Comments on: Looking At What Dunn Has Done

By: Eric Seidman

Eric Seidman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:58:08 +0000

Compare Dunn and Ryan Howard, two low BA guys but high Power right now:

Dunn: .226/.382/.523
Howard: .234/.325/.510

So, both have low BAs and high SLG numbers but the difference between the two is that Howard is walking MUCH less than last year whereas Dunn is still walking at the same rate.

I don’t understand why the DBacks don’t go for him if they don’t go for Bonds.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:47:26 +0000

If Dunn hit .280/.380/.520 instead of .240/.380/.520, how much more productive would he be? How much more would he be valued in the market?

My answers are a) not much and b) a whole bunch. Odd.

By: Eric Seidman

Eric Seidman — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:02:45 +0000

Dunn isn’t a flashy player nor a tremendous fielder and yes, he strikes out a ton, but to say he isn’t a big bat is irresponsible. Given that Tim Kurkjian gets paid oodles of money to do his analytical job, this is even more egregious… which is odd because Kurkjian is generally very good. Maybe he meant that teams aren’t interested in his three true outcome approach, to which I would argue, why not?

By: Finn

Finn — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:20:22 +0000

Very interesting article.

I’m a huge Adam Dunn fan; he celebrated this article yesterday by cranking the longest home run hit in the majors so far this year. The wind was blowing out at Wrigley, but hey, the big man still completely annihilated it.

I just hope he never winds up on the Yankees.

By: Bill B.

Bill B. — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:52:59 +0000

I was watching ESPN yesterday, I believe it was Mike and Mike in the Morning when Tim Kurkjian was on the phone as a guest, and they were talking about all of the rumors of pitchers being traded in the wake of the Sabathia and Harden deals. It was noted that there aren’t too many hitters being bandied about in rumors, and if I recall correctly, Timmy K. went out of his way to say that, while Dunn was probably going to be made available, he was not a “big bat.”

My jaw dropped because I thought Tim was a numbers guy. I wasn’t thinking that he was a strict adherent of Sabermetrics, but I assumed that he was diverse enough in the philosophies to realize that, unless you put all your eggs in the “Rah rah batting average” and “Strikeouts indicate baseball incompetence” baskets, Adam Dunn is easily one of the top-ten most productive hitters in all of baseball — maybe top five.

Dunn and Pat Burrell are very similar, it seems. Burrell doesn’t have as much power but their hitting approaches are very similar and, without running the numbers, I would bet that they’re close to each other in Three True Outcomes.

It takes people a while to realize how valuable players like those two are — it took most of Philadelphia eight seasons to jump on Burrell’s bandwagon. The rest of the country has yet to catch on, seeing as how Corey Hart (whose nickname will heretofore be “Undeserving”) was voted in for the last spot in on the NL All-Star roster. The fans had two chances, and the players had a chance too, and neither party arrived at the correct conclusion by not only voting Burrell in, but by nominating him as a starter.

Unsurprisingly, Dunn was not even in the picture when it came to All-Star spots. Adam Dunn: 133 OPS+; Kosuke Fukudome: 113 OPS+; Corey Hart: 117 OPS+.

[/rant]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:28:24 +0000

Tenace, anyone?

By: melted

melted — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:12:20 +0000

What do you know about the player?

hah, pretty amusing that Gene Tenace – the Blue Jays current hitting coach – met those first criteria.

The General Manager doesn’t care much for Dunn as a player, feeling that he leaves something to be desired, but is fine with someone that put up similar numbers as a player coaching up his hitters.

Is that irony?