First I have the results of our projections on Gregg Zaun. I like our results here, we're slightly higher in slugging but pretty well in line. We project Zaun for 63.6% of the playing time at catcher, so that works out to about 380-400 plate appearances, and that makes a lot of sense to me.
BCB Community Projection: .249/.336/.384
CHONE: .230/.332/.368
ZiPS: .243/.345/.373
And with that, we're on the shortstops. It's Alcides Escobar's first year in the majors, and this represents one of the most variable projections we will have this year. Last year's line of .304/.333/.368 shows the unique situation he's in: the average shows the incredible promise that he has as an offensive player, but the fact that he only managed a .311 wOBA and .700 OPS indicates that his average will have to stay this high to maintain even a below-average level of production. He's young, so it's very likely that his ability to draw walks and hit for power will improve. There's plenty of evidence that a high average could be sustainable for him eventually, but this year could be a struggle for him. There's no doubt Escobar will be a valuable player this year, but how much of that can we attribute to his bat?
Here's Escobar's Fangraphs page and MLS page. CHONE says .291/.334/.389. ZiPS says .279/.321/.378. What do you say?
Meanwhile, there's everybody's favorite deity, Craig Counsell. He's really old. ZiPS projects .252/.337/.353, CHONE projects .234/.324/.323. I'd assume he's the main backup at short but I'll put in an "other" box once again if you'd like to budget some shortstop time for someone else. Here's the Craig Counsell fangraphs page.