In Part 1 of this post, we announced the 10 – 6 ranked greatest DH seasons of MLB all-time. It’s time to reveal the top 5 greatest seasons for a DH of all time.
On April 6, 1973, before stepping up to the batters box against the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park, Ron Blomberg, who is far from being consider one of the greatest designated hitters of MLB all-time, sought the advice of Yankees veteran Elston Howard. It was the first time a designated hitter (DH) would be used in a baseball game. Howard’s advice to Blomberg, according to Baseball A History of America’s Favorite Game, “Go hit and then sit down.”
That just about sums it up.
That is why, as stated in Part 1 of this post, we used the following SIX criteria to determine who had the greatest season for a DH of all time:
- Must have been DH 51% of games that season
- Ability to get on base – On Base Percentage (OBP)
- Ability to hit for power – Slugging Percentage (SLG)
- Ability to score runs – Runs Scored (RS)
- Ability to create runs – Weighted Runs Created Plus (WRC+)
- Value in wins – FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement (fWAR)
As Howard said to Blomberg, a DH’s primary job is to hit. Therefore, I chose the aforementioned criteria because it best reflects a hitters ability to get on base and hit for extra bases, thereby creating and scoring runs.
Without further ado, here are the top five seasons for a DH of all time.