Friday, June 20, 2008

Adam Dunn: Why the haters?

Adam Dunn leads the league in strike outs. Adam Dunn has a .228 batting average this season. All I hear all day on Columbus radio is Adam Dunn stinks, trade Adam Dunn, etc. Today the GM of the Blue Jays blasted him. I just watched the guys on Around the Horn agree.

Why does everyone hate Adam Dunn?

He has bad defense, but that's no rarity for right fielders. Other than that, he has a .396 OBP, a .511 SLG, has 18 home runs and he leads the league in walks!!

Not only that, he's been doing it every year!!

When will people learn that there's more to baseball than batting average? Dunn is still one of the best players in the league at not getting out AND he has power. I'd love him on my team.

3 comments:

JohnFromBoston said...

I thought J.P. was a moneyball guy...for lack of a better term.

thempirates said...

Here's the thing:

At this point, we're beyond moneyball. Moneyball is more about finding undervalued players in the market statistically.

But OBP and SLG being a better indicator than BA? That's an indisputable fact. No GM should complain that Adam Dunn is a strike out, home run guy.

Even forget OBP vs. BA, and just notice that Adam Dunn walks as often as he strikes out. That ratio is the sign of a good hitter.

birdsonabat said...

I agree...when OBP and SLG are great, what is the problem? Defense certainly has an effect, but I found it interesting in what Ricciardi was supposed to have said, which is something about Dunn's lack of interest in the game. That seemed like such an odd thing to say. Unless he thinks that may hamper his future playing ability, the numbers don't lie. If he doesn't want to play that much, he's doing a good job at "just showing up".