Adam Dunn: Defensive Wizard
Adam Dunn, an above-average fielder in 2008? The numbers seem to suggest just that:
The 16th and 17th rated left fielders are a surprise as well. Neither Carlos Lee or Adam Dunn are thought of as good fielders, yet they both scored between 3 and 4 runs above average. If this number is correct for Dunn, and he can maintain this level of fielding ability for another few years, he could be quite a steal this offseason.
Indeed. Many people have noted that Dunn’s defense did look much improved this past season. Maybe that’s actually true. If nothing else, I think it was clear in 2008 that Dunn wasn’t the butcher in left field that he used to be.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
i noticed dunn’s defensive improvement at the games i was at last year… he seemed to be a bit more sure of himself out there.
he was still adam dunn… still didn’t always break the right way, often looked ridiculous trying to play a ball off of or even near the wall, but he was positioning better for the hitter at the plate (was dusty doing something different?) and was a bit more sure of himself when going to his left (toward center) it seemed.
oh well, it’s academic now. the reds let their best offensive player go, and in return we’ve got a pitcher who is best known for his bat.
guess i’ll cheer quietly for the dunner when he comes back here next time the nationals are in town.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:27 am
he threw a ball backwards that bounced off the wall and allowed an inside the park homerun (with error)… he is no wizard. This is an example of how stats lie. The man is a huge defensive liability no matter how you slice it.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:30 am
And for the first commenter… you do realize Dunn is a free agent.. we got a pitcher best known for hitting — yes — but we could re-sign Dunn just as much as any other team if we were weilling to pay the hefty price tag… so we got a free player, we had no rights to keep him beyond the season…
November 18th, 2008 at 2:21 am
The stats aren’t lying in this case. They are what they are.
RPA, the Reds got a good hitting pitcher for nothing. I wouldn’t exactly complain about it. Dunn wasn’t going to be back they got what they could. There’s no point trying to compare which player would be better for the Reds.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:20 am
#3,
Micah Owings wasn’t free considering we lost the potential draft pick compensation from whatever team signed Dunn. I honestly would have preferred those picks over what we received from the Diamondbacks. And us re-signing Dunn would require the money AND the draft picks we’d be sending to the DBacks. So really if we were to re-sign him it’d be a negative net swing of 4 draft picks to Arizona.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:51 am
)… he is no wizard
Thanks for that. We weren’t sure until you made it clear. Of course he’s no wizard, but he’s turned out to be serviceable. And you can’t make any sort of determination off of 2 plays, anyway.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I think this also points out the deficiency of defensive statistics. I like Adam, but if “above average” and “defense” is ever used in a sentence describing him please circle the “F” and not the “T” which appears next to it.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
On what planet was Dunn above average in fielding?
The obsessive Dunn fanboyism is getting WAY out of hand.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Ah, the good ole reliable combination of the human-eye and small sample sizes. Fooling the stats since 1876!!!!
And while we did get something for Dunn, we could have gotten a lot more had they traded him a half-year (or more) earlier.
And the obsessive Dunn hatred has been way out of hand for years.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
You can knock Dunn for his fielding and his strikeouts but you will not find too many guys that consistently hit 40 homers, drive in 100 runs, walk 100 times, and score 100 runs. He will be very valueable to somebody. Besides my kids would like to wear their Dunn gear again.