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Ghost of Greg Vaughn: Rays DH History By The Numbers

Easily the hottest topic during this Rays offseason has been adding a "front-line bat." Going into the off-season we did not know if this would come in the form of a right fielder or a designated hitter. The acquisition of Matt Joyce cleared that up and the Rays will most likely add a DH from the following group: Jason Giambi, Milton Bradley, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu. There are also less likely possibilities such as Ken Griffey Jr., Garret Anderson or Rocco Baldelli.

Over the course of the last 11 years the DH has been a revolving door like many other positions with the Rays. But unlike third base, which now belongs to Evan Longoria, or the rotation that has four to five starters who should be together for a while, the DH spot remains wide open. Thinking back on the Rays history, they've never really had a DH that served as a DH in a true sense. When people think of a designated HITTER, they think of David Ortiz and Edgar Martinez not Robert Fick, Al Martin and Greg Vaughn. I wanted to take a look back at the production the Rays have received from a position that is all about offensive production.

For most of the Rays 11 seasons they did not have a primary DH. Only six times have they had one player with over 240 ABs in the position. If a player had 240 ABs I used him as the primary DH for that season, otherwise, I took the top two or three or even four (2004) players in terms of ABs for the position and came up with the average for that season. Here are the results.

Star-divide

Year

Player

AB

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

98

Sorrento

286

0.228

0.311

0.391

0.702

99

Canseco

319

0.271

0.363

0.547

0.910

00

Canseco

305

0.259

0.383

0.456

0.839

01

Vaughn

283

0.216

0.317

0.357

0.674

02

Platoon

267

0.167

0.284

0.290

0.574

03

Platoon

432

0.266

0.345

0.417

0.762

04

Platoon

334

0.187

0.277

0.333

0.610

05

Platoon

322

0.279

0.362

0.479

0.841

06

Gomes

352

0.202

0.314

0.403

0.717

07

Platoon

323

0.236

0.340

0.375

0.715

08

Floyd

240

0.271

0.348

0.458

0.806

Avg

3463

0.235

0.331

0.410

0.741

Nothing pretty about most these numbers especially compared to the American League averages for DH over the same time frame, which is represtend here:

Year

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

98

0.277

0.36

0.466

0.826

99

0.278

0.365

0.476

0.841

00

0.276

0.361

0.463

0.824

01

0.26

0.34

0.446

0.786

02

0.264

0.342

0.439

0.781

03

0.26

0.349

0.439

0.788

04

0.263

0.345

0.445

0.79

05

0.259

0.338

0.44

0.778

06

0.264

0.349

0.469

0.818

07

0.268

0.355

0.447

0.802

08

0.256

0.339

0.435

0.774

Avg

0.266

0.349

0.452

0.801

And for the side by side OPS comparison

Year

TB OPS

AL OPS

98

0.702

0.826

99

0.910

0.841

00

0.839

0.824

01

0.674

0.786

02

0.574

0.781

03

0.762

0.788

04

0.610

0.79

05

0.841

0.778

06

0.717

0.818

07

0.715

0.802

08

0.806

0.774

Avg

0.741

0.801

As you can see the Rays DH's have only been above league average four times. Jose Canseco was above average in 1999 and 2000. The Jonny Gomes/Josh Phelps platoon worked out pretty nicely in 2005 and Cliff Floyd was above average in 2008.

The other years? Pretty awful. The Rays finished at least .100 points below average in five of the remaining seven seasons. In fact, just look at the 2002 platoon of Greg Vaughn and Steve Cox, who combined to finish .207 points below league average to see how bad the DH has been at times. It's not a question if the Rays add a Dunn, Burrell, Giambi, Bradley or Abreu that they will be an upgrade, but the significant amount of upgrade, however, could be pretty staggering.

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Pretty sad when Canseco was the best DH of our past.

Anyway, as I was lying in the puddle, I think I may have found a way for us to get Bonds and Griffey, and we wouldn't have to give up that much.

~George Costanza~

by Sandy Kazmir on Dec 23, 2008 3:22 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

I was suprised we didn’t offer Sosa a contract last year. He does kill LHP. had over a 1 OPS

by JBrooks31 on Dec 23, 2008 5:23 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

im surprised sosa didnt play anywhere last year

everything Rays,Marlins,Twins and Reds
who needs k-rod for 37 million when you can have d-rod for 50k?
twins sign ty wigginton ASAP!!!!

by RaysOfHope on Dec 24, 2008 3:10 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I am not concerned about DH.

I would platoon the DH position next year.

Between Zobrist and Aybar. Given the sample sizes of the second half of the year both of them hit pretty well on a consistent basis for power and average. Not to mention that Aybar helped carry the team with Crawford and Longo out of the lineup for a month.

Both of those guys have other defensive positions they can play as well and fill in if need be. I would not be concentrating on DH so much right now as relief pitching. Most pressing need is a shut down closer.

I think we are going to also see higher power numbers out of Upton next year too. Why have a DH when you can have guys that can actually play defensively too that can hit just as well? Give your bench more options and allow for injuries that we all know can happen.

Balfour can be the guy but …. will he be the guy?

by PewterPirate55 on Dec 24, 2008 7:40 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Zobrist as DH would make me sick.

Brad Ziegler had a scoreless inning streak. Brad Ziegler had not met BJ Upton.

by P Brady on Dec 24, 2008 11:44 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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