ALSO RECENTLY PUBLISHED at Federalbaseball.com:
Dave from the Nats News Network - "Nats Ink Dunn: Confidence Boost For Ownership?"
What Are The DC Faithful Thinking? Check out the initial reactions in a FANSHOT entitled:
"Adam Dunn Signs With Washington Nationals".
Alright...Alright...Settle down. Breathe...Breathe...
The Washington Nationals signed Adam Dunn. Before being traded to Arizona last season, the 29-year-old left-handed hitting free agent outfielder (1B?) had played every game of his career with Cincinnati, after having been drafted by Reds (led by then Cincy GM Jim Bowden) with the 50th overall pick in the 2nd Round on the 1998 MLB Amateur Draft. Dunn debuted with Cincy three years later on July 20, 2001, and over 8 seasons has averaged 29 doubles, 42 HR's, 96 RBI's, 114 walks and 118 K's per 162 games played, according to baseball-reference.com's 162-Game averages.
"The Big Donkey" or Dunn-K, or the "Bigger Wilkerson" ("Big Wilky" for short) as he's known around here has been destined for DC all winter, and if you don't believe that we here at federalbaseball.com predicited it, just take a look...
11/14/08 - "If The Washington Nationals Sign Mark Te - - - - - ra I'll Eat My Blog":
"If the Nationals continue to say that they're going to make a play for Te - - - - - ra, it's only going to be more disappointing to the DC Faithful if they come up empty or settle for someone like Giambi or Dunn..." (ed. note - "Sorry, Dunner. Hold on it gets worse.")
12/3/08 - "The Backup Plan Is Always The Real Plan...Washington Nationals' Winter Roundup":
(ed. note - "Subtitled, "The "Bigger Wilkerson" Adam Dunn Is Coming, And Everyone Wants To Be The First To Say So...")
Alright. I'll order my Dunn/Nationals name and # t-shirt tomorrow...
12/16/08 - "The Argument Against Adam Dunn...":
"Mr. Bowden simply still believes he was right in his initial judgement of Kearns' and Dunn's talents back when he brought them to the Majors with the Reds...Which is why I firmly believe Dunn will be in DC next season..."
...now this isn't to say we'd had some glimpse into the future, or some foreknowledge of events that no one else was privy to, but only to point out that we saw this coming, and not (just?) because of what The Washington Times' Thom Loverro referred to recently as DC GM Jim Bowden's proclivity toward, "...running a welfare hotel for Cincinnati rejects and refugees", because Adam Dunn is neither of those things, (ed. note - "I'd go with "strikeout-machine"), Dunn didn't get the BIG offer he was looking for on the open market, and sure he "sat" on the Nationals' offer for longer than some of us found appropriate, but the DC Front Office was willing to wait, and you have to give it to them, they got their man, (or at least their second choice of "man", through no fault of their own, yeah, I'm talking to you, Tex!"), the Nationals got the power bat they were looking for, and put themselves in a position to deal for whatever else it is they think they need heading into the '09 season, which most seem to believe will be either bullpen or rotation upgrades...
And, the Nationals don't lose a draft pick, since Arizona, who traded for Dunn late last season, didn't offer him arbitration, so the signing doesn't hinder the DC system's development. The price tag of 2-years and $20 million dollars doesn't seem outrageous. I'm not going to all-of-a-sudden pretend I'm a huge Adam Dunn fan, I think he K's far too much and knocks himself in for 40 of every 100 RBI's, but he's surely an offensive weapon the likes of which DC's Nationals haven't seen since Alfonso soriANO skipped town...So where are we, as Nationals fans, on this? Did the Nationals just make a move to change their image in the eyes of the baseball cognoscenti? Does this make the Nationals a legit threat in the NL East? For the Wild Card? What moves will have to be made? Will Dunn play first or left?...oh...seems we already have the answer to that...
MLB.com's Bill Ladson, in his article on the Dunn acquisition entitled, "Nats sign Dunn to two-year, $20M deal", writes that Adam Dunn will be playing first base with the Washington Nationals...(ed. note - "Hope they told Dunn, wouldn't want another Soriano-situation would we?"):
"Dunn will bat cleanup and be the everyday first baseman, replacing Nick Johnson. There are two drawbacks to Dunn's game. He strikes out a lot and is considered a below-average defensive first baseman and outfielder."
What will happen to Nick Johnson? Mr. Ladson brings up the A's rumors again. So, as of today...
Your '09 Washington Nationals...
1B Adam Dunn
2B Anderson Hernandez
SS Cristian Guzman
3B Ryan Zimmerman
LF Josh Willingham
CF Lastings Milledge/Elijah Dukes
RF Milledge/Dukes/Austin Kearns
C Jesus Flores
Starting Rotation: John Lannan, Scott Olsen, Collin Balester, Daniel Cabrera, Odalis Perez, Shawn Hill, Jason Bergmann, Jordan Zimmermann, Shairon Martis.
Bullpen: Terrell Young, Luis Atilano, Marco Estrada, Jesus Colome, Garrett Mock, Steven Shell, Mike Hinckley (L), Saul "Sa-ool" Rivera (Set-up), Joel Hanrahan (C).
They'll sort out the bullpen and the rotation this Spring, but that's the '09 Washington Nationals, barring any moves, which seem inevitable with some of the redundancies on the roster...So what do you think? Has Jim Bowden improved the Nationals from last year's 102-loss mess? Will the Nationals compete? Will Dunn change things in DC? Is anyone happier than Jim Bowden right now?