After the 2019 Major League Baseball season, some all-decade teams have been speculated. Of course, there are different opinions on what players should make the rosters, but if everyone agreed on the same roster, it could get boring. Some may even go as far as saying the decade should count as 2011-through-2020 while others say 2010-through-2019. Either way, here is a potential all-decade team for the American League Central from the years 2010-through-2019.
(This includes a starting lineup [with a DH,] a pitching rotation and two bullpen pitchers.)
Starting Lineup
1.) Michael Brantley (CF)
Team: Cleveland Indians (2009-2018)
Michael Brantley spent nine seasons of the 2010s with Cleveland. In that time, he hit 87 homers, 244 doubles and drove in 517 RBIs. He hit well in 2014, having a slash line of .327/.385/.506. He finished third for AL MVP that season. Brantley continued to hit well into 2015, slashing .310/.379/.480. The current Houston Astro led the league in doubles that year with 45.
2.) Francisco Lindor (SS)
Team: Cleveland Indians (2015-Present)
Francisco Lindor played five seasons with the Indians this far, and not one of them has been below average. He is on a streak of four consecutive All-Star games, his fourth in-a-row coming in 2019. His career line in the MLB after five seasons is .288/.347/.493. He has 130 home runs, 178 doubles and 384 RBI. The shortstop also has two Silver Slugger awards and two Gold Glove awards.
3.) Miguel Cabrera (DH)
Team: Detroit Tigers (2008-Present)
Miguel Cabrera made the All-Star game every season from 2010-through-2016. He won back-to-back AL MVP awards in 2012 and 2013, and was runner up in 2010. Miggy also won the Triple Crown in 2012, the first time the award was won since 1967. That year, he led the league in homers (44), RBIs (139) and OPS (.999). He also hit 44 homers again the next year in 2013, and even had a higher OPS (1.078).
4.) Jose Abreu (1B)
Team: Chicago White Sox (2014-Present)
The 2014 AL Rookie of the Year winner is fourth in this lineup. In his first six years with the White Sox, Jose Abreu reached at least 30 homers in four seasons. His career line through those years is a solid .293/.349/.513. Another notable stat is that Abreu has reached 100 RBIs in five of his first six big league seasons, and he has 611 total as of the end of the 2019 season.
5.) Jose Ramirez (3B)
Team: Cleveland Indians (2013-Present)
Even though Jose Ramirez performed poorly in 2019, he still produced a lot of offense for the Indians during his first seven big league seasons. After the 2019 regular season, his career line is listed at .280/.351/.486. He has 110 homers, 197 doubles and 391 RBIs. Ramirez also made the All-Star game in 2017 and 2018. Those are the same seasons that he finished third in the AL MVP voting.
6.) Joe Mauer (C)
Team: Minnesota Twins (2004-2018)
Joe Mauer spent his whole MLB career with the Minnesota Twins. He had multiple seasons where he had over a .300 batting average along with double-digit home runs. He also led the American League in on-base percentage in 2012 at .416. That year he walked 90 times, hit 31 doubles and had 85 RBIs. Mauer still had a pretty solid line towards the end of his career. In 2017, he slashed .305/.384/.417, which was his second-to-last season in the MLB.
7.) Lorenzo Cain (RF)
Team: Kansas City Royals (2011-2017)
In Lorenzo Cain‘s tenure with the Kansas City Royals, he hit for a .289/.342/.421 line. The year the Royals won the World Series, which was 2015, is the only time that he made the All-Star game as a Royal. He also finished third in the American League MVP voting that season. Cain hit a career high 16 homers that year along with 34 doubles and 101 runs scored, which are also career highs.
8.) Alex Gordon (LF)
Team: Kansas City Royals (2007-Present)
Seven-time Gold Glove award winner Alex Gordon is the left fielder on this list. He has won a Gold Glove in each of the last three seasons. As for hitting, one of his best years at the plate came in 2011. That year, he had a slash line of .303/.376/.502. Gordon hit well the following season, too. He led the MLB in doubles with 51 in 2012. He also had 72 RBIs and 14 homers that season.
9.) Jason Kipnis (2B)
Team: Cleveland Indians (2011-2019)
Jason Kipnis recently joined the Chicago Cubs, but he still finished the 2019 season with the Indians. Kipnis made two All-Star games with Cleveland. The first one was in 2013 when he slashed .284/.366/.452 and hit 17 homers. A few years later in 2016, Kipnis had 41 doubles along with a career-high 23 home runs. He also had 82 RBIs that season.
Pitching Rotation
1.) Justin Verlander
Team: Detroit Tigers (2005-2017)
Justin Verlander is one of a few pitchers to win an MVP award. He won it with the Tigers in 2011, winning the AL Cy Young award as well. He had a 2.40 ERA and a 0.920 WHIP in 251 innings pitched that season. Verlander also pitched four complete games that year as part of his 17 total with Detroit in the 2010s. He was the runner up to David Price the next year for AL Cy Young, and then was runner up again in 2016, that time to Rick Porcello.
2.) Corey Kluber
Team: Cleveland Indians (2011-2019)
Corey Kluber has joined the Texas Rangers over the offseason. He still pitched for the Indians in 2019, but it was only 35 2/3 innings. Prior to that, he provided the Indians with some productive seasons on the mound. He finished in the top three of the AL Cy Young voting four times, winning it twice. When he won it in 2017, he led starting pitchers in ERA at 2.25. His ERA for the 2010s was 3.16 in 1,341 2/3 innings pitched.
3.) Max Scherzer
Team: Detroit Tigers (2010-2014)
Like Verlander, Max Scherzer also won a Cy Young award with the Tigers. Scherzer’s was in 2013, a year in which he had 240 strikeouts and a 2.90 ERA. The next season he finished fifth for the AL Cy Young voting. He pitched in five seasons with Detroit, and had a 3.52 ERA, 1.197 WHIP and 1,081 strikeouts. Scherzer also made two All-Star rosters as a Tiger.
4.) Chris Sale
Team: Chicago White Sox (2010-2016)
Chris Sale made the All-Star game five times with the White Sox. They were in consecutive years from 2012-through-2016. He finished in the top six of the AL Cy Young voting each of those seasons as well. In 2014, the southpaw posted a 2.17 ERA along with a 5.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio (SO/W). Through seven seasons with the White Sox, Sale had a 3.00 ERA, a 1.065 WHIP and 1,244 strikeouts.
5.) Carlos Carrasco
Team: Cleveland Indians (2009-2011; 2013-Present)
Even though he has yet to make an All-Star roster, Carlos Carrasco has still put up numbers for the Indians over the 2010s. He had a consistent streak from 2015-through-2018 where his ERA for the season was below 4.00. One of his better seasons on the mound came in 2017. That year, he had a 3.29 ERA in 200 innings pitched. He also finished fourth in the AL Cy Young voting that season.
Bullpen
Kelvin Herrera
Teams: Kansas City Royals (2011-2018) Chicago White Sox (2019-Present)
Kelvin Herrera pitched in eight seasons with the Royals. He made two All-Star Games, and won a World Series in 2015. His Postseason pitching statistics are notable. In 28 2/3 career playoff innings pitched, Herrera has a 1.26 ERA with 38 strikeouts. In the 2015 Fall Classic, Herrera allowed just one unearned run in five innings pitched.
Herrera struggled with the White Sox in 2019 but can bounce back in 2020.
Greg Holland
Team: Kansas City Royals (2010-2015)
In the six seasons he pitched on the Royals, Greg Holland put up some notable numbers. He finished ninth in the AL Cy Young voting in back-to-back seasons (2013 and 2014,) being second among bullpen pitchers both times. He also made the All-Star game in those seasons. The first time that happened in 2013, Holland had a 1.21 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 67 innings pitched.
Feature Image Courtesy of Zimbio.
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