike Bordick, and I would like to take the time to apologize for that. He’s turned into a very nice player and I’m sorry for being wrong about him. However, Alexei is my boy and he’s going to have a great year.

Third Base:

Evan Longoria (1) def. Adrian Beltre (2) and Danny Valencia (3)

-Like Jeter, Beltre doesn’t fool me. His numbers become ridiculously inflated when he’s in a contract year. I still think he’ll hit 25 home runs and maybe drive in 100 runs this season, but I expect his average to be in the low .260s and the Rangers will look silly for giving him so much money, just like the Mariners did.

Outfield:

Josh Hamilton/Ichiro Suzuki/Nelson Cruz (1) def. Shin-Soo Choo/Alex Rios/Delmon Young (2) and Carl Crawford/Brett Gardner/Jose Bautista (3)

-I don’t even know where to get started on this one. I’d almost like to see the debate that raged within the A.L. East to see how they came up with these three. I agree with Crawford, but that’s about it. Adam Jones or Jacoby Ellsbury belong on the team over Gardner, and Bautista…man, I know we all love home runs, but at what cost? There’s no way he has a repeat performance this year, except in average (.260) and strikeouts (116…admittedly lower than I thought it would be when I looked it up). Can we please at least use guys who we know are going to be playing in the outfield? My information has him at third base in both spring training appearances so far. DISQUALIFIED!

Starting Pitchers:

CC Sabathia/David Price/Jon Lester/Clay Buchholz/Ricky Romero (1) def. Justin Verlander/Francisco Liriano/John Danks/Max Scherzer/Mark Buehrle (2) and whoever the A.L. West put out there (3)

-I really wanted to make a case for the central here, but second will just have to do. The East has too much talent and I don’t want to seem biased (….).

Relief Pitchers

Mariano Rivera and Rafael Soriano (1) def. Matt Thornton and Joakim Soria (2) and Scott Downs and Neftali Perez (3)

-Mariano Rivera. That is all.

Results (lowest total earns my vote):

A.L. East – 13

A.L. Central – 15

A.L. West – 18

As much as I wanted to find a reason to go against the East, it just can’t be done. It is the best division in baseball, but due to the inconsistency in roster, I do expect the N.L. East to be declared victorious when the two face off in FanSided’s preseason World Series.

That is what we’re calling it, right?