Adam Dunn announced his retirement. He leaves the game with a .490 slugging percentage, which isn’t that impressive. It is, however, when you compare it to his .237 batting average. That means his average hit was better than a double. He came close to half his hits going for extra bases. He prolific at both drawing walks and striking out. It was an extreme and interesting career, as he was also a pretty rotten defender. He’s someone who should have been a designated hitter from the start of his career.
If he’d been a DH his whole career, he’d never get into the HOF.
I’ve always wanted to see how he’d do in the HOF voting, now I only have to wait 4 more years. I think they’ll focus on that .237 BA instead of the .364 OBP, but that might be balanced by the 462 HR’s. I don’t think he’s Cooperstown bound, but I wonder which way the voting will lean… will he last more than 1 ballot? Will he last 10 years? Will he even get 25% in his 1st year?
Devon » I don’t think he’ll get that much support. There are people who don’t want to vote for Mark McGwire because of a low batting average.
I think he will fall off the ballot after 1 year. His defense, by the way, was apparently incredibly bad. BBRef has him at -29.5 dWAR in 13,500 defensive innings. The next worse career total I can find is Gary Sheffield at -28.6 in 18,700 defensive innings. Jeter is at -9.7 in over 23,000 defensive innings.
Epic.
Oh, by the way, I think Dunn probably has the career record for TTO–49.9% of PAs ended in a walk, a strikeout, or a home run.