Great article on Adam Dunn

[edabbs44]

Yep, everything David Damiani says is gospel. Isn't he in the writer's wing of the HOF?

Seriously though, if the pro-Dunn faction of RZ wants the anti-Dunn faction to "stop bashing Dunn", then threads like this should be controlled as well. It cracks me up when someone posts something about Dunn and OBP, everyone starts glowing with pride like their child brought home a report card with straight As. Then someone crashes the Dunn lovefest and posts something regarding BA. Pandemonium ensues.

So the question is, why can everyone beat the dead horse on Adam Dunn's great OBP? I think I have heard enough on how great Dunn's OBP is. Thanks...he walks a lot. I think the board gets the picture.

Now for those of you pro-Dunners who thought I was being rude and a jerk in that last statement, I was just trying to let you see what it is like on the other side of the debate.

Thanks, and now back to our regularly scheduled OBP programming.

[westofyou]

It cracks me up when someone posts something about Dunn and OBP, everyone starts glowing with pride like their child brought home a report card with straight As. Then someone crashes the Dunn lovefest and posts something regarding BA. Pandemonium ensues.

Yeah it's almost as funny as people trying to say that OB% doesn't matter in the fabric of the offense.

Kills me everytime, it's the Buster Keaton of baseball talk to me.

[M2]

I'm fine with someone making a valid critical point about Dunn's game. The guy plays everyday and he's THE central player in the team's offense, so he's going to come up in discussion.

It's the endless parade of dopey points I could live without.

[VR]

It is fair to say that Dunn's #'s are in fact extremely productive.....shouldn't we be singing the praises of these hitting instructors and managers?

[ochre]

Do you understand how the factors he mentions in this article contribute to team runs scored? Do you understand that team runs scored is nearly half the battle? The fact that you don't like Dunn's game does not diminish the demonstrable fact that he's good at generating runs. Teams need that. Really they do.

[gonelong]

Originally Posted by princeton

I've always felt that it was a terrible tragedy that the Chicago Bulls actually tried to coach Michael Jordan into being a player that could actually hit jumpers, play great defense, and read the triangle offense.

should have left him alone. He could have had a Dominique Wilkins career.

We don't have a Jordan on our hands, we have a Shaq. Shaq is a nice piece to have if you can put a Kobe or Wade around him.

When you try to turn Shaq into Jordan, you get neither.

GL

[M2]

Originally Posted by VR

It is fair to say that Dunn's #'s are in fact extremely productive.....shouldn't we be singing the praises of these hitting instructors and managers?

Chris Chambliss deserves praise for sure and not just with Dunn, but with the entire offense. As soon as he arrived, the team started being more selective and got a lot more dangerous.

[edabbs44]

Originally Posted by ochre

Do you understand how the factors he mentions in this article contribute to team runs scored? Do you understand that team runs scored is nearly half the battle? The fact that you don't like Dunn's game does not diminish the demonstrable fact that he's good at generating runs. Teams need that. Really they do.

Why are we turning this into an OBP session? All I am saying is that the most popular specific topics on this board are:

1) How bad Dunn's BA is
2) How good Dunn's OBP is
3) How bad the bullpen is

The minute someone brings up Dunn's BA, 90% of the board starts crying about how it has been beaten to death.

The minute OBP comes up, it is talked about like a brand new subject.

Just pointing it out...didn't mean to break up the happytime. Let me know where I spoke about the non-worth of OBP in this thread.

[gonelong]

Originally Posted by M2

Chris Chambliss deserves praise for sure and not just with Dunn, but with the entire offense. As soon as he arrived, the team started being more selective and got a lot more dangerous.

This is the part where the clouds part, the sun shines in, the trumpets blare, and the chorus of Angels sing hallelujah.

Feel free to sing along.

GL

[registerthis]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

The minute someone brings up Dunn's BA, 90% of the board starts crying about how it has been beaten to death.

One begets the other. If people didn't mercilessly harp on Dunn's BA, there wouldn't be a need to ceaselessly remind them of the value of a high OBP.

[M2]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

Why are we turning this into an OBP session? All I am saying is that the most popular specific topics on this board are:

1) How bad Dunn's BA is
2) How good Dunn's OBP is
3) How bad the bullpen is

The minute someone brings up Dunn's BA, 90% of the board starts crying about how it has been beaten to death.

The minute OBP comes up, it is talked about like a brand new subject.

Just pointing it out...didn't mean to break up the happytime. Let me know where I spoke about the non-worth of OBP in this thread.

You mean the board seems to react negatively to the hackneyed garbage you learned off the back of a baseball card at age six and seems to cotton to discussions about actual run production? If so, here's a big for Redszone.

[westofyou]

The minute someone brings up Dunn's BA, 90% of the board starts crying about how it has been beaten to death.

“Would a system that placed nickels, dimes, quarters, and 50-cent pieces on the same basis, be much of system whereby to compare a mans financial resources?

“And yet it is precisely such a loose, inaccurate system, which obtains in baseball… Pretty poor system isn’t it. To govern the most popular department of the most popular of all the games.”

F.C. Lane 1916

[ochre]

Originally Posted by westofyou

“Would a system that placed nickels, dimes, quarters, and 50-cent pieces on the same basis, be much of system whereby to compare a mans financial resources?

“And yet it is precisely such a loose, inaccurate system, which obtains in baseball… Pretty poor system isn’t it. To govern the most popular department of the most popular of all the games.”

F.C. Lane 1916

Lane is on of the original 10?

[SteelSD]

Great article.

And no, I didn't write it.

[edabbs44]

Originally Posted by OnBaseMachine

I am reminded of batting coach Rick Burleson’s work with Mark McGwire in 1991. At the time, McGwire was coming off two seasons of hitting in the .230s, but with over 30 home runs and a high on-base percentage in each. Burleson decided to tweak McGwire’s stance and focus him on hitting for a higher average. Other factors such as poorer training and personal problems contributed, but McGwire never found a comfortable stance and hit .201 with 22 homers in ’91. (A substantially bulkier and stronger McGwire, returning to his original stance, would later hit for much higher averages while boosting both his home run and walk totals.).

Funny thing here is the seasons being mentioned are 1989-1991.

1989 OBP: .339
1990 OBP: .370
1991 OBP: .330

So if his OBP in 1989 was considered "high" by this guy, this "awful" season in 1991 wasn't that far away even though his BA went down, which is a meaningless stat anyway.