Who were the best of best baseball players in 2007? Here are the designate hitters, who continue to surprise me with their lack of depth.
1B | 2B | SS | 3B | DH | LF | CF | RF | CA
A quick review of the stats presented: RAR is offensive runs above replacement, FAA is fielding runs compared to positional average, TVAR is total value (the important one), and wOBA is a rate stat measuring offensive performance on the OBP scale. For more complete explanations, check out the original article.
Because I don’t have data for defensive innings at designated hitter (does that even make sense?), players who were primarily DHs but played significant innings in the field are still treated as full-time DHs. That’s obviously not fair, but shouldn’t make a huge difference.
2007’s Top Ten Designated Hitters
10 - Jeff Clement (4 RAR, 0 FAA, 4 TVAR, .539 wOBA)
Yup, a late-season call-up with 16 hot at-bat was the tenth most productive “DH” in 2007. I understand not wanting to commit big bucks to a player who won’t contribute in the field, but there’s got to be a spot for Pat Burrell or Adam Dunn as a DH somewhere, no?
9 - Sammy Sosa (14 RAR, 2 FAA, 6 TVAR, .316 wOBA)
At $500,000, Sosa’s 2007 was a decent deal for the Rangers and made for a great comeback story. But here’s hoping your favorite team doesn’t think he’s anything more than a part-time, minimum-wage lefty-basher.
8 - Billy Butler (17 RAR, -1 FAA, 8 TVAR, .331 wOBA)
Butler can definitely swing a bat. If you want to help settle a bet among friends, do you think he’ll outperform Jack Cust next year?
7 - Jason Giambi (16 RAR, -1 FAA, 9 TVAR, .347 wOBA)
It seems that the Yankees are willing to play Giambi at first base until he breaks down. That’s not a bad plan given what they have, but there should have been a better plan earlier.
6 - Jose Vidro (30 RAR, -3 FAA, 13 TVAR, .341 wOBA)
By my count, the Mariners had four guys who should be DHs: Vidro, Richie Sexson, Raul Ibanez, and Jose Guillen. Somebody tell Bill Bavasi he can’t use a designated hitter for all of Jose Lopez, Rafael Betancourt, and the starting pitcher.
5 - Frank Thomas (37 RAR, 0 FAA, 24 TVAR, .361 wOBA)
No, 500 homeruns probably isn’t as impressive as it used to be. But when you hear people use that argument to discount The Big Hurt’s career, remind them he also walked, hit for a high average, and cranked his fair share of doubles.
4 - Travis Hafner (44 RAR, 1 FAA, 31 TVAR, .351 wOBA)
Hafner went from MVP candidate to a big question mark. What happened? I’m hoping we’ll look back in a few years and see it as a fluke season.
3 - Gary Sheffield (43 RAR, 3 FAA, 33 TVAR, .372 wOBA)
Sheffield was a forgotten man in Detroit. He missed 29 games, but still managed to rack up 589 plate appearances.
2 - Jim Thome (51 RAR, 0 FAA, 40 TVAR, .392 wOBA)
In 2001, Jim Thome got off to a slow start and I proclaimed his career was over. That was the last time I was wrong about anything.
1 - David Ortiz (81 RAR, -1 FAA, 67 TVAR, .427 wOBA)
Based purely on offense, Big Papi was the third most productive hitter in the majors, a step behind Magglio Ordonez. Sure, his homerun total was down, but he made up for that in many other ways.
How about the worst designated hitters of 2007 — those that played poorly, yet enough to really hurt their teams? Here’s the bottom five:
Player/TM RAR FAA TVAR wOBA Jones,GarrettTMIN -3 0 -5 .258 Piazza,MikeOAK 3 0 -5 .317 Cantu,JorgeLTB -4 -1 -7 .230 White,RondellMIN -5 0 -8 .244 Hillenbrand,SheaLAA -7 -1 -13 .258
That Mike Piazza makes this list really hurts me. I’m holding out hope that he never quite recovered from his early season injury and 2008 will silence his doubters. Remember when people were up in arms because the Red Sox gave away Shea Hillenbrand? Yeah, much ado about nothing.
The rest of the top players by position:
1B | 2B | SS | 3B | DH | LF | CF | RF | CA
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.