Do guys like Adam Dunn/Ryan Howard belong in baseball?

dunn will get on base, walk a lot, hit 40 bombs, and 100 rbi's. yea hes valuable hes like the perfect guy for billy beanes money ball philosophy. it seems to work.

 

I was going to put howard on that list as well...It seems to work, for just that, stats...

 

Of course, they do, especially when players, like Jose Offerman and Rafael Belliard stayed in the league as long as they did. No offense whatsoever, very average on defense.

 

Studies have shown that strikeouts are largely irrelevant. They can be important in situations, which is why it's important to have a contact hitter (Orlando Palmeiro, Darin Erstad type) available on your bench. But over the course of a season, a guy who strikes out a lot is going to hit into fewer double plays -- and considering double plays are two outs and strikeouts only one, it largely evens itself out. Especially when you consider the very small percentage of non-strikeouts that are the ever-popular "productive" outs.

The number one thing you look for in a hitter, above all else... is someone who doesn't make outs. Dunn is very good at that.

Most likely, the second thing you look for... is taking as many bases as you can. Dunn is pretty good at that too.

 

As a Reds fan forced to watch Dunn for way longer than I wanted to... he has his uses... I just don't want to watch them.

When a player gets to the plate and you know he's either A: going to strike out, B: be intentionally walked (or just walk) or C: hit a homerun... and most of the time its A. He isn't fun to watch.

Plus, he is way too slow to play in the outfield. He should be a designated hitter somewhere (which I hate the designated hitter because it's against the way the game was meant to be played) and nothing more.

Let's just say... there was a celebration in my cubical today at work when I found out he was gone.

 

All I know is if they ever make a movie about Adam Dunn, Will Ferrell could play his part. Every time I see Dunn come to bat I think of Ricky Bobby.

 

same here..i'm glad...15 mill we wont have to spend to resign him. prob is..most reds fans are gonna be upset since he was with the dragons all the way up. it was the same with dealing kearns..people had their favs and dont understand we needed the money we were gonna pay dunn

 

To be perfectly honest.. they should have dealt Dunn and Junior before they gave up Hamilton. I said it then and I will say it again (though I am pretty sure I didn't say it here), that was one of the biggest mistakes they have made so far. Yes we need pitchers, we've always needed pitchers, but you don't give up someone with his potential and keep the old "has been" players who could really care less at this point.

Those two have their place, but it obviously wasn't working out with this team. But like everyone else that's traded from Cincinnati, they will probably do really well now that they are both gone.

 

What GM wouldn't kill for a guy that can get you 40 HR's and 100+ RBI's every year? Salaries aside, since obviously that isn't an issue to some owners. You mean to tell you would pass on a Howard or Dunn type simply because you're scared of their batting averages?

 

Hmmm...I guess Arizona liked the way you think...

Dunn to Arizona

 

IMO, Adam Dunn is one of the most underrated players in baseball. Most people look only at Dunn's strikeouts and career .247 batting average, but because he draws so many walks, his career OBP is higher than Ichiro Suzuki and his career .331 batting average. Adding Dunn's .520 career SLG and you have a very valuable player. I would say that from a pure hitting perspective, Dunn is much more valuable than Ichiro. When you factor in baserunning and defense, Ichiro is certainly a batter player, but in the batter's box, I'd rather have Dunn.

I'm not sure how Howard got lumped into the conversation other than the fact the he's having a poor year. Like Dunn, he draws a lot of walks and strikes out a ton, but his career average is 30 points higher than Dunn's, so his value shouldn't even be an afterthought. He's just having a rough year.

 

Of course they do. Different guys have different roles - some guys provide the power and drive in runs. Strikeouts come with the territory when it comes to most power hitters. Obviously there are exceptions, but if you got power and try to use it - strikeouts happen. An out is an out, but RBIs and the ability to get runners home is important.

 

Guys like Howard and Dunn get walked so much that their strikeouts are almost irrelevant. As long as you can hit 40 HR and 100+ RBI's in the game of baseball you are a borderline All-Star. Their low batting averages are erased by the walks, their OBP and the utter power they bring to the plate every time they step into batting box.

 

OK I'll say it.

Chicks dig the long ball.

 

An arbitrator thought Howard was good enough to make $10 million a year and set a new precedent for all fourth year players to be able to make that much.

 

Batting Average is not as important as OBP. OBP looks at the outcome of all of your plate appearences. I would rather have guy who has a .250 BA with a .385 OBP, than a guy with a .290 BA and a .335 OBP.

 

But batting average is more important than walking percentage.