2013 Fantasy Baseball DH Rankings

When looking at 2013 Fantasy Baseball DH Rankings across theInternet, you might find several spots that literally rank the designated hitters in the America League. In other words, they give you each team’s DH, and rank them from a Fantasy perspective.

That’s dumb.

Here’s why – most designated hitters are eligible to play at one other position at least, usually first base, catcher or outfield. And most Fantasy Baseball leagues allow owners to start any hitter at the DH spot. So ranking all hitters that sometimes hit in the DH spot is dumb because those guys are already ranked elsewhere.

Fantasy owners want to know how DH-ONLY players are ranked against each other. That means you don’t want to see Albert Pujols in the DH rankings, since he played 120 games at first base last year! You want to see guys like David Ortiz in there, since he’s not eligible at first base because he only played seven games there last year. Granted, he might play five or more at first base this year (and probably will), but that doesn’t make him eligible at first base in Fantasy just yet.

Don’t forget, the Astros joined the American League this year, and they’ll likely have Brett Wallace hitting in the DH spot. But he has Fantasy eligibility at first base already.

Daivd Ortiz, 2013 Fantasy Baseball DH Rankings — Over the past three seasons, David Ortiz has averaged 28 homers and 86 RBI. Photo Credit: Keith Allison

Luckily, Billy Butler played exactly 20 games at first base last season, so he has eligibility there this year, despite mostly working as the designated hitter.

Victor Martinez is a tricky issue, since different Fantasy league services categorize him differently. Some classify him at catcher and some list him only as a designated hitter. Check your league service. I’ll rank him here though.

Lance Berkman, however, did play 23 games at first base last season, due to a knee injury. Since he got in the 20 games, he’s eligible there, despite being signed to work as the Rangers’ DH this season.

And then there’s guys like the Yankees’ Eduardo Nunez. He played 16 games at shortstop, nine games at third base, five games at DH, four games in the outfield and one game at second base. But since his primary listing was at shortstop, he gets that label in many league services. I’ll rank him here also – just in case.