Great article on Adam Dunn

[princeton]

Originally Posted by gonelong

We don't have a Jordan on our hands, we have a Shaq.

agreed, we have an LSU Shaq. Which is good.

but I like how Shaq raised his game post-LSU. better feel, much better vision. He paid attention to something. It made him a much bigger peak force, and has kept him a force even as he has eroded.

some coaches are bad. Bad coaching is a bad thing. But coaching isn't inherently bad, and good coaching is never a bad thing. Good coaching good, bad coaching bad. No coaching bad.

[M2]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

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.

True enough. The real thing that dropped off for McGwire in 1991 was his power (SLG all the way to .383). After that he got his swing priorities back to the right place and concentrated on destroying pitches within a constricted bandwidth instead of trying to be a jack of all trades. Basically that's what Dunn needs to do, improve the swing he puts on pitches he should swing at. If he can accomplish that (and I think he's slowly moving in that direction), he can be a .260-.280 hitter and that would turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. Right now he's just an M1 tank.

[M2]

Originally Posted by princeton

agreed, we have an LSU Shaq. Which is good.

but I like how Shaq raised his game post-LSU. better feel, much better vision. He paid attention to something. It made him a much bigger peak force, and has kept him a force even as he has eroded.

some coaches are bad. Bad coaching is a bad thing. But coaching isn't inherently bad, and good coaching is never a bad thing. Good coaching good, bad coaching bad.

I'd say you've got the Orlando Magic version of Shaq in Dunn. He can be dominant, but Hakeen Olajuwon could still use him at will.

[princeton]

Originally Posted by M2

I'd say you've got the Orlando Magic version of Shaq in Dunn. He can be dominant, but Hakeen Olajuwon could still use him at will.

you're having a dreadful analogy day

[M2]

Originally Posted by princeton

you're having a dreadful analogy day

Far better than you. LSU-level Shaq, please.

[edabbs44]

Originally Posted by M2

True enough. The real thing that dropped off for McGwire in 1991 was his power (SLG all the way to .383). After that he got his swing priorities back to the right place and concentrated on destroying pitches within a constricted bandwidth instead of trying to be a jack of all trades. Basically that's what Dunn needs to do, improve the swing he puts on pitches he should swing at. If he can accomplish that (and I think he's slowly moving in that direction), he can be a .260-.280 hitter and that would turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. Right now he's just an M1 tank.

In all seriousness, this guy should have picked a better example. Using an all-but-convicted steroid abuser as an example is pretty weak. Maybe he went off the juice during that season. That's like saying the SF batting coach is the best in the business since Bonds' stats blew up when he got there.

[M2]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

In all seriousness, this guy should have picked a better example. Using an all-but-convicted steroid abuser as an example is pretty weak. Maybe he went off the juice during that season. That's like saying the SF batting coach is the best in the business since Bonds' stats blew up when he got there.

The example was a solid one because juice or no, Burleson did try to make Mac more of a contact hitter and the results were disastrous. To quote the one useful thing princeton's said in this thread, "bad coaching bad."

[princeton]

Burleson failed to recognize that McGwire was already a very valuable player for his power and patience... 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.

in hindsight, Burleson's chief problem was that he was a hitting coach, not steroid chemist

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by M2

The example was a solid one because juice or no, Burleson did try to make Mac more of a contact hitter and the results were disastrous. To quote the one useful thing princeton's said in this thread, "bad coaching bad."

91 was a brutal year for the A's and I got to watch it first hand... good times.

McGwire was getting it from both ends, fans and the team.

[ochre]

princeton is very pro-chemist

[princeton]

Originally Posted by ochre

princeton is very pro-chemist

in the '90's, team chemistry was clinically proven to produce a lot of runs

[VR]

Originally Posted by westofyou

91 was a brutal year for the A's and I got to watch it first hand... good times.

McGwire was getting it from both ends, fans and the team.

The media that year was all about his 'devastating divorce'. It nearly killed the man, seriously. He was a shell of a man that year, all baseball aside.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by VR

The media that year was all about his 'devastating divorce'. It nearly killed the man, seriously. He was a shell of a man that year, all baseball aside.

Yep, it was a shellacking, hey but it's okay, he's all but convicted.

[VR]

Originally Posted by westofyou

Yep, it was a shellacking, hey but it's okay, he's all but convicted.

Quote from a Time Article.

"His hitting slumped so badly, he was booed by fans. "When I tore my left foot for the third time, I went in the clubhouse and I said, 'That's it. I am tired of rehab. I'm tired of going through this b.s.,'" he says, remembering the moment in 1991 when he almost quit the sport. "I had my family and friends talk me out of it. They said it would be the biggest regret of my life, and they were right." It's from this experience that McGwire's strength, his ability to separate emotion from action, emerged. It's when he entered therapy"

I saw a lot of the A's in the late 80's, early 90's. They were fun to watch. I worked for a guy named Lew Wolff. Decided I needed a different boss.

[TeamBoone]

I found these articles interesting as well, especially with all the controversy surrounding Adam Dunn's work ethic:

06-30-2006

In clutch, a Dunn deal
Double in 8th scores game-winner vs. Royals
By Josh Katzowitz / Post staff writer

As Adam Dunn collected his first hit in Thursday's game, Reds shortstop Felipe Lopez - who, seconds earlier, had completed his own home run trot - jumped on the bullpen railing and watched with amusement as his teammate's shot sailed 432 feet into the stands.

Just before Dunn's second hit of the game, Lopez, standing on first base, knew Cincinnati's left fielder would give his team the lead again.

When Dunn's line drive sailed over the head of Royals right fielder Reggie Sanders to score pinch-hitter Ryan Freel with the eventual game-winning run, Lopez wasn't the least bit surprised.

"I had a feeling that he was going to get it done," said Lopez, who was thrown out at the plate on that play. "He's been swinging a hot bat lately. All that hard work he's putting in has to pay off sometime."

The Reds, 6-5 winners against Kansas City, celebrated the effects Thursday.

"Unfairly, people get on him about driving in runs, and I think he's got more than he did last year at this time," Reds manager Jerry Narron said. "You know what you're going to get out of him. I know when he steps in the box, the opposing pitcher sure doesn't want to face him."

Dunn's third-inning home run, following Ken Griffey Jr.'s shot in the first and Lopez's blast, gave the Reds 44 homers in the month, breaking a club record for June (the team hit 43 in 1957 and 2005).

Dunn's double in the eighth gave him 48 RBIs on the season. Last year after the June 29 game, he had recorded 40.

All that gave him enough confidence to take his time at the plate with the game on the line and Royals reliever Jimmy Gobble on the mound.

"I've never faced the guy before, and I've been feeling good against left-handers, so I wanted to see a pitch from him," Dunn said. "I saw him."

After taking a first-pitch strike from Gobble, the Royals left-hander threw Dunn a slider that Dunn thought was low and outside. After home plate umpire Ed Hickox called it a strike - and Dunn visibly showed his displeasure - Dunn fouled off a pitch.

On Gobble's next offering, Dunn performed exactly how Lopez expected.

He hit a hard line drive that Sanders appeared to misjudge, the right fielder couldn't recover in time to make the catch, and Freel scored.

Good thing for the Reds. They needed every bit of Dunn's offense, because, once again, the bullpen couldn't protect a lead.

Right-hander Bronson Arroyo pitched well enough to earn his 10th win of the season, allowing five hits and two runs in seven innings, but after throwing 108 pitches, he felt a little tired. With a 5-2 lead, Narron decided Arroyo had done enough.

"I'd love to have kept him in for nine innings and pitch tomorrow night," Narron said. "Can't do it either way. ... He was tired. He had done his job."

Said Arroyo: "I wasn't out of gas. I've been in worse shape and gone back out there. I didn't feel like I had my best stuff the whole night. With six outs to go and us up by three, I felt like it was enough of a lead. I thought it would work out."

Not exactly. Narron summoned relievers Chris Hammond (1/3 of an inning, three hits, three runs) and David Weathers, who allowed each of his inherited runners to score.

But it didn't matter, because a half-inning later, Lopez's intuition about Dunn proved true.

"In Hammond and Weather's defense, they get a groundball by Emil Brown through the infield and you get a bloop single into right field that's fair," said Narron, who got a perfect ninth inning from closer Todd Coffey (seven saves). "For us to be successful, everybody in the bullpen has to do well. We'll keep using guys and try our best to go with somebody that's hot out there."

Even with a bullpen ERA of 5.18 that ranks as the worst in the National League, the Reds moved to within a game of first-place St. Louis (idle Thursday). So they should be happy with that.

Plus it just would have been embarrassing to lose a home series to the worst team in baseball.

"The Royals have been playing good baseball lately," Dunn said. "But it would have been disappointing to lose a series to those guys."

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs....606300320/1027

Dunn's double lifts Reds over Royals
Reds 6 Royals 5Arroyo loses chance for 10th win after bullpen blows lead.
By Hal McCoy / Staff Writer

CINCINNATI — Adam Dunn was spraying baseballs to left, center and right — none over the fence — during an early extra batting practice session Thursday in Great American Ball Park. Ryan Freel chided him for not knocking balls into the great beyond.

“This is batting practice, dude,” said Dunn. “This is where you work on things. I can hit them out of the park at will in batting practice, but I’m working on things.”

Whatever it was, it worked. Dunn drove a double to the right field wall in the eighth inning to break a tie and lift the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

It shouldn’t have been that hard, but the bullpen reared its ugly head in the eighth and messed up a three-run lead, a lead belonging to starter Bronson Arroyo that cost him his 10th victory.

It was bashball and bludgeonball for the Reds — three more homers, including a 433-foot down range blast by Dunn.

And there was one by Ken Griffey Jr., his fourth in four games. And one by Felipe Lopez.

In winning two of three from the Royals, to slip to within one game of first place St. Louis, the Reds hit nine homers and 13 of their 21 runs in the series came via the home run.

Arroyo turned a 5-2 lead over to the bullpen and was annoyed that he didn’t get the win.

“Yeah, you can’t say you enjoy that,” he said. “It irritates and p.o.’s you, not to put anything on the guys in the pen because they are doing the best they can. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

They need a padlock on the bullpen gate. Maybe two locks in case one fails. And if a relief pitcher escapes, they need Dunn to tackle him on his way to the mound.

Matters have become that bad, that dire, for the bullpen. What resembled an easy victory for Arroyo, turned ugly in the eighth when Chris Hammond and David Weathers were asked to protect a three-run lead.

Instead of Rottweilers, they were a pair of hush puppies, giving up three runs and five hits, enabling the Royals to tie it.

Dunn saved it in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and two on against left-hander Jimmy Gobble. He doubled on an 0-and-2 pitch over right fielder Reggie Sanders’ head for a run.

“It was a slider and, no, I wasn’t looking for it,” he said. “It is dumb to say and I’ll probably get yelled at for saying it, but I never faced that guy before. I’m feeling good against lefties so I wanted to see a pitch. So I took it and it happened to be a slider right there.

“Then I got the same pitch again,” Dunn added. “When I hit it, I thought it was right at Reggie. It had backspin or knuckling or something. When Reggie is that close, he makes that play.”

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/sp...p0630reds.html