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The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds today for minor league pitcher Dallas Buck and two other players to be named later.
Dunn is tied for the NL lead in home runs with 32 but is hitting only .233 on the season and has 120 strikeouts. As I have noted in the past, the Diamondbacks are a team that strikes out way too much to be a productive offense. Here is what I had to say about the Diamondbacks about 6 weeks ago:
After jumping out to a 28-16 start and having the best record in baseball, the Arizona Diamondback's have been horrible since then, posting a 13-25 record and now sit at .500 on the season. The blame has to go to the offense, which is posting a line of only .245 AVG/.321 OBP/.409 SLG/93 OPS+ . Statistically on offense, they are only better than the Nationals and Dodgers, so that should tell you all you need to know about their offense. The reason why they were able to get out to such a good start was because their young hitters like Justin Upton and Mark Reynolds were extremely hot at the beginning of the season. Now that they have cooled off, this team is struggling to score runs, mainly because they rely too much on hitters who strike out too much. They are third in the league in strike outs with 639, led by Mark Reynolds(99), Justin Upton(90), and Chris Young(81).
Only the Florida Marlins and San Diego Padres have more strike outs than the Diamondbacks. The Padres are also a poor offensive team but the difference with the Marlins is they are one of the most powerful teams in the NL and lead the NL in HRs and are second in SLG. The Marlins' power makes up for their high strike out totals, while the Diamondbacks and Padres lack the power to make up for their inability to make contact.
So how is the offense doing now for the Diamondbacks? Well, they have pretty similar numbers as they did before with a .251 AVG/.323 OBP/ .413 SLG/ 93 OPS+. As far as the strikeouts, they are now the second worse team with 919. Again only the Florida Marlins are worse with 1,019 strikeouts. However, as I noted above the Marlins are one of the most powerful teams in all of baseball, which makes up for their high amount of strikeouts. The Diamondbacks, even with Dunn, are still not powerful enough to make up for their high strikeout totals. Plus, Dunn himself strikes out a ton, so they may actually strikeout more now that they have him. Dunn(120 strikeouts) joins Mark Reynolds(147), Chris Young(122), and the injured Justin Upton(97) as players who strike out way too often for the Diamondbacks.
I know that the Diamondbacks need offense badly but I think they are probably the worst team for Adam Dunn to go to because they will just be adding to their high strikeout totals. Sure, Dunn will hit a few home runs for them, but I think his striking out a lot in the middle of the lineup will hurt his team just as much. I really don't see Dunn making that big of an impact throughout the rest of the season. I'm sure he will have his moments but I don't expect the Diamondbacks to suddenly solve all their offensive problems with Adam Dunn in the lineup, especially now that they have lost one of their more efficient offensive players, Orlando Hudson, for the season.
Dunn is tied for the NL lead in home runs with 32 but is hitting only .233 on the season and has 120 strikeouts. As I have noted in the past, the Diamondbacks are a team that strikes out way too much to be a productive offense. Here is what I had to say about the Diamondbacks about 6 weeks ago:
After jumping out to a 28-16 start and having the best record in baseball, the Arizona Diamondback's have been horrible since then, posting a 13-25 record and now sit at .500 on the season. The blame has to go to the offense, which is posting a line of only .245 AVG/.321 OBP/.409 SLG/93 OPS+ . Statistically on offense, they are only better than the Nationals and Dodgers, so that should tell you all you need to know about their offense. The reason why they were able to get out to such a good start was because their young hitters like Justin Upton and Mark Reynolds were extremely hot at the beginning of the season. Now that they have cooled off, this team is struggling to score runs, mainly because they rely too much on hitters who strike out too much. They are third in the league in strike outs with 639, led by Mark Reynolds(99), Justin Upton(90), and Chris Young(81).
Only the Florida Marlins and San Diego Padres have more strike outs than the Diamondbacks. The Padres are also a poor offensive team but the difference with the Marlins is they are one of the most powerful teams in the NL and lead the NL in HRs and are second in SLG. The Marlins' power makes up for their high strike out totals, while the Diamondbacks and Padres lack the power to make up for their inability to make contact.
So how is the offense doing now for the Diamondbacks? Well, they have pretty similar numbers as they did before with a .251 AVG/.323 OBP/ .413 SLG/ 93 OPS+. As far as the strikeouts, they are now the second worse team with 919. Again only the Florida Marlins are worse with 1,019 strikeouts. However, as I noted above the Marlins are one of the most powerful teams in all of baseball, which makes up for their high amount of strikeouts. The Diamondbacks, even with Dunn, are still not powerful enough to make up for their high strikeout totals. Plus, Dunn himself strikes out a ton, so they may actually strikeout more now that they have him. Dunn(120 strikeouts) joins Mark Reynolds(147), Chris Young(122), and the injured Justin Upton(97) as players who strike out way too often for the Diamondbacks.
I know that the Diamondbacks need offense badly but I think they are probably the worst team for Adam Dunn to go to because they will just be adding to their high strikeout totals. Sure, Dunn will hit a few home runs for them, but I think his striking out a lot in the middle of the lineup will hurt his team just as much. I really don't see Dunn making that big of an impact throughout the rest of the season. I'm sure he will have his moments but I don't expect the Diamondbacks to suddenly solve all their offensive problems with Adam Dunn in the lineup, especially now that they have lost one of their more efficient offensive players, Orlando Hudson, for the season.
More: MLB
But don't you think they got Dunn for a pretty cheap price? A Single to Double-A pitcher and a player to be named later for a guy that can put intimidation into the middle of your lineup?
ReplyDeleteOf course, I don't think it was a bad trade, I just don't think he is going to help make much of a difference this season for the Diamondbacks. Plus, he is a free agent at the end of the season, so that's why he was as cheap as he was.
ReplyDeleteI don't see him as someone who is an intimidating hitter because he strikes out too much. Teams will be willing to challenge him because he hits for such a low average and they know they can get him out more often then not.
Even if they pitch around him, they will just go after the next player in the lineup who strikes out a lot, which shouldn't be too hard to find in their lineup.
I don't think he's even close to making the same impact as Manny would for the Dodgers. If Arizona added Dunn plus maybe another guy then that would help but their lineup is so flawed that just adding Dunn alone isn't going to do much in my mind. There's always the chance he could get hot at the right moment of the season though.