Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Adam Dunn surely doesn't look like your
father's Baseball Hall of Famer.
Heck, Dunn doesn't even look like your Baseball Hall of Famer.
When the mammoth Chicago White Sox slugger recently belted his 400th career
home run (he now has 403 through Monday), it brought about an interesting
argument: Does Dunn have a realistic chance of one day being inducted into
Cooperstown?
In several ways, Dunn doesn't come close to fitting the prototype of a Baseball
Hall of Famer. His career batting average is just .240. He also contributes
little to nothing defensively. Primarily a designated hitter with the White Sox
who sees part-time action at first base and in the outfield, Dunn is anything
but a slick fielder.
Then again, there is that home run stroke of his. Dunn hits homers often (he
has belted at least 38 of them in eight of his 12 big-league seasons), and the
overwhelming majority of them are of the majestic, tape-measure variety.
With a 6-foot-6, 285-pound frame, "Big Donkey" is the ultimate three-true-
outcomes slugger. Never has that been more the case than it is this season.
In 545 plate appearances, Dunn has hit 38 home runs, struck out 183 times and
walked 89 times. All three totals lead the American League. That means 56.9
percent of the time, Dunn homers, walks or strikes out.
A staggering 41.3 percent of Dunn's hits this season have been home runs.
Although he made his second career All-Star Game appearance last month, he has
just 92 hits and is batting .204 on the season. His RBI single in Monday's 4-3
loss to Baltimore was just his 39th single of the year.
The best guess is that Dunn will never be a Hall of Fame player. He just
doesn't pass the eye test. There are too many warts in his game, and it would
be tough to envision 75 percent of the voters one day looking past those warts
and placing him on their ballot.
The thing is, even if he merely continues to do the same things he's been doing
for six more years or so, it would be wrong to completely dismiss Dunn as a
candidate.
He has surpassed 400 home runs at age 32, and he has become only the eighth
player in Major League Baseball history to hit 400 homers in his first 12
seasons. The others are Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Frank
Robinson and Eddie Mathews, and likely future Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr.,
Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez (if voters overlook A-Rod's steroids
admission).
If Dunn stays healthy and plays six or seven more seasons, he has a decent shot
at finishing with 600 career homers. OK, Dunn is one-dimensional. If he's so
fantastic in that one most glamorous category, though, wouldn't he have to at
least garner Hall of Fame consideration?
Aside from home runs, Dunn has other positive offensive attributes. Because he
walks so often, he has a solid career on-base percentage of .371. His career
slugging percentage is .502. Mathews, the great former Braves third baseman, by
comparison, had a .376 on-base percentage and a .509 slugging percentage.
Offensively, at least on paper, they look like very similar players.
Mathews hit 512 career homers, which is a number Dunn should have little
trouble surpassing. If he beats that total by 100 or so, will it be enough to
overcome the 30-point difference in career batting average? Will it be enough
to overcome the fact that Mathews played respectable defense, while Dunn's best
defensive position was designated hitter?
Again, those will be interesting questions for Hall of Fame voters to answer
about 12-15 years from now.
Another perception that will probably work against Dunn's future Hall of Fame
candidacy is that the player most baseball fans probably compare him to is
three-true-outcomes slugger Dave Kingman, a three-time all-star who played for
seven teams in a career that spanned the 1970s and '80s.
There certainly have been similarities between them. Kingman finished with 442
homers and a .236 career batting average. He was also a below-average defender
in the outfield and at first base who ended his playing days primarily as a
designated hitter.
That, however, is where the similarities end. Kingman was a big-time slugger in
his day. After all, he's one of the few 400-plus home run hitters with no
steroid rumors in his past who is eligible for the Hall of Fame and has not
been inducted.
Kingman's slugging percentage, though solid, was .478 - 24 points lower than
Dunn's. The difference between the hitters was much more pronounced in on-base
percentage. Kingman's was just .302. Amazingly, he never drew more than 62
walks in any of his 16 major-league seasons.
So, while Kingman's OPS was a pedestrian .780, Dunn has almost always been
elite in that category, with a career mark of .873.
There's still about a third of Dunn's career yet to be played, most likely.
Sluggers like Dunn sometimes don't age well. If Dunn fails to get to 600 home
runs, he will almost certainly never get to see his plaque in Cooperstown.
On the other hand, if Dunn's power and on-base skills remain intact for a
while, he could eventually make it difficult for voters to completely dismiss
him.
He's going to strike out more than 200 times this year, and his batting average
is no lock to end up above the Mendoza line. And this season is hardly atypical
for Dunn.
No one is saying Dunn is the perfect player. In fact, he's far from it.
Nevertheless, consistently driving in runs and getting on base are what
offensive contribution is all about, and Dunn can have hope that Hall of Fame
voters will decide that those positive attributes outweigh high strikeout
totals and low batting averages.
Jeff Saukaitis is a former Sports Network writer/editor who has been a
professional sportswriter since 1985.
The Sports Network