Dunn says Sox the perfect fit
GLENDALE, Ariz. — For years, Chicago baseball fans salivated over the possibility of slugger Adam Dunn playing in their town.
Boy, what a lot of home runs he'd hit in that ballpark for that team.
Well, Dunn is coming to a town near you soon. Only, he'll be hitting his home runs not in that ballpark, but in the other ballpark.
The 31-year-old slugger signed a four-year, $56 million deal with the White Sox this off-season. Dunn had always been the object of fascination among Cubs fans. During his career, he has hit 25 home runs at Wrigley Field, behind only the 126 he has hit while with the Reds at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park and the 39 he has hit with the Nationals at Washington's Nationals Ballpark.
But here he is, a member of the White Sox, not the Cubs.
“Chicago, obviously, I've said it before, was definitely my favorite city to visit,” Dunn said Saturday before the White Sox played the Angels. Dunn was not in the lineup. He planned to play in a minor-league game to get some extra at-bats. “Now that I call it my hometown ... things work out for a reason, and this worked out perfectly.”
Although Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is a big fan of Dunn, there was neither money nor a spot for him this off-season.
“You never know how everything's going to play out,” Dunn said. “I know Jim and have a lot of respect for him. They went one way, and I was fortunate enough to come here. This was No. 1 on my list, and if we could get this worked out, this is where I wanted to be.”
Dunn has big-time slugger numbers and big-time swing-and-miss numbers. Playing his entire career in the National League, he has 354 home runs. The batting average is .250, but the on-base percentage (.381) and slugging percentage (.521) are the stats that pop out at you. Add them together and it gives Dunn an elite OPS of .902.
He is 46 home runs away from 400 and 10 walks away from 1,000 for his career. Dunn does have 1,632 career strikeouts, but the positive numbers far outweigh the negative.
So far this spring, Dunn has a hitting line of .213/.314/.410 with 2 homers, 9 walks and 25 strikeouts.
Baseball Reference cites similarity scores for Dunn at age 30 with players such as Harmon Killebrew, Ralph Kiner, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds. Killebrew and Kiner are Hall of Famers.
No one is suggesting Dunn is a Hall of Famer just yet, but playing in a “plus” offensive park such as U.S. Cellular Field should only help him pad his numbers.
Even though Dunn has always been a National Leaguer, the other knock on him is that he's a man without a position. He'll DH for the White Sox, but he has seen time at first base this spring. He said he'd like to continue spending time with the glove.
As for Cubs fans, they should mark their calendars. The White Sox will visit Wrigley Field for interleague play July 1-3. If the wind is blowing out, be ready on Sheffield Avenue.
“I just really enjoyed hitting in that park,” he said. “I can't really throw a finger on why, but it's definitely up there as one of my favorite places to hit.”