Marty Brennaman's Thoughts

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Dunn' homers may seem "meaningless" at times, but can you really fault the guy for it? He'll blast one out, walk or strike out most of the time...that's who he is. The Reds now are like the problem the Cubs had a few years back...all power and no small ball (which is ironic since the Cubs are all small ball and no power). Smart teams find a balance (it would be a nice change of pace at Wrigley, too). Dunn could be incredibly potent on a team that has people getting on base ahead of him. The man has no control over how well the other batters ahead of him do. He does what he does, and if his team hasn't planned to utilize him the right way, well, they screwed up. Reds fans jumping all over him for hitting too many solo shots because of this is absurd.

 

I think the Cubs real problem as a lot of power but not a lot of OBP. They hit a lot of solo home runs and were very inconsistent. The Reds are a very good offensive ballclub, the Cubs were average.

 

In the past, that was true. But this season, the Cubs lack power and OBP.

[Banedon]

Dunn' homers may seem "meaningless" at times, but can you really fault the guy for it? He'll blast one out, walk or strike out most of the time...that's who he is. The Reds now are like the problem the Cubs had a few years back...all power and no small ball (which is ironic since the Cubs are all small ball and no power). Smart teams find a balance (it would be a nice change of pace at Wrigley, too). Dunn could be incredibly potent on a team that has people getting on base ahead of him. The man has no control over how well the other batters ahead of him do. He does what he does, and if his team hasn't planned to utilize him the right way, well, they screwed up. Reds fans jumping all over him for hitting too many solo shots because of this is absurd.

 

I think the Cubs real problem as a lot of power but not a lot of OBP. They hit a lot of solo home runs and were very inconsistent. The Reds are a very good offensive ballclub, the Cubs were average.

 

In the past, that was true. But this season, the Cubs lack power and OBP.

 

Balance.

[CubColtPacer]

With or without RISP, Dunn gets on base. With those 54 ABs, he has drawn 18 walks. His BA with RISP may not be to your liking, but he's got an 860 OPS. That's still pretty good.

 

I'm not the biggest Dunn fan around, but I know enough to know that what he does offensively is much better than anything any of our outfielders do.

 

I would agree with that. Dunn would easily be our best hitting outfielder. He does have some major flaws in his game. I was just replying to the poster who said that the reason Dunn doesn't drive runs in was because nobody would get on in front of him. Will Dunn hit lots of home runs and also draw a bunch of walks for you? Of course. Is he going to drive a bunch of runs in? No, he's not. Are the home runs and walks worth the lack of other base hits, defense, or inability to move runners along? As a FA, sure. In a trade? I don't know how much I'd give up for him.

[anemic offense]

He hits meaningless hr's.

 

There is no such thing.

 

yeah there is.

 

OK, example?

 

The homeruns that are hit when the game is hopelessly out of reach, or when the lead is substantial. Sammy (toward the end of his Cub days) had a lot of "meaningless" homers.

[Banedon]

He hits meaningless hr's.

 

There is no such thing.

 

yeah there is.

 

OK, example?

 

The homeruns that are hit when the game is hopelessly out of reach, or when the lead is substantial. Sammy (toward the end of his Cub days) had a lot of "meaningless" homers.

 

Did you see my post of the game logs? There just aren't that many of those. Surely not as many as people are indicating.

[Sammy Sofa]

With or without RISP, Dunn gets on base. With those 54 ABs, he has drawn 18 walks. His BA with RISP may not be to your liking, but he's got an 860 OPS. That's still pretty good.

 

I'm not the biggest Dunn fan around, but I know enough to know that what he does offensively is much better than anything any of our outfielders do.

 

I would agree with that. Dunn would easily be our best hitting outfielder. He does have some major flaws in his game. I was just replying to the poster who said that the reason Dunn doesn't drive runs in was because nobody would get on in front of him. Will Dunn hit lots of home runs and also draw a bunch of walks for you? Of course. Is he going to drive a bunch of runs in? No, he's not. Are the home runs and walks worth the lack of other base hits, defense, or inability to move runners along? As a FA, sure. In a trade? I don't know how much I'd give up for him.

 

No, I said he can't control who gets on base before him. Sure, his numbers could be higher with guys on, but ultimately he can't "decide" when to hit a HR, as some, especially Reds fans, seem to think. He should try and pay more attention to how he's being pitched to with people on, but bottom line, he can't make people get on base. Slamming him for not having more RBI's is along the lines of slamming D-Lee for not knocking more guys in last year. Sometimes a player can only do so much. Granted, the Reds are getting guys on base much better this year than the Cubs did last year for Lee, but guys getting on base doesn't automatically mean they're there for Dunn when he comes up to bat. And yeah, his numbers with runners could be higher, but this underlying sentiment of him not being that impressive is ridiculous. There's so much you can do with a player like him...his pluses far outweigh his faults.

[Yestheydo]

He hits meaningless hr's.

 

There is no such thing.

 

yeah there is.

 

OK, example?

 

The homeruns that are hit when the game is hopelessly out of reach, or when the lead is substantial. Sammy (toward the end of his Cub days) had a lot of "meaningless" homers.

 

Did you see my post of the game logs? There just aren't that many of those. Surely not as many as people are indicating.

 

Thanks for doing that, by the way; it was eye-opening. I may have to copy that to defend Dunn to Reds fans sometime. Again, though, the main things they tend to remember are the times they're counting on him to come through and he doesn't.

[Banedon]

Thanks for doing that, by the way; it was eye-opening. I may have to copy that to defend Dunn to Reds fans sometime. Again, though, the main things they tend to remember are the times they're counting on him to come through and he doesn't.

 

I did it not knowing what I would find to be honest. The Cubs have managed to keep me from watching a lot of baseball this year, so I haven't seen Dunn a lot this year. But I remember hearing similar things about D-Lee always hitting "meaningless" homers, but it was just those homers that people were remembering.

[Banedon]

Walk off 3-run homer for Dunn.

 

8-[

[sethuel1]

Walk off 3-run homer for Dunn.

 

8-[

 

it counts as 1/3 of a meaningful home run, because the 2nd and 3rd runs were meaningless.

[XZero771679666304]

Walk off 3-run homer for Dunn.

 

8-[

 

I was thinking of this thread as I watched him hit that homer.