When the Sox signed Adam Dunn this off-season excitement abounded, finally a DH. Following an embarrassing showing for South Side DH’s the Sox had their man. In 2010 the Sox DH’s combined for 18 homers and 65 RBIs and a whopping .247 batting average. Clearly, Dunn’s production should dwarf those numbers. Unfortunately, reality has come crashing down upon the White Sox faithful. Who is this impostor filling in for Dunn; an appendix couldn’t have killed all his power … could it have?
When asked about his hitting woes Dunn took full responsibility saying that this season has been embarrassing, but not blaming it on any of the probable issues like, switching to DH or having his appendix removed, he said “I’m not the first person who has ever done it (switched leagues or position). I’m not going to sit here and make excuses. I don’t have any”. Dunn acknowledged pressuring himself, “Yeah, absolutely. I expect so much from myself that when things don’t go right, or as bad as they could possibly go, how can you not put too much pressure on yourself.”
As far as his hitting goes Dunn was recently quoted as saying, “I would like to blame it on swinging at bad pitches, but I’m not doing that, I’m swinging at good pitches, it seems like I’m taking the balls and swinging at strikes and still fouling them off”, He still is drawing walks.
Another issue Dunn is having is hitting lefties, he is a major league worst 0/36 when facing southpaws. Dunn said, “I have no idea, it’s not like I’ve been smoking the ball against righties either. Against lefties I’ve been taking some balls that I’ve hit on the nose, but haven’t gotten the results, which is kind of like how this whole entire season is going”. Ozzie sat Dunn against CJ Wilson, a lefty for Texas, but said that it was a regular day off, which seems to be true because against Lefty Ricky Romero Dunn was back in there, this time batting 6th, but still going 0/3 with 2 strikeouts.
Ozzie finally addressed the issues recently by batting Dunn 7th in the lineup, to which Ozzie said, “I want to make sure he relaxes a little bit, it’s not to punish him. Right now he’s a little frustrated.” When Dunn was asked about moving down in the lineup, he said “I’ve hit everywhere in the lineup in my life. That’s not even an issue. I could care less.”
Last year, in comparison, Dunn was hitting .274 with 10 Homers and 27 RBIs with a .379 OBP. This year Adam is hitting .184 with 5 homers 23 RBIs and a .322 OBP. It’s about time he picked up the pace, its becoming more than just a slow start now.
when the weather gets nice, hell turn it around