Adam Dunn: Why Does Everyone Hate You?
It seems like everyone hates Adam Dunn: The Reds, the Reds' fans, JP Riccardi, and just about everyone on ESPN. I never understood any of this and with Dunn once again being shopped at the deadline, I'm hearing more and more of it. You hear everywhere that Dunn is a one dimensional player who chokes under the pressure and doesn't have a passion for the game. I for one would like to know where all this garbage came from. I would love to have Dunn on my team. He's obviously not the first guy I would pick, but he would be a good piece of a lineup.
The biggest Dunn hater I've heard is John Seibel, host of ESPN Radio's Sportsnation show. Since I have a 35 minute drive home everyday and I'm sick of XM 175's dynamic duo of stupidity, I thought I'd give Sportsnation a try. On today's show, Seibel, and his parter in idiocy, Orestes Destrade were discussing players who could possibly be on the move as the deadline approaches. Seibel took every chance he got to take a shot at Dunn whom he considers, to put it lightly, a liability for the Reds both in the field and at the plate. He continued to talk about how Dunn fails to come through with RISP and one time he went as far as to say "In the time we were talking, Dunn just struck out with runners at second and third, even though he's not playing."
Taking the two seconds needed to check Dunn's 2008 splits on Baseball Reference Dunn's "clutch" OPSes are: RISP: .872, 2 outs RISP 1.080, men on: .881, "Late and close": .928.
Corresponding stats for Mr. Clutch Derek Jeter: .815, .936, .754, .861.
As a hitter, Jeter quite frankly does not belong in the same sentence as Dunn. This guy is even more out of place and does not belong in the same thought process as Dunn though Seibel and Destrade think he'd be a better fit for a team looking to add a quality bat.
During the same show, idiot and idiota as I will now refer to them started discussing what a great fit Matt Holliday would be for the Angels, even going as far as discussing a Holliday for Gary Matthews Jr. and prospects trade. Lets ignore the fact the bringing in Matthews and his "the owner must have been really drunk to offer such a deal" contract would be the act of a crazy person, and take a break for some intelligent thinking...
...thinking...
Ok, I'm done. In the time it took to type 'thinking' twice, I thought of some potential problems with such a trade. The Angels have 6 outfielders on their 25 man roster, all of whom only play the outfield, all of whom have been productive in the past and all of whom except for Vlad Guerrero and maybe Torii Hunter have been awful in 2008. Only 3 Angels are currently slugging over .450 and all are right handed giving them a grand total of ZERO left handed power threats. Kotchman is their best left handed hitter, and he's OPSing a stellar .768. Despite the obvious fact that Matthews and Garret Anderson are bums, they still have gotten the vast majority of the PAs over Reggie Willits and Juan Rivera. Willits, one of the few Angels who can take a walk was rewarded for his solid rookie season by yet another absurd signing that dropped him on the depth chart. He's struggled this year, but has played less than 1/5 of the time Anderson has, and is just 5 walks behind him. Rivera it seems, has had his career all but destroyed by breaking his leg in winter ball two years ago.
So summing up all things for the Angels to consider before acquiring a hitter: they have 6 outfielders, they have a lineup with power coming only from the right side, and they don't walk enough. Wow, sounds like Holliday would be the perfect fit! He's a right handed outfielder who only walks slightly more than the average player (of course he would immediately become the Angels' leader in the category). Add to it the fact that he plays in Colorado which is still a good place for hitters, in the vastly inferior National League, and he's about to become a free agent and you have the recipe for one of the all time worst deadline trades. Unless of course the Angels could get rid of GMJ in the process.
Actually, come to think of it, you know who might be a good fit for the Angels? Adam Dunn.
The biggest Dunn hater I've heard is John Seibel, host of ESPN Radio's Sportsnation show. Since I have a 35 minute drive home everyday and I'm sick of XM 175's dynamic duo of stupidity, I thought I'd give Sportsnation a try. On today's show, Seibel, and his parter in idiocy, Orestes Destrade were discussing players who could possibly be on the move as the deadline approaches. Seibel took every chance he got to take a shot at Dunn whom he considers, to put it lightly, a liability for the Reds both in the field and at the plate. He continued to talk about how Dunn fails to come through with RISP and one time he went as far as to say "In the time we were talking, Dunn just struck out with runners at second and third, even though he's not playing."
Taking the two seconds needed to check Dunn's 2008 splits on Baseball Reference Dunn's "clutch" OPSes are: RISP: .872, 2 outs RISP 1.080, men on: .881, "Late and close": .928.
Corresponding stats for Mr. Clutch Derek Jeter: .815, .936, .754, .861.
As a hitter, Jeter quite frankly does not belong in the same sentence as Dunn. This guy is even more out of place and does not belong in the same thought process as Dunn though Seibel and Destrade think he'd be a better fit for a team looking to add a quality bat.
During the same show, idiot and idiota as I will now refer to them started discussing what a great fit Matt Holliday would be for the Angels, even going as far as discussing a Holliday for Gary Matthews Jr. and prospects trade. Lets ignore the fact the bringing in Matthews and his "the owner must have been really drunk to offer such a deal" contract would be the act of a crazy person, and take a break for some intelligent thinking...
...thinking...
Ok, I'm done. In the time it took to type 'thinking' twice, I thought of some potential problems with such a trade. The Angels have 6 outfielders on their 25 man roster, all of whom only play the outfield, all of whom have been productive in the past and all of whom except for Vlad Guerrero and maybe Torii Hunter have been awful in 2008. Only 3 Angels are currently slugging over .450 and all are right handed giving them a grand total of ZERO left handed power threats. Kotchman is their best left handed hitter, and he's OPSing a stellar .768. Despite the obvious fact that Matthews and Garret Anderson are bums, they still have gotten the vast majority of the PAs over Reggie Willits and Juan Rivera. Willits, one of the few Angels who can take a walk was rewarded for his solid rookie season by yet another absurd signing that dropped him on the depth chart. He's struggled this year, but has played less than 1/5 of the time Anderson has, and is just 5 walks behind him. Rivera it seems, has had his career all but destroyed by breaking his leg in winter ball two years ago.
So summing up all things for the Angels to consider before acquiring a hitter: they have 6 outfielders, they have a lineup with power coming only from the right side, and they don't walk enough. Wow, sounds like Holliday would be the perfect fit! He's a right handed outfielder who only walks slightly more than the average player (of course he would immediately become the Angels' leader in the category). Add to it the fact that he plays in Colorado which is still a good place for hitters, in the vastly inferior National League, and he's about to become a free agent and you have the recipe for one of the all time worst deadline trades. Unless of course the Angels could get rid of GMJ in the process.
Actually, come to think of it, you know who might be a good fit for the Angels? Adam Dunn.
Labels: "the owner must have been really drunk to offer such a deal" contracts, Adam Dunn, idiot and idiota, Matt Holliday
posted by Andrew Manning at
2:29 PM
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