by Hans on September 12, 2009
Been a while since the last post at the Dugout. At the time, Boston still had the edge on the Yankees, Texas still led in the AL West, and the Mets actually had a shot at the playoffs.
Also of note, on June 21st, Adam Dunn’s average had fallen from his April .310 to .267 while his HR pace had fallen from 52 at the end of May to an un-Dunn-like 36. Some said that strikeouts, a weak surrounding lineup, and a stadium with larger dimensions than the bandbox in Cincy were and would continue to expose him for what he always was – a liability.
Instead, Dunn spent July with a .319 average and a whopping 1.043 OPS. In August, he followed that with a .297 average and a 1.112 OPS and is batting .302 so far this September.
There's no power outage in the nation's capital
He’s now on pace for 43 HR’s and could end the year batting north of .280 – despite having never finished a single season in his career with .267 or better.
All this, Nationals fans got for a 2009 salary of only $8 million. In contrast, other 2009 free agent signings include Cleveland’s Kerry Wood ($10 million 2009 salary), San Francisco’s Edgar Renteria ($7 million) and Randy Johnson ($8 million), New York’s Oliver Perez ($12 million), Tampa Bay’s Pat Burrell ($7 million), Chicago’s Milton Bradley ($5 million – $21 million more due in 2010/2011), and Los Angeles’ Rafael Furcal ($6.5 million – $20.5 million due in 2010/2011).
With this offseason’s free agent class headlined by Jason Bay and Matt Holliday, it will be interesting to see what bargains exist among the Aubrey Huff’s, Orlando Hudson’s, Adrian Beltre’s, and Bobby Abreu’s of the league.
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by Hans on February 25, 2009
Been a while since the last post, so I figured I’d just throw a number of random things I’ve been thinking about or come across out there for evaluation.
The first comes from a recent post on www.fangraphs.com in which David Appelman discusses the defensive shift many pull-heavy lefties face and the impact it has. Appelman highlights the top 5 players most impacted by the shift, either positively or negatively. This made me think of a Ty Cobb quote about Ted Williams, “The way those clubs shift against Ted Williams, I can’t understand how he can be so stupid not to accept the challenge to him and hit to left field.” I’ve always wondered whether certain players were better at exploiting holes created by the shift. While the data is not proof, it looks like David Ortiz is better at compensating than say Carlos Delgado.
Another thought that keeps coming up, hightened by the fact that he STILL hasn’t signed, is how the impact of this Manny Ramirez fiasco is going to impact the bargaining power of Scott Boras. It appears as Boras grossly misjudged the market, expecting the contracts of Dunn and Abreu to wait until the premier free agent was signed. But now that intrasquad games are starting, Dunn and Abreu have homes while Manny still remains unattached. Will this be written off as an outlier and bizarre effect of the tenuous economic reality we face? Will this be written off as an outlier and the bizarre effect of Manny being Manny leaving a sour enough taste in the mouths of GM’s? Or will people actually remember that Boras stood by his demands of as many as a six year contract when what was in his client’s best interest was to face the facts? I guess what Ramirez ends up signing for will ultimately dictate how Boras makes out.
Lastly, there are a few fantastic comeback stories starting to materialize. Rich Hill, who will turn only 29 years old in March, looks sharp and could surprise on a revamped Baltimore squad. Dontrelle Willis, still only 26 years old, has impressed in his first few sessions for Detroit. Technically, he’s competing for the 5th starter role. But the team has invested enough in him that if he can remain competent, he’ll have a chance at redemption. And finally, Travis Hafner is looking like he’s got his strength back on Cleveland. Last year, he claimed that his faulty shoulder wouldn’t even allow him to pick up a fork to eat dinner. It’s easy to write players off, but you know we all like a good comeback story.
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