Cameron Crowe wrote about them. Pacman Jones makes them reign. And Kraft sells them in packages of 8, 16, and 24. Yet, Adam Dunn still can’t manage to hit them. I’m speaking of singles, of course.
Adam Dunn is a great power hitter. No one denies that. He has eight seasons of 35+ home runs and is on pace to do that again this year. But something Adam Dunn is not good at getting is a single. He has 16 right now. That is one less than the amount of home runs he has. Somebody send Adam Dunn the Tom Emanski videos, please.
Based off of projections, Adam Dunn will amass 41 singles this year which is eight less than the number Barry Bonds hit in 2001 – a major league record. That year, Bonds was walked 177 times, including 35 times intentionally, so we can give him a pass (no pun intended). Adam Dunn is projecting to only 72 walks. The AL record for fewest singles is 53 – by Mark McGwire, 1991 – so Adam has even more records of futility to avoid.
Another noteworthy record Adam could approach this year is the 200 strikeout plateau, a planetary surface only three men have landed upon- including Dunn just last year. And if it weren’t for the White Sox basically sitting him during the last third of the 2011 season, Dunn would have broken that record. In fact, if the team would have continued to play him he would have had the lowest recorded average in history for a qualifying batter with a scorching .159 average. Luckily for Dunn, the Sox were smart and sat him as he finished a measly six plate appearances shy.
The fact of the matter is this: Dunn is getting paid $15 million this year to get on base 28% of the time and to play DH. That’s $937,500 for a single. As a designated hitter – who only occasionally plays the field – he unbelievably has a negative WAR. To help him in his futility, other White Sox players seemed to have pledged to accompany him in his terribleness, with both Paul Konerko and Jeff Keppinger joining him in the bottom seven WARs, with Keppinger as the worst overall qualified baseball player. It’s no wonder nobody wants to go watch the Sox when they come into town (they lead the league in fewest road attendance). They are absolutely terrible.
Given, Dunn has been hot of late and could turn things around. However, the three most recent years might suggest otherwise. It might be time to go another route, Chicago.
(A rare Adam Dunn single)
