D-Backs acquire Adam Dunn

by Grichfan on Aug 11, 2008 1:02 PM PDT Comment 24 comments

ESPN is reporting that Arizona just traded three minor leaguers for Adam Dunn.

Click here.

Here's my opinion of trading for "big bats" this season:

Dodgers: (A+) - They get a motivated Manny for 2+months, give up very little and don't have to pay for his services.

Angels: (A) - They upgrade at 1st base, give their lineup the punch Arte has been promising since Sosh had to lay the smack down on Jose Guillen - and only have to give up Kotchman (and a scrub).

D-Backs: (B+) - Adam Dunn definitely will help in the power dept, but his OBP and his batting average leave something to be desired.

Yankees: (B-) - Xavier Nady has give the Yanks a lift while they wait Matsui to return. Too bad their pitching isn't helping

White Sox: (C+) - Getting Ken Griffey Jr. at this stage of his career is almost just a PR move. Is 10 HRs really going to help?

Tigers: (C-) - How much is T. Reagins sighing with relief that he didn't give up half the farm for M. Cab,?

This Fan-Post is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.

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Dunn's OBP

stands at .373 right now, which is 18th in the NL, better than anyone on the Angels except Figgins and Teixeira (who was at .390 for Atlanta, and now stands at .395 overall).

How can you say that Dunn’s OBP leaves something to be desired? Top-20 in the league is nothing to sneeze at.

by jjackflash on Aug 11, 2008 1:41 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

AAAH - choooooooooo

oops.

by Rev Halofan on Aug 11, 2008 1:48 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here's a Kleenex

Sorry, I already used that one with my own sneeze

Don't call me Desmond

by highlandhalo on Aug 11, 2008 2:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think this is a decent trade for AZ.

This will probably boost them into the playoffs, and woe unto any team that has to face Haren and Webb in the postseason.

And if Dunn doesn’t re-sign with the Snakes, they get 2 draft picks.

Don’t know much about the prospects AZ gave up though.

by Higz on Aug 11, 2008 2:06 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

They had to do SOMETHING

to counter Manny dropping into their division.

Angels fan since '67

by red floyd on Aug 11, 2008 3:28 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Times Two

Losing Orlando Hudson didn’t help matters either.

A pipeline of talent, welcome to Anaheim.

by ClutchHomer on Aug 12, 2008 7:15 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

18th in the NL is fine -

He’s No. 41 in the MLB – and sure he’d be 3rd on the Angels -

But would you rather have Dunn or Tex.

Yes, I’d rather have Dunn than Matthews or Anderson; but he’s had less ABs than Vlad with more strikeouts and less hits.

The guy is an all-or-nothing type player – That HR to hit ratio is crazy – and he WILL help the D-backs. It’s a decent deal, but I like the guy the Angels got

"And the Anaheim Angels are the Champions of Baseball!"

by Grichfan on Aug 11, 2008 2:19 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd rather have Tex

Tex is a more polished all-around player.

Dunn is a little underrated because he has so much power but strikes out a lot. He does have the ability to get on-base/walk. On the other hand, it may seem there is little else there besides power/on-base percentage.

by BBFan1 on Aug 11, 2008 2:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Totally

I wasn’t in any way suggesting that Dunn is better than Teix. I’m totally stoked about the Teixeira deal, even if he doesn’t re-sign.

by jjackflash on Aug 11, 2008 2:56 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Dodgers get an I for Incomplete

on their Manny trade, and frankly I think it has the opportunity to become a first-rate Irwin Allen disaster. They’re only superficially contending, as their ridiculous series with the lowly Giants showed this weekend; the Phils have a good opportunity to slap them silly starting tonight in Chavez Ravine. Giving up their third baseman of the future for a two month rental of a one-dimensional slugger. They will have two holes in their lineup at the end of the season if Manny doesn’t get the deal he wants and ends up elsewhere (ditto for Casey Blake). Andy LaRoche never got anything like a fair shot at the starting third base job, so for him the trade to the Pirates was a good thing… bad signings begat bad trades, and for what? Is this team seriously going to get past the Cubs? Heck, is it ever going to get and stay over .500 for a significant period of time?

Witty .sig goes here.

by scareduck on Aug 11, 2008 2:33 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

+1

Since acquiring Manny, they’ve gone 4-6 after starting out over .500 prior to the game on July 31st. I’m not seeing any positive influence here.

~Till the Halo burns out...

by Zu Long on Aug 11, 2008 2:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

c'mon Zu...

he’s Manny. he’s the greatest player ever. he’s so awesome. their pythag record with manny tells me that they’re going to win the world.

duh.

Mike Scioscia: He provides to unlike method of your team member.

by howiestheman on Aug 11, 2008 2:49 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Small sample size, but...

... yeah, I basically agree with you. The Dodgers have too many other holes.

Witty .sig goes here.

by scareduck on Aug 11, 2008 3:27 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

fair enough about the Dodgers many loose ends

but Manny has absolutely been raking since he came to the NL.

Look to the Dodgers in 2009 to be a scary, scary team if they retain his Man-Ramness.

by shiftyeyedgoat on Aug 11, 2008 7:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

They'd have to surround him with better pickups than their recent team history indicates is likely.

Nomar, Pierre, Schmidt, Andruw Jones… Their front office will have to do a lot better than that, even with Manny in left.

~Till the Halo burns out...

by Zu Long on Aug 11, 2008 7:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Worst infield defense in the NL

The Dodgers have assembled the worst infield defense in the National League (though the Brewers might give them a run for that title) and possibly the majors. With Angel Berroa and Jeff Kent/Pablo Ozuna up the middle, Casey Blake at third, and James Loney’s erratic glove (remember in the Angels series when he threw a potential DP ball into centerfield?) and a starting rotation full of sinkerballers, this isn’t a major league lineup, it’s the Three Stooges with mitts. The infield clanked away a win in San Francisco on Sunday, and it won’t be the last time, either.

That also brings up OF defense: what the Nedster gets with Manny, he gives up (at least a little) in LF defense. I said downthread that the Dodgers have two right fielders and a DH playing right, center, and left; lucky for them they don’t have any flyball pitchers on the staff.

I just don’t see how the 2009 Dodgers are particularly scary. Derek Lowe will be another year older, Brad Penny will either be gone or replaced with some random offseason pickup (Paul Byrd?), the infield - especially the left side - will have to be patched together if Chin-Lung Hu isn’t ready or hasn’t been traded. The two studs of the rotation will adjust and get better, but I have my doubts if Andre Ethier will get much better than what he is already - a good almost-starter - and Matt Kemp needs to make that next big leap to become a legitimate outfield corner power threat. James Loney is Casey Kotchman minus some OBP (well, at least prior to this year), power, and is certainly not as good a fielder.

Witty .sig goes here.

by scareduck on Aug 12, 2008 1:21 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Disagree

If you start with the supposition that LaRoche was never going to get a fair opportunity, this is a great deal for the Dodgers, regardless of what happens. Best case scenario for them: Manny is enough to get them into the playoffs; Dodgers continue to get good pitching, and “anything can happen,” a/k/a “crapshoot.” If the Dodgers win the WS, or even make it there, it’s a great deal.

Assuming he signs elsewhere (I figure Manny winds up in the Bronx), they get draft picks.

Even if they miss the playoffs, they still benefit from the box office buzz he generates, plus the draft pick compensation.

Although the grade may be “I” at the moment, I don’t see how it gets less than an A-, regardless of the result.

by jjackflash on Aug 11, 2008 3:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

But if you start with the supposition that LaRoche wasn't going to get a fair shake

then you also have to call Ned Colletti a chucklehead for doing so.

Manny won’t fix the team’s defensive problems, and in fact exacerbates them, as did the Casey Blake trade. According to Andrew Shimmin, the Dodgers may now have the worst defensive infield in the majors at the same time they have a groundball-heavy starting rotation. The Dodgers now have two right fielders (Ethier and Kemp) and a DH (ManRam) playing right, center, and left, respectively. If the Dodgers don’t hang on to Blake, they get to look for another free agent 3B at the end of the season or else they try, try again with the punchless Blake DeWitt. DeWitt’s bat profiles better at second; he certainly lacks the power to stick at third.

What’s more, the Blake trade was in some ways worse because it amounted to the Dodgers trying to turn Jonathan Meloan into a starter at AAA Las Vegas when he had started only a few times previously in his entire professional career. It was an effort that was failing dramatically, so the Tribe essentially got the Dodgers to throw him in. That’s called selling low, and it’s been typical of the Dodgers M.O. for some time now, at least under the Colletti regime. (Edwin Jackson, anyone?) The same may be said for Andy LaRoche, who never got the time or consistent at-bats to develop his talent in the Show thanks to an impatient front office. Just a terrible, terrible trade, the logical fallout of the godawful Andruw Jones signing and the three or four other catastrophic moneypit deals Colletti got the team into as well.

Witty .sig goes here.

by scareduck on Aug 11, 2008 3:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, and did I mention that Blake is 34?

Do the Dodgers really want to long-term a guy at that stage of his career?

Witty .sig goes here.

by scareduck on Aug 11, 2008 3:26 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't disagree

with anything you just wrote; nevertheless, the Man-Ram deal, examined for its own merits without reference to any other deals, is a good one, in that it very well could be enough to get the team into the playoffs at the price of a player who was never going to be a Dodger.

by jjackflash on Aug 11, 2008 3:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs