100 Sim Results - Designated Hitters

These are the results of 100 baseline resims (ended up being 95 seasons due to a silly mistake on my part, though I will continue to call it the 100 sim baseline). Each season was run in neutral parks. Injuries were turned on, each team had a strict 5 man rotation, and the schedule was set for 154 games. To date, we've completed the reviews for catchers, first basemen, second basemen, third basemen, shortstops, left fielders, and center fielders. Here is a link to the full detail by position.

Frankly, I made a mistake with the designated hitters. My process for assigning them was to simply take the best players not drafted in the position slots and make them DH’s. This meant legit starters such as Bobby Murcer, Reggie Jackson, and Willie Stargell were considered only in the DH spot. In hindsight, I should have reserved this position for “Fair” or worse fielding defenders.

The good news is that tor the most part, as you’ll see, these DH’s are in fact players are of the Jason Giambi and Frank Thomas ilk.

2001 Jason Giambi Is the best DH in the study. He recorded a .376 OBP while hitting 19 HR and 26 doubles on average each year. Close behind is 2002 Jim Thome who belted 35 per season, 6th best among all batters. His main issue is a low OBP (.338) largely driven from a very low batting average (.232). 1994 Frank Thomas is a similar player (.342 OBP, 27 HR) as well.

Elsewhere, 1994 Albert Belle, 1961 Jim Gentile, 1969 Reggie Jackson and 1973 Willie Stargell all had plus power averaging 32 HR’s between them. Kevin Mitchell hits 33 per season, but his .263 OBP can’t be worth it.

Edgar Martinez, circa 1995 recorded a .355 OBP with 31 doubles which looks excellent until you realize his 11 HR resulted in a “very low for a DH” slugging average of .377.

Top 15:
01) 0.265 / 0.376 / 0.418 - 2001 Giambi,Jason
02) 0.232 / 0.338 / 0.431 - 2002 Thome,Jim
03) 0.243 / 0.342 / 0.426 - 1994 Thomas,Frank
04) 0.272 / 0.326 / 0.462 - 1994 Belle,Albert
05) 0.237 / 0.328 / 0.439 - 1961 Gentile,Jim
06) 0.243 / 0.303 / 0.488 - 1973 Stargell,Willie
07) 0.270 / 0.355 / 0.377 - 1995 Martinez,Edgar
08) 0.225 / 0.313 / 0.442 - 1969 Jackson,Reggie
09) 0.279 / 0.348 / 0.389 - 1971 Murcer,Bobby
10) 0.280 / 0.331 / 0.391 - 1989 Clark,Will
11) 0.277 / 0.309 / 0.409 - 1884 Reilly,John
12) 0.250 / 0.323 / 0.381 - 1985 Guerrero,Pedro
13) 0.215 / 0.263 / 0.427 - 1989 Mitchell,Kevin
14) 0.221 / 0.330 / 0.336 - 1884 Stovey,Harry
15) 0.197 / 0.295 / 0.353 - 1951 Kiner,Ralph

Recapping the #1 choices at each position
CA-’86 Kelly - -.310 / .399 / .380, 179 TB
1B-’27 Gehrig - .297 / .375 / .584, 336 TB
2B-’24 Hornsby- .301 / .373 / .444, 260 TB
3B-’80 Brett - -.304 / .351 / .454, 278 TB
SS-’35 Vaughan -.274 / .366 / .381, 226 TB
LF-’02 Bonds - -.292 / .485 / .549, 263 TB
CF-’57 Mantle - .316 / .430 / .480, 270 TB
DH-’01 Giambi - .265 / .376 / .418, 227 TB