MLB Shortstops: Who Would You Build a Team Around?

So ESPN is doing a sort of "Vs." series. Topics like which right handed starter would you most like to start for your team, which player is better: Pujols or A-Rod, etc.

At the same time, Rob Neyer is writing blog posts on the top ten players at each position for the next five years. Today, ESPN asked the question, which shortstop under 25 would you most like to start a team with: Troy Tulowitzki or Hanley Ramirez?

Let's bring the discussion to bleacherreport, but open it up a little bit. The obvious problem with ESPN's question is the possibility that you would choose someone like Jose Reyes or Jimmy Rollins.

So let's go for the next five years and ask, which shortstop would you most like to have starting for your team? Thanks to Rob Neyer for the idea. I imagine I won't be stealing much of his thunder, as his readership may exceed my own. 

Again, we are talking about choosing a shortstop for the next 5 years. This means that someone like, say, Derek Jeter, is probably not part of the discussion, as he is a bit long in the tooth relative to these younger shortstop stars.

Also, I am not including hot prospects. As incredible as projections for Jay Bruce might be, and while many teams probably would pick him as their centerfielder for the next five years, I am only looking at players with some MLB experience. 

It is probably fairly uncontroversial to suggest that the most appealing 5 shortstops in baseball for the next five years are, in no particular order:  Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Reyes, and Rafael Furcal.

Beneath are each of the players lines from 2007, along with their 162 game averages, (thanks BaseballReference.com).

2007 23 FLA NL 154  639  125  212  48  6  29   81  51 14  52  95  .332  .386  .562  145  359

I think we can all agree right off the top that Rafael Furcal is not quite up to par with the others. His poor performance in 2007 has taken much of the luster off of his career, but if you disagree with me, feel free to say so.

That leaves us with Tulowitzki, Rollins, Reyes, and Ramirez.  Rollins, as good as he has been, is not in any way demonstrably better (MVP notwithstanding). He is also significantly older than the other four and presumably already at his peak.

I say take him out of the discussion.

We are left now with the youngest ones: Tulowitzki, Reyes, and Hanley Ramirez. Hanley is, by far, the best hitter of the three, and Tulowitzki is the best defender.

Tulowitzki's offense is superficially inflated by starting 81 games in Coors, but his bat is still a positive asset at the position. Troy's 2007 season was an astonishing one on defense.

However, given that it was only one full season, I would like to see a little more before believing that he can maintain this level of defensive play.

Hanley Ramirez is a brutal defensive shortstop, and much like Derek Jeter, should probably be moved to centerfield as soon as possible. Nevertheless, his bat is so far ahead of the other two that I am inclined to take him for the next five seasons.

As a side note, if Hanley Ramirez was even an adequate defensive shortstop, he would have certainly deserved the league's MVP.

So that's that, I'm going with Hanley. As exciting as Jose Reyes is, his extra steals do not come close to compensating for Hanley Ramirez's power.