According to The Washington Post, Our Washington Nationals have signed Adam Dunn to a 2-Year Contract. The left-handed power bat JimBo's been talking about.
Maybe a two-year deal.
Does that satisfy you? Will he make a difference?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
They Signed Him--Supposedly
Update--Bill Ladson now confirming. Press Conference Thursday at Nationals Park.
According to The Washington Post, Our Washington Nationals have signed Adam Dunn to a 2-Year Contract. The left-handed power bat JimBo's been talking about.
Maybe a two-year deal.
Does that satisfy you? Will he make a difference?
According to The Washington Post, Our Washington Nationals have signed Adam Dunn to a 2-Year Contract. The left-handed power bat JimBo's been talking about.
Maybe a two-year deal.
Does that satisfy you? Will he make a difference?
umm... where is he gonna play?
ReplyDelete81 games a year, he'll play in Nationals Park. The rest of the time, it will be various other parks around the NL circuit, with a brief diversion into AL territory in June (where he may well DH). Isn't that a good enough answer for now?
ReplyDeleteI imagine the answer to your question is like the punchline to the old childrens joke about where does a 2500 pound elephant sit at the dinner table - wherever it wants.
ReplyDeleteLeft Field, First Base? who cares? he makes the line-up legit. good deal all around, baseball-wise and commitment-wise.
ReplyDeletegood work JimBow.
Our long National(s) nightmare is over............
ReplyDeleteGood job by the Nats. Best that could be done at this time.
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrible signing. I've been surfing the web since I heard and this is the only article I've seen that gets it right:
ReplyDeletehttp://jakerake.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/dunn-decides-to-waste-two-years-of-his-prime/
ABM - Lerners do not believe Nationals Park is completed enough yet to play 81 games in 2009 - thus intend not to pay rent! Your answer priceless.
ReplyDeleteDunn - are we finished? Get it? Dunn (sounds like done).
Seriously, this is a fan friendly move and enables the team itself to feel like the team can get behind and still score some runs quickly via the long-ball. May just be the tonic to keep Nick Johnson healthy, too, since we remove the jinx of what the team is going to do should he get hurt...(Answer - lose over 100 games.)
I like the commitment to Dunn being only 2 years; and the price tag (base $8.5 million, with some reachable incentives to get to $10 million per year, probably). Sure doesn't handicap team too much - consider it spent $6.5 million in 2008 on two catchers not on team by August...
Orlando Hudson? Any chance that this is part 2 of "D-Back Nats"?
Looks like Hudson's price will be coming down into range since his injury makes him less desirable than Dunn.
Trust in Jimbo signing all the ex-Reds he can. All Good.
If this is real, this will hopefully give general manager Jim Bowden, president Stan Kasten, and the Lerner family some credibility. Dunn will not win the pennant for the Nats by himself. But after you lose 100 games the previous year, then make a show about competing for the biggest free agent in baseball, but losing him to the Yankees, you can't walk away from this off-season empty handed.
ReplyDeleteIf this deal is for real (and I'm still crossing my fingers), I'm hoping the Nats will be better and more competitive in 2009. Maybe my dream of Ryan Zimmerman having a Hall of Fame career entirely in Washington isn't a pipe dream after all...
One thing has me worried. Is Dunn's agent the same guy who used the Braves the same way Scott Boras used the Nationals and Red Sox?
ReplyDeleteWell, I hope Dunn helps, and I hope he sells some tickets because the Nats tickets sales look grim. It was reported today on the XM Radio baseball channel that Nationals' season ticket renewals are off by more than 25%. Assuming about the same single game tickets sales as last year, it would appear that Nats attendance could drop to 1.6-1.8 million this season.
ReplyDeleteI was happy to read the news.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I noticed on the MASN site that the Nats will be offering mini-plans this year, which some of us had been hoping to see. Your site was one of those where we had the opportunity to weigh in on such wishes, so thanks for giving us such opportunities.
If Nick is healthy, I would suspect that Dunn will play left field, which is his preference. If so, maybe the Nats will trade Milledge for a front line pitcher. He has some trade value. I suppose the Nats could trade Nick, but his value is rock bottom right now and he is in the last year of his contract.
ReplyDeleteSBF,
ReplyDeleteI like the Dunn signing. I was reading a Bill James' article last night on secondary average (ok, I'm a baseball nerd!) and Dunn's is likely fabulous. He'll frustrate us with misjudged and dropped fly balls and strike outs in game-deciding at bats sometimes, but other times he'll thrill us with a timely walk that starts a rally or a tape measure blast to win a game.
I'm going to call him Frank Howard 2.0!
In a mature market, the Nats maybe could have waited for a minor league star to develop, but, for just 2 years, they get on the map in DC and buy some much needed good will with their fans (and Thomas Boswell!).
Good move.
Oh, and if you're ok with this, my book on the 1969 Senators is up for pre-order on the publisher's site.
See: http://pocolpress.com/getBookDetail.php?bookID=000040
I agree with Dave Nichols.
ReplyDeleteThe signing serves many purposes. Symbolic to the league that the Nats can step up and write a 8 figure check and sign a big Free Agent.
Symbolic to the team that they are serious about winning.
Great for the fans that they didn't cheap out and do a 1 year deal. In fact the Nats were pushing longer term from what I was told but settled on the 2 year deal.
Better to have too many players than too few so I believe they will figure out where every one fits in and best case is they have some trade bait with Nick Johnson and Austin Kearns.
A funny aside is Bill Ladson who is S00000 in the dark that he wrote an article this morning and then revised it in the afternoon to erase his blunder of a statement on Dunn.
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090210&content_id=3815322&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was
Who read this morning when Ladson wrote basically that the Nats had little chance of signing Adam Dunn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a great development. Makes the lineup look much more like a major league team. Anyone willing to predict that, if a few things break the right way, this team can approach .500?
ReplyDeletePhil - Nick is gone after this season anyway so now the Nats have to trade somebody and I hope it is Nick to the A's for a reliever or for prospects.
ReplyDeleteMilledge has potential.
Hope Dunn plays 1B!
I'm Happy. Not content, but happy about the move.
ReplyDeleteEl Topo
I must say, I am a bit more excited about heading down to spring training now. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. But honestly i just go so I can sit in shorts, have a beer and watch baseball of any sort in March.
ReplyDeleteI am sick of Bowden signing all of these former Reds that did nothing for him while he was in Cinci. Why the fascination with these former players? If it didn't work then, it won't work now. This is a bad signing. Dunn will fall victim to the Baltimore Washington Curse, and hit 15 HR, bat .225, and be hurt for 3 months.
ReplyDeleteI hope this deal works out, but I just don't see it happening. Fire Bowden and bring in someone who will look outside of the "former Reds" pool.