Adam Dunn: Hall of Famer? (Also: Big Papi?)

Dunn can hit home runs a country mile, but he's definitely not a HOFer.

 

This is exactly who I thought of when I saw this thread.

 

Dunn is a far superior producer to Kingman. It's not close.

 

I was going to try to look at Frank Howard, Dave Kingman, Greg Luzinski, and Dunn on BBref to see which one was the worst defensive player by advanced metrics.

Before I got very far, I saw that there was a massive disparity in Rtot and Rdrs for Dunn's career, which is fine since they're derived differently, but also that there was a huge error in the Rdrs total for Dunn's career. Basically, Dunn's totals for RF, LF, OF, and 1B were added together...double counting his runs lost for the outfield positions. I wondered if this contributed to Dunn's totally epic negative defensive WARs for some seasons (lower than -5) and decided to drop my comparison for now.

 

In your opinion, what is a bigger strike against a guy in terms of HOF voting, being a DH or a guy who was a below average to poor fielder, but didn't DH?

Curious to see people's thoughts on this one, since Ortiz is an example of the former and Dunn the later.

 

If Adam Dunn loved and cared about baseball, he could be great.

 

A montage of Adam Dunn playing the outfield set to Entry of the Gladiators would dissuade anyone.

I once witnessed him double-clutch four times getting the ball to the cutoff man, playing a routine single into a stand-up double. The opposing crowd was stunned into silence at the feat.

 

The obvious answer to me is the former player. Derek Jeter has been an extremely valuable player throughout his career despite being a poor defensive SS. He wouldn't be nearly as great if those same offensive numbers came from the DH position.

 

I don't know about that. The HR totals aren't going to match, but they're different eras. Kingman was every bit as feared back in the 70s-80s, if not moreso as Dunn is now.

Batting average is very close.
Dunn strikes out more.
Dunn will finish with more HR, but Kingman had 442 and had 35 in his final season, which is pretty amazing.
Do any of the seamheads on here know if Kingman was blackballed after the 1986 season? It's hard to believe a guy could hit 35 HR back when 35 HR actually meant something and then not be able to find a job, even if the guy was a legendary pain in the ass.

Kingman led the league in HR twice. I don't think Dunn has ever led the league.

 

Kingman was a pyschopathic clubhouse cancer who was lucky not to get his club tied up in some lawsuit over some of the grotesque things he did (like the rat in the box to the female reporter)

 

It certainly wouldn't be the only time a player who could still produce at a high level couldn't find a job because they're a colossal pain in the ass (Canseco, Bonds...).