Dec 29th 2008 3:00PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Phil Rogers of the tossed out an interesting Adam Dunn tidbit in his weekend column:
Dunn, who has hit 40-plus homers in five consecutive seasons, is trying to convince the Cubs to sign him for the right-field vacancy, instead of the equally defensively challenged Bradley. Dunn’s high strikeout totals and career .247 batting average argue against him being the guy to break up the right-handed bats in the middle of the Cubs’ lineup.
There are very few big-league lineups that wouldn’t be improved with the addition of 40 home runs and a .380 on-base percentage, and the Cubs are no exception. And yet, for whatever reason, sportswriters (and team announcers) can’t talk about Dunn without getting stuck on strikeouts and batting average.

It’s short-sighted and not just a little ignorant: if you hit the ball a mile and get on base at an above-average clip, who cares how you make your outs the rest of the time? You’re either driving in runs or creating opportunities for other players to do the same. But I digress — this argument has been made dozens thousands of times.Continue Reading