The Value of the Rays' DH Hole

A few notes about the statistics:

Especially the last three years, the DH hasn't been much better than the average hitter. The high-point from 2006-2007 was somewhat a mirage due to a few outstanding seasons by a couple of outstanding DHs.

As you can see the 2006 and 2007 seasons were both anchored by a few big years by big-name DHs. In 2007 David Ortiz destroyed the ball, and he helped Pronk put up huge numbers in 2006 as well. The bottom 3 each year generally hovers around the same ineptitude. It's somewhat surprising (to me at least) just how hard it is to hit without playing the field. We've all seen it here with Pat Burrell or Wily Aybar or whomever the Rays have asked to JUST HIT. While we can see the Rays haven't been in the bottom or top 3, how have they fared in the last 5 years?

The Rays' DH position has been bad. Only one year (the Magical 2008) have the Rays even been above average (thanks Cliff!), so any gains we could get from the position would be a huge plus. This makes finding production there quite a bit easier, and it's a position where we can easily make gains lost from CC or potential bullpen depletion. We'll be free of Burrell's ineptitude and price tag; and with the potential Pena departure (coupled with the loss of CC's LH-bat), a right-handed platoon DH/1B with Johnson could work or another lefty would be fine. Looking over the potential FA bats that shouldn't use a glove, there seem to be more options than teams. Thome, Dunn, Ramirez, Damon, Giambi, Matsui, etc., etc. could all work because of our openings. I'd imagine one or two of these guys could sign somewhere for relatively cheaply. Here's a rough projection of the bRAA we might expect from some FA names that jumped out at me:

*The projection is a 5-4-3 weighted average of the last 3 years discounted 10% as most of these guys are on the tail end of their careers.

As you can see there are 15 names here ranging from All-Star caliber bats to complimentary role player bats that will come in for much cheaper and could provide an upgrade. If we can squeeze 10 more offensive runs than we did last year (pretty much any of these projections adds that), then that will put us that much closer to replacing CC. If we can get 5 bRAA from the DH next year, that would place the production from our DH in the top half of the league every one of the last three years. If we can get more than 10 bRAA from the DH position, then we'd be in the top 5 of the league every year. In my opinion, we could see quite an upgrade without much of a cost outlay. We might even be able to add two of these bats with the hole at 1B that also could open with Pena's impending free agency. Since 2008 the Rays have gotten about 4.7, 2.7, and 1.1 wins combined from DH and 1B. If we can get just one win from the DH and 2 from 1B, then we'd see a 2 win upgrade from last year. That's a big start to replacing what we lose from Crawford leaving.