Your beard is weird! For the couple of days…Keith Hernandez has been absolutely torching Adam Dunn. WTF is up with that?
Adam Dunn, Reds
The subject of more trade rumors than that Colombia bill, Dunn remains a Red just a few short months from free agency. His perceived value isn’t great—J.P. Ricciardi’s opinions are shared by a number of people within the game—but few players bring the bat that Dunn does, and his defense has improved to the point where he’s not giving back half the runs he creates. He hasn’t been as productive as Bradley or Bay, but he’s been more consistent at a high level, and is therefore a better bet to sustain his performance.
The Diamondbacks have a number of reasons to pursue Dunn. He’s a free agent at the season, so they won’t have a commitment that blocks Eric Byrnes’ contract.
With Chris Young and Justin Upton they have a good outfield defense, enabling them to mix in Dunn. (Given that Conor Jackson has been playing left, Dunn may well be an upgrade.) They have the kind of midlevel depth in prospects that could be used to acquire a rental.
Oh, yeah, and their offense has been awful, and they desperately need Dunn’s bat. His low-contact approach doesn’t make him the best fit, as they could use a .315/.360/.470 guy who hits doubles, but his .388 OBP from the left side would be a godsend for a team reaching base at a .323 clip. Inserting Dunn into this lineup would add 20 runs to the team total, re-establish the D’backs as the team to beat in the NL West and help assure that the division winner finishes above .500.
Repoz
Posted: July 19, 2008 at 11:02 AM |
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The Rockies supposedly asked for Ian Kennedy for him, which they won't get, unless maybe Hank Steinbrenner gets involved.
The Pirates can provide one-stop shopping to both the Rays and the Dodgers, two teams loaded with prospects and looking to make deals. Surely, Huntington could not mess up these opportunities.
Also, the M's are unlikely to trade Beltre unless the return is truly worth it. He's a fan favorite, and he brings good offense and superlative defense. I wouldn't rule out a trade, but the Twins just don't seem to have enough to offer for him to justify it. It's actually quite possible that the Mariners will attempt to extend him.
All in all, however, this isn't a bad article. Sheehan's thoughts re Dunn, Holliday, and Roberts are all well-taken.
And Justin Upton's defense is horrid. Putting him and Dunn at the corners is a recipe for a Three Stooges movie. Don't get me wrong, if he was free I'd love to have Dunn and play him in front of EByrnes for the next three years. Justin will improve. Dunn would be very valuable this year. Again EByrnes may request a trade.
But from a financial/value perspective Dunn just doesn't make sense. He's not going to give us that much more in LF than Byrnes, we'd have a $25M left field combination. And if we get him for the stretch run we further gut our minor league system for short term gain, which is what go the team into it's current mess.
Shortsighted indeed. It's not easy to pull off ten consecutive losing seasons...being shortsighted sure helps...
I'm not sure how good a match the Pirates and Dodgers are. Bay would be an upgrade over Ethier - but probably not enough for what the Pirates would demand, given what they're asking for Nady. And while it likely won't last, is a small sample size, etc - Nomar's been acceptable at shortstop, and is hitting well. Between that and the chance that Furcal will be back it doesn't make a ton of sense to give up a lot for Wilson. And keep in mind that Nomar helping the team to win would be good for Colletti's job security.
Also, I have been a little surprised that I have seen little speculation about Brian Giles. Giles is hitting .333 on the road with a .413 OBP, and his contract is up with a 2009 club option at 9M. Don't know how a trade affects the option.
I don't know how he would feel about going somewhere else, since he is an SD native, and he lacks the power you want in a corner. But he could help several teams as a #2 hitter--the Mets, the Angels, the Rays, the Diamondbacks, maybe the White Sox.
Maddux has said he will not leave the west coast, and he has 6.27 road ERA, so he may retire, although my gut tells me he pitches next year or tries to.
I was going to nit-pick this, but I just checked the stats, and yep, Chipper's noticeably better this year than he was in that extraordinary 1999 season. Cool.
Exactly. Casey Blake to the Twins for some bullpen candidates makes much more sense. Or Dallas McPherson from the Marlins for Livan Hernandez.
This is honestly the first I've heard this, that it's horried. The prevailing opinion seemed to be that his defense was decent-to-good. Sparked by this comment, I went to check the numbers, and he grades out at +2 in plus/minus, which ranks 12th among right fielders... not great, but acceptable. I still don't see any reason to think Upton's defense in right field is a detriment.
Oddly, Conor Jackson comes out better in left field (+1) than at first base (-6), but I assume that's just a small sample size issue (only 148 innings in LF). Dunn's awful in LF, of course, but so far this year the stats say he's having a good defensive year by his own standards (-2, 22nd among LFs). I doubt he's an upgrade over Jackson, but it's unlikely he could be much worse.
MacPhail didn't get a good enough offer from the Cubs. What's the better offer from the White Sox that "makes sense?" Sheehan explains this in his next paragraph, which is unfortunately rendered in transparent pixels.
I think it would "make sense" for the Cardinals to trade Pujols to the Orioles, because the O's really need a first baseman who can hit. Can I write for Sports Illustrated now?
Honestly in the Dbacks games I've seen, Jackson looks decent in LF. He's not Carl Crawford or Holliday out there, but he looks pretty average, although his inexperience shows at times. To my eyes, he doesn't look like a butcher of the stripe of Manny or Carlos Lee. However, at first base he looks genuinely bad.
WRT Giles, I agree. Roberts is a better player than Giles. I wasn't saying teams in it should give up a lot for Giles--but that he seems like a guy who could help who wouldn't cost all that much. I think his name will pop up some over the next two weeks. A .390 OBP from a LHB is pretty much always useful.
Kind of surprised Joe missed this.
Ollie? ;-)
No, dammit! He's a fan favorite!
Sincerely,
Jeff Moorad
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