his OBP would be disastrous. that is all he does to get on base, walk and hit hr’s. i would be pissed if the rangers got him. thats for sure. but i guess home runs sell tickets and helps fantasy owners. never mind the fact that he strikes out more times than most other guys get hits, or the fact that he is a liability on the basepaths. nope, id rather have a guy that doesnt go up to the plate with an all or nothing attitude, because more times than not, that attitude costs teams games

then hell, Pujols is flirting with 400 now….chipper with like 430…

which is why i said that, but he has had seasons before where he has actually flirted with it, which is the main reason i said that. dunn truly is the type of player that legitimately can flirt with the mendoza line over the course of an entire season

so i am leaving this conversation. i respect, although i disagree with, most of what you guys have said. you debated without making it personal, which is always fun, but when someone implies a hitter should not even swing the bat due to the risk a fielder might make a good play, that is my cue to leave. you gentle enjoy your evening, and heres to hoping dunn does not end up with the rangers and that moustakas succeeds where dunn has failed. good evening gentlement

Hahahaha, that’s hilarious. I find it amusing how a Moustakas thread went so far off topic.
But since it did, I just wanted to address two little things.
One: for those who said that Dunn is a border line HOFer, I have to ask if you’ve ever seen him play defense? You take away his power (as prodigious as it is) and he’s one of the worst players in the game. As a fantasy baseball player, I appreciate what he does, but in terms of real life baseball the guy has some serious flaws. Just consider how many teams would seem to be a good fit for Dunn, yet have shown no interest. Maybe it’s just me, but if GM’s around baseball don’t want him, that indicates he’s not exactly a great baseball player.
Two: rumor has it he doesn’t even like to play baseball :)

While I understand that when you say “take away his power/speed/3 bad starts” can significantly skew a players value, the point I was making about Dunn is that OVERALL he’s not a very good baseball player. He reaches base at a high rate and hits home runs. That’s great for fantasy baseball and does create runs for the Reds.
However, his ridiculously terrible defense costs the Reds runs on a regular basis. And as for his run production, I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts up a good percentage of those runs in games where his team is either far ahead or far behind.
While I have no evidence to support that last sentence (and I’d be very interested if anyone could contest or support it), I do base it on a very basic baseball concept.
When a team is ahead by quite a bit, it is common for that team’s starting pitcher to aggressively attack the zone. The last thing that pitcher wants is to walk anyone and tried to force the other team to put the ball in play. Consequently, that pitcher will often allow a solo shot or two.
From personal experience, I have witnessed a handfull of Dunn homers in exactly that scenerio. And if you look at Dunn’s numbers, the one thing that always jumps out at me is how few RBI’s he has relative to his high number of homers.
Over the last four years (excluding this half season to date for simplicity sake), the dude has 126 homers (avg 41.5) and 401 RBI (avg 100.25). I’m sorry but anyone who hits 40+ homers every year should be emberrased to have 106 RBI as a career high.
I’m sure someone will say “RBI’s are as bad a measure of player value as W’s for a pitcher” and are largely a function of players team. Well, the Reds problem the few years has been pitching, not hitting. This lack of pitching has also created a slew of blowout games for Dunn to hit his meaningless solo shots. (for his career he has 148 solo shots and 116 with men on base as of 7/12/08)
I’d argue that Dunn is a player who puts up empty numbers year after year for a losing team. His numbers look impressive after the year is over, but how many games did he really help win for his team? Too often he’s pading his stats in meaningless games when the outcome is all ready decided and meanwhile he’s killing his team’s chances in close games by missing a fly ball or misplaying a ball at him.
Now I’m not saying he doesn’t have value and his power and runs created do win some games for the Reds. To say otherwise would be asinine. And I’ll take him any day in a fantasy league, but when it comes to real baseball he’s just not that good.
He’s a terrible defender and an unrelieable hitter, especially with RISP.
Don’t believe me, check out his numbers. Or ask Reds announcer Marty Brennamen.
Brennamen (hated by all those drunken Cubs fans) has said on air that Dunn is a very good POWER HITTER but not a good hitter. Not saying he’s the ultimate authority, but coming from a paid Reds employee who’s seen every Dunn AB in his career, I’d say that speaks volumes.