If you are trying to set your lineup for the upcoming week, owning a full-time DH heading into interleague play certainly complicates your decision-making. Are they going to play enough to justify using them? Well, it certainly is a case-by-case basis.

First, let’s identify the AL teams who will spend the entire upcoming week in NL parks:

  • Baltimore Orioles
  • Chicago White Sox
  • Oakland Athletics
  • Tampa Bay Rays
  • Texas Rangers

So, how are these team’s DHs affected?  Let’s look at each case:

Baltimore Orioles

Luke Scott sees a lot of time at DH, but the Orioles can’t throw him on the bench for the next six games.  Not that he’s been hot lately, but he’s a better option then someone like Garrett Atkins (.216, 1 HR, 9 RBI). Ty Wigginton played 1B last night, but look for Scott to find a home at first with Wigginton sliding over to second, and Atkins and Julio Lugo (.210, 0 HR, 4 RBI) coming off the bench. If you are in a league where Scott has value, I’d continue using him.

Chicago White Sox

With Carlos Quentin, Juan Pierre and Alex Rios in the outfield, Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay are likely to be the odd men out. Then again, they likely don’t have value in your league anyways.

Oakland Athletics

Jack Cust/Jake Fox both see time as the DH, but the A’s need them to provide some punch in the middle of the lineup. I’m not sure that they can use Cust on a daily basis in the outfield, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get some time in left field over Gabe Gross or Eric Patterson. Then again, does Cust really excite you these days?  He is hitting .286, but we all know that won’t last. Couple that with just two HR and 10 RBI, and he’s not really viable outside of the deepest of mixed leagues or AL-only leagues.  Don’t bother considering him.

Tampa Bay Rays

They use a revolving door at DH to begin with, so no one player is going to lose significant time. Hank Blalock and Willy Aybar are the ones most affected, but this doesn’t have an impact on fantasy owners. The major problem will be for those in two-catcher formats, as the Rays won’t have the DH spot to occasionally fit one of their three catchers into. If you are an owner of Jason Jaso, Kelly Shoppach or Dioner Navarro, you may want to go with a viable alternative if you have one.

Texas Rangers

Here’s the one team where playing all six games in a National League park has major affects on fantasy owners. Vladimir Guerrero has been tremendous, but the team has said they won’t use him more then every other day in the outfield. That means he’s only going to play 3-4 games this week, certainly limiting his potential value. Still, if you use him or not depends on who your possible replacement is. If it is a low-end option, three games of Guerrero likely has more potential upside, especially since he’ll be the primary pinch hitter. It’s tough to play someone you know isn’t going to get many ABs, but in Florida and Houston, he definitely could produce more then enough to justify it.  I’d continue to use him in all formats for this week.

What are your thoughts?  Which regular DHs are still usable?  Which should be avoided?

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