Sportsline A.L. Results: DHs

First off, I haven't posted this yet, but the Sportsline expert results are up for the American League and the National League. You can not only look at these players by position, but also by team.

The Stud and His Understudy: David Ortiz $35, Travis Hafner $28.
Ortiz does what he does every year, and he's one of the few players with zero speed I'd recommend for a $35 bid, even in 5x5. Hafner's health is going to be the issue going forward. He should be healthy in 2008, but we've all seen slow footed players like this break down prematurely.

Old and Reliable (?): Gary Sheffield $21, Jim Thome $21.
Sheffield didn't drop as much as he thought he would due to his age. If he doesn't steal 22 bases again this year, he won't be worth this price. He's still a hell of a hitter, though, and hiding him at DH should keep him productive if healthy. Thome is the same deal. It took a monster tear at the end of the 2007 campaign to prop up his value, but the overall numbers still came through as solid. The batting average might never look pretty again, but Thome will hit enough HR to keep him fairly valuable.

The Kid and Me: Billy Butler $15, Frank Thomas $14.
I like Butler a lot as a baseball player, but he is extremely young and, like Delmon Young, his growth curve may be far more prolonged than we're expecting right now. He'll improve, but he might not go 30/100/.300 for a few years now. This price is fair. Thomas at $14 is OK, but he'll turn 40 this year, and you can't expect his production to jump up to 2006 levels. Hope for 2007. He has been healthy two years running.

The $1 Bin: Shelley Duncan $1, Jason Giambi $1, Jose Vidro $1.
You can't go wrong with Giambi and Vidro at $1, though neither one is the perfect DH at this point. Giambi's old and creaky, and the Yankees are going to be forced to play him at 1B with their glut of OF. He's due a ton of money in the last year of his Yankees contract, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Yanks relegate him to part-time duty if his batting average continues to regress. Vidro is far from the perfect real-life DH, but he'll drive in some runs, hit for a good batting average and contribute. Should the Mariners be playing him every day? Probably not, but I'll guess they will. Duncan needs a few things to fall his way to play regularly. A Giambi injury would help. Duncan's an uber sleeper. That means he'll probably just stay asleep, but he's got a power stroke that would help if he got a chance. The upside is his brother Chris Duncan, the downside is ex-Yankee Kevin Maas.