top ten dh's of all time

[mrmet042]

who do you think are the top dh's off all time are im going with

egar martinez , paul molitor , harold baines , andre thornton , frank thomas , don baylor , hal mcrae , chili davis , ken phelps and cliff johnson

[Captain Cold Nose]

Dave Parker did a nice job for Oakland. I'll have to make an actual comparison as DH's to see if he was good enugh to crack your top ten. Same with Reggie.

[barzilla]

How do we define DH? Do we define as someone that spent the majority of their career as a DH or someone that spent at least one full season there? Then, you have to consider how you treat the numbers from when the player wasn't a DH? There are just too many questions for me to list a top ten. I do think Edgar is the best though.

[digglahhh]

It's not a particularly complimentary distinction, in fact many, including myself would argue that it is not a "distinction" at all to be a DH.

Edgar Martinez may have had a distinguished career as a hitter, but being the best DH of all time does nothing to make his offensive achievments more impressive, to the contrary rather.

I'm surprised how often this discussion comes up.

[The Dude]

I define a DH as someone who played that position more than any other single position in their career.

With that, the top 10 DH.

1.Paul Molitor
2.Edgar Martinez
3.Harold Baines
4-10.Blah

If frank thoams stays healthy enoug this season, maybe he can play 12 games and take over first place asthe best DH.

[Tigerfan1974]

who do you think are the top dh's off all time are im going with

egar martinez , paul molitor , harold baines , andre thornton , frank thomas , don baylor , hal mcrae , chili davis , ken phelps and cliff johnson

Frank Thomas is NOT a DH!

Baines and Molitor would be questionable as they played other positons more, as did most, but they really stand out.

What about the first DH, Ron Blomberg???

[leecemark]

--Frank Thomas will almost certainly end his career having played more DH than 1B and be the best DH ever, for what thats worth (not much IMO). Another majority DH who deserves some recognition in this discussion is Hal McRae. He's got to be one of the 10 best to play most of his games at serial pinch hitter.

[538280]

Brian Downing certainly deserves some mention here.

Going by only DH performance, I don't think Frank Thomas is quite as good as Edgar Martinez. He always did hit much better as a first baseman.

[KCGHOST]

It doesn't matter how much a guy actually played in the field. Allwe have to evaluate is how productive he was when he actually DHed. I'm going with:

Edgar Martinez
Frank Thomas
Paul Molitor
Hal McRae
Harold Baines
Chili Davis
Oscar Gamble
David Ortiz
Brian Downing
Travis Hafner

Obviously, Ortiz and Hafner could end up at the top of this list if they stay DH's through the remainder of their careers.

[dgarza]

Here's mine:
1. Frank Thomas
2. Paul Molitor
3. Edgar Martinez
4. Hal McRae
5. Harold Baines
6. Don Baylor
7. Chili Davis
8. David Ortiz
9. Travis Hafner
10. Andre Thornton
-------
11. Brian Downing

Not ranked, but I couldn't pass up mentioning:
HM. Ron Blomberg
HM. Ken Phelps

[RedSoxVT92]

1. Frank Thomas
2. Edgar Martinez
3. Paul Molitor
4. Harold Baines
5. Don Baylor
6. David Ortiz
7. Chili Davis
8. Hal McRae
9. Andre Thorton
10. Brian Downing

[Bothrops Atrox]

1. Thomas
2. Martinez
3. Molitor
4. Baines
5. McRae or Baylor...

gets too hard after that. Davis' good long carer, or Ortiz' great 2-3 seasons, etc.

[Chadwick]

Using KCGHOST's definition:

1. Edgar Martinez
2. Frank Thomas
3. Paul Molitor
4. Hal McRae
5. Harold Baines
6. Chili Davis
7. Oscar Gamble
8. David Ortiz
9. Brian Downing
10. Travis Hafner
Honorable Mention: Jose Canseco

[Chisox]

It doesn't matter how much a guy actually played in the field. Allwe have to evaluate is how productive he was when he actually DHed. I'm going with:

So does that mean that we rate Pete Rose, Ernie Banks, Robin Yount, Rod Carew in their positions based only on what they did at their positions? That would certainly skew rankings, wouldn't it? Same logic.

As for this poll,
When Frank Thomas plays more games DHing than at 1B, he'll be BY FAR number 1, but until then

1.Paul Molitor
2.Harold Baines
3.Edgar Martinez
4.Nobody to mention.

We just did this a couple months ago, didn't we?