Why is the DH Undervalued? - Fire Brand of the American League

by EvanAtMVN | August 18, 2005 at 08:23 pm

229 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

The August 8th edition of Sports Illustrated had this blurb about the decline of the Designated Hitter:

A new low in th 32-year history of the DH: When the A%u2019s (Dan Johnson) and the Indians (Jason Dubois) batted their DHs ninth on July 25, it marked the first time DHs hit at the bottom of the lineup in the same game. Only Boston (David Ortiz), Cleveland (Travis Hafner), and Seattle (Raul Ibanez) emply prototypical DHs regularly. Measured by batting average, eight of the 14 AL teams were geting below-league-average production from the DH spot.

As a designated hitter, the league checks in at .271 with 10 HR. That%u2019s pretty terrible. As a whole, the league average OPS is .752, and as you can see by the chart below, five teams fall below that in terms of DH. As SI notes, eight of the 14 are below in terms of batting average. Any significant production out of DH doesn%u2019t start being seen until #6%u2019s Tampa Bay.

RK TEAM BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Boston .300 .402 .586 .988
2 Cleveland .293 .387 .526 .913
3 NY Yankees .273 .391 .499 .890
4 Kansas City .260 .346 .462 .808
5 Detroit .283 .332 .463 .795
6 Tampa Bay .265 .337 .454 .791
7 Chicago Sox .240 .308 .472 .780
8 Toronto .269 .353 .412 .765
9 Seattle .274 .344 .410 .754
10 Texas .242 .337 .412 .750
11 Minnesota .255 .328 .409 .737
12 Oakland .248 .325 .357 .682
13 Baltimore .217 .287 .372 .659
14 LA Angels .243 .312 .333 .645

The question is why do so many teams undervalue the DH? Is it that they see the DH differently than Boston does? Do they see it like I do, that it%u2019s a secondary position? I have been agitating for a while that David Ortiz should be starting at first base or at the very least, be the backup. This would free up more time for Manny Ramirez to DH, and get someone else in left field. While I still am in favor of this, I am advocating David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez sharing the DH duties, not Garrett Anderson (.187/.229/.231 as DH), Jeff Davanon (.267/.360/.302) and Juan Rivera (.220/.281/.305).

What I%u2019ve now done is tried to find a player for every team after Tampa Bay that%u2019s currently wasting away in AAA who should be up and at the very least, sharing DH duties. My feeling that Ortiz should play the field notwithstanding, they are only one of three teams who realize that having a consistent DH who while isn%u2019t the world%u2019s greatest fielder, hits the ball very well, is extremely useful to the club. Perhaps if more teams used the DH as a position, not as a filler, I%u2019d stop agitating Ortiz at first. I just feel Ortiz is more than adequate at first base, and it would allow us to get more pop in the lineup if we put Manny at DH and slotted another outfielder in left field. When Nixon comes back, it%u2019d be nice to see Ortiz at first, Kapler in left, and Millar on the bench. In addition, we could then think about moving Nixon to left field to protect his legs. These are the options (good ones, too!) that we get if we play Ortiz at first.

Anyways%u2026 below find the list. I%u2019ve included the team, who is their primary DH, the number of At-Bats they have gotten as a DH (note that Ortiz has 397 AB as DH), their overall stats on the year, and then an AAA hitter and their stats that would be better served as DHing for that team. In reverse order of where they placed in the table above%u2026 (sorry if this table is screwed up%u2026)
Team

Primary DH

Stats

AAA hitter

Stats

Notes
LA

Garrett Anderson

.288/.317/.434

Nick Gorneault

.282/.349/.524

Kotchman would%u2019t be bad, either%u2026
Baltimore

Jay Gibbons

139

.263/.298/.494

Napoleon Calzado

.311/.350/.452

For such a good offensive team, they have terrible DH production.
Oakland

Erubiel Durazo

146

.237/.305/.368

Jack Cust

.255/.400/.444

Hurt, but Hatteberg has same line%u2026 isn%u2019t Cust the perfect A?
Minnesota

Lew Ford

170

.257/.336/.366

Kevin West

.275/.367/.487

They need offense. So get West up!
Texas

David Dellucci

222

.266/.395/.482

Adrian Gonzalez

.338/.399/.561

Nevin now DH (.206/.254/.365), not Dellucci, who plays OF.
Seattle

Raul Ibanez

343

.295/.361/.458

N/A

Plays OF now. Other DHs terrible. Once Bucky Jacobsen returns%u2026
Toronto

Shea Hillenbrand

114

.301/.360/.475

Kevin Barker

.310/.377/.606

Hillenbrand sharing w/Aaron Hill comprise a punchless DH slot.
Chicago

Carl Everett

256

.266/.318/.469

Ross Gload

.366/.418/.639

Gload already has MLB success%u2026 or Joe Borchard. But Crazy Carl?

There are some exciting options in Triple-A for some teams, such as Gonzalez and Gload, who are hitting the cover off the ball. Jack Cust really should be up in the majors, he is a prototypical A%u2019s hitter and would fit in nicely with the offense. The loss of Durazo really hurt them, for he was .321/.396/.523 for them last year. B