CBSSports.com staff rates Tigers Victor Martinez, Miguel Cabrera favorably

CBSSports.com staff rates Tigers Victor Martinez, Miguel Cabrera favorably
12:05 AM, Feb. 6, 2011
BY KIRKLAND CRAWFORD
DETROIT FREE PRESS
SPORTS WRITER

Pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland in a little over a week, which is welcomed news to Tigers fans around the world.

Here's how CBSSports.com's is celebrating the dawn of baseball: ranking the top players at each position. The baseball writing staff ranked the top 10 of the infield positions and a few Tigers have made the list.

One thing we've learned: David Ardreisen loves Victor Martinez. The new Tiger is No. 2 in his designated hitter and catcher rankings.

Ardreisen: You'd like to see him at DH as much as possible, as catchers tend to fall apart earlier, and if so there's no reason he can't come close to keeping up his numbers the next three years. And they're very good numbers.

Between the four writers, Martinez had an average of 2.8 as a DH, good for second overall behind new White Sox hitter Adam Dunn. He was the top-ranked DH by fantasy baseball writer Al Melchior.

At catcher, Martinez had an average of 5.5, good for fifth place and behind Joe Mauer, Brian McCann, Buster Posey and Carlos Santana. Again, Melchior had Martinez second in his rankings at this position.

And you can't forget about Miguel Cabrera. The first baseman was second behind Albert Pujols with an average of 2.3. He was second in each of the writers' polls except for Ardreisen, who had Cabrera behind reigning NL MVP Joey Votto. The other three writers had Votto third.

Ardreisen: In this exercise, we're building a team of greats -- can you imagine what kind of numbers Cabrera puts up with the protection of a great lineup? Like Votto, great plate discipline and entering his prime years.

No Brandon Inge at third base or Jhonny Peralta at shortstop. Obviously, since there's a question mark at second base, there was no Tigers presence there, either.

Rankings for the outfielders and pitchers come out next week. Expect Justin Verlander, Austin Jackson and Jose Valverde to be among the leaders in their respective positions.