Bring the Dunner to Washington

A lot of chatter about Adam Dunn today, as the D-Backs’ decision not to offer him arbitration has made him a more attractive target. Ken Rosenthal says that the market for Dunn is “shaping up” and includes the Braves, Mariners and Nationals. Over at ESPN Jerry Crasnick, in the course of his offseason breakdown of the Nationals, makes a longer-form case for Dunn in Washington:

In addition, Dunn’s price might be dropping in a down market. Two NL officials wondered whether Dunn would command even a Jose Guillen-caliber, three-year, $36 million deal from a team other than Washington.

“[The Nationals] might have to pay a bit of a premium for him to go to a team that has not won recently,” one of the executives said.

At the outset, I’ll note that if Dunn can’t get a Jose Guillen deal we’ve gone from a tough market to comically irrational pessimism. That said:

(1) Anyone who thinks that Dunn would have any trouble going to a losing team is forgetting that he signed an extension to stay in Cincinnati a couple of years ago; and

(2) We can’t underestimate the fact that, at least a couple of years ago, Dunn’s bestest buddy in the whole world was Austin Kearns, and AK-.217 still plays in Washington.

If you’re Jim Bowden and you haven’t called Dunn’s agent 15 times since midnight Monday, you’re doing it wrong. Hey, the added inspiration of the Dunner may even spur Kearns on to some productivity.


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Mike Mariano
15 years ago

I think it would be fun if the entire format of the all-star game was changed to increase the competition between the players. My idea would be to have the game between baseball’s Next Generation (guys in atmost their third (maybe fourth) year of service time) versus the Veterans (everybody else). I think this would work because it is one of the few true rivalries that still exists in today’s sports world. No matter how good an athlete you are there is always that fear of what’s next and this could really change the intensity of the game. The Game would lose the conference vs. conference aspect but with interleague play that doesn’t mean nearly as much anymore. We’re not going to see anybody derailing the catcher like Pete Rose back when the game really was important to the players. This will never happen because baseball is all about its traditions, but it’s fun to think about.

Mike Mariano
15 years ago

oops wrong post lol sorry

Zach Sanders
15 years ago

Dunn needs to work on his swing if he ever wants to be considered a top player. His power looked great when he was just coming into the majors, but he never developed the contact swing that people hoped he would.

-Zach Sanders
http://www.mlbnotebook.com

Nick
15 years ago

You’re telling me the Royals could have had Adam Dunn instead of Jose Guillen at the same price?  What is this world coming to?

Alex K
15 years ago

I’m pretty sure that no one is going to try and change Dunn’s swing or approach.  He is REALLY productive i’ll take a .240 avg every year if he has an on base of .380 and hits 40 hr.