Around the Diamond: Top Five Designated Hitters of 2010
Posted by homerunheyer on June 28th, 2010
There are only nine everyday DH’s in the American League. DH is a position and will not be left out. Out of the nine DH’s, five of them really stand out as premier hitters that are contributing to their team in a big way.
5. Luke Scott, Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles are yet again having a horrible year. The Orioles have the worst record in baseball and are 24 games behind the first place Yankees. Scott is the Orioles everyday DH and is putting up decent numbers. Scott is hitting .266 with 11 home runs and 28 RBI’s. Scott’s RBI numbers are low, but that isn’t his fault. If Scott was playing on a winning team his RBI numbers would probably be close to 50. Scott is playing like a normal DH does, he’s hitting for a low average and has decent power numbers, Scott is leading the team in slugging- .495, exactly what a DH is supposed to do.
Thanks to the Orioles awful pitching, people like Scott and his teammates, Nick Markakis, and Ty Wigginton who are all having good years, aren’t being recognized.
4. Hideki Matsui, Los Angeles Angels: After playing his whole career in the MLB with the Yankees. This year Matsui is helping the Yankees playoff rivals, the Angels, at DH. Matsui has always been known as a great hitter from his career in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants and to a lesser extent with the Yankees. Last year Matsui left the Yankees with a bang in the World Series earning himself his first World Series MVP award. Now on the Angels, Matsui is filling in the gap for Vladimir Guerrero who was let go to the Rangers. Matsui is having a good year for the Angels hitting .262 with 10 home runs and 46 RBI’s. Matsui’s home run numbers are a little low, but he is driving in a lot of runs for the Angels. I expect Matsui to continue to help the Angels make a run at the hot Rangers. When it comes down to September and the Angels are still a couple games behind the Rangers, expect Matsui to turn things up a notch like he has in the past.
3. David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox: Ortiz isn’t totally back to his former self, but he is getting the job done for the Red Sox this year. The last couple years fans were wondering, what’s wrong with Ortiz? Ortiz used to be a solid .300 hitter with at least 40 home runs since he came over to the Red Sox, but the last couple years Ortiz’s average has fallen to .264 in 2008 and .238 in 2009. This year Ortiz is pretty much doing the same thing, he’s hitting .252 with 16 home runs and 47 RBI’s. There’s still time for Ortiz to raise his average back up to the .300’s, but it could also fall even lower. If the Red Sox ever want to make it to the World Series again, they are going to need Ortiz to do better than his good numbers now, they need more production out of him. With a lackluster offense, the Red Sox are somehow only two games behind the best record in baseball Yankees. The Red Sox either have to get another big bat before the trade deadline or just hope Ortiz can pick his bat speed back up and hit for a better average.
2. Jose Guillen, Kansas City Royals: Guillen stands alone as the only player on the Royals with power. Guillen is another prototypical DH hitter. Guillen’s career average is .272 and he usually averages around 20-25 home runs a year when he’s on. This year Guillen is hitting .282 with 13 home runs and 47 RBI’s. Guillen is hitting a little better than usual, but it doesn’t really matter because the Royals aren’t going anywhere. Guillen is the second best DH on a second to last team. The problem with Guillen is his hot temper, many good teams will not touch Guillen because they don’t want to mess up their team chemistry. Guillen is on pace to have one of his best years ever and is distinguishing himself as one of the best DH’s in the league.
1. Vladimir Guerrero, Texas Rangers: Guerrero is nearing the end of his career. Last year Guerrero had his worst season with the Angels only hitting .295, but only had 15 home runs and 50 RBI’s. This year Guerrero is already hitting better than his last year’s total. Guerrero is hitting .327 with 15 home runs and 60 RBI’s. The Rangers are flourishing this year thanks to their acquisition of Guerrero. The Rangers were already known to be a huge power hitting team and now they are just unstoppable. The Rangers are just putting up sick numbers this year to go along with Guerrero’s. They have three guys hitting over .300 and two others in the .290 range. With Guerrero and his 60 RBI’s which is third highest in baseball the Rangers are going to be hard to beat this year. They currently have the second best record in baseball and I would be surprised if they didn’t make it to at least the ALCS this year. The only reason why they aren’t a World Series team is because of their pitching, which has been better but not good enough to win it all. (mlb.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
