DH 2008

There's only a couple DHs that we even need to talk about. The rest are not fantasy worthy. The Angels have an interesting situation. It'll be interesting to see who starts in left whether it'll be Gary Matthew's Jr., Garrett Anderson, or Wiltis. My thought is Garrett Anderson will DH and he is definitely still fantasy worthy. All those guys are likely to split time between the positions. Watch the Angels in the first few weeks of the season for those developments. The Yanks also have a similar situation. Johnny Damon and Matsui will split time in left and then you have Jason Giambi at 1B. I don't know if Giambi can give them the D they'll be looking for. That's another one to watch over the first part of the season. All of those players will get drafted in a 10 team fantasy draft. In our league, we use a utility player which can be any batter. The DH is a tough position to draft, especially for those guys like Thomas and Thome who typically don't play any fielding position when it comes to 2 weeks of interleague play in National League parks.

1. David Ortiz 3.93 (Red Sox) .332/35/117 with a .445 on-base. Papi did strike out 103 times but walked 111. Another big stat that pops out at you is 52 doubles in 2007 which was the most in his career. The doubles balanced out his down homer year. Keep an eye on the big guy's knee in the spring. He played with it all of last season and still put up those kind of numbers. He's still the real deal. He did play 7 games at first last season during interleague play. It's hard to keep this dude out of the lineup.

2. Travis Hafner (Indians) .266/24/100 in 2007 was way down from the three previous years. Look for a bounce back after Hafner dealt with some injury issues last year. The Indians lineup is pretty potent. His SO/BB ratio isn't too bad at 115/102 which is almost identical to 2006. Hafner played 11 games at 1B in 2007 so he's also a safe interleague play guy.

3. Gary Sheffield (Tigers) .265/25/75 in 2007. Sheffield is another guy who battled injuries in 2007. It will really go down as his worst production year since being a Brewer in 1991. Look for Sheffield to bounce back in a big way playing almost exclusively at DH in that brutle Tiger's lineup. They'll be plenty of chances to drive runners in even in that big ball park. Sheffield is a safe guy to get b/c he just doesn't strikeout.

4. Jack Cust (As) .256/26/82 in 2007 as basically a rookie. He did play 17 games in the OF so he'll qualify at both positions until the break. Cust struck out 164 times but did walk over 100 times too. He'll be a good late round guy to snag up.

5. Jim Thome (White Sox) .275/35/96 in 2007. Thome stunk it up a lot last year. Again, here's another player on my team who under-produced. Thome is becoming a big risk. He basically gave nothing in 2005 and came back in 2006 and showed some life. He'll hit 30+ homers and strike out a bunch.......just not for my team!

6. Frank Thomas (Blue Jays) .277/26/95 in 2007. His SO/BB ratio is pretty solid. He did add 30 doubles and put up his most at-bats since 2003. I have a feeling if you have to draft Frank Thomas, your draft day hasn't went so well!