• In spite of the continued trade talk involving Washington Nationals' first baseman Adam Dunn, and in spite of a tweet from his Twitter site (@Ken_Rosenthal) yesterday which read, "Two players #Yankees would love to have: Dunn, Soria. #Nationals' price on Dunn exorbitant. #Royals would need to be overwhelmed," when FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal wrote about the moves the AL East's elite might make to try to come out on top of the division in an article yesterday entitled, "Yankees, Rays, Red Sox all contenders for AL East", Mr. Rosenthal noted once again that the Nationals aren't going to make it easy (you might say it will be painful?) for any team looking to acquire their big middle-of-the-order bat:
"Adam Dunn? The Nationals’ price for their first baseman is too steep, and Dunn does not want to DH."
• Over at a New York Yankees blog, River Ave Blues, author Mike Axisa, who also writes for MLBTraderumors.com, was advocating the acquisition of Adam Dunn yesterday in an article entitled, "Going for the Kill: Bring in Adam Dunn", in which Mr. Axisa wrote that using, "Sky Kalkman’s trade value calculator pegs Dunn’s value at $11.3M assuming a strong second half, which is equivalent to something like a Grade-B pitching prospect plus a Grade-B position player prospect according to Victor Wang’s research." Pointing to the return the Cincinnati Reds got from the Arizona Diamondbacks when they dealt Adam Dunn, Mr. Axisa recommends an offer of, "Zach McAllister or Ivan Nova plus one of David Adams or Eduardo Nunez [plus] another low level, low probability prospect thrown in for good measure."
Zach McAllister, a right-handed starter whose name came up in the recent Cliff Lee to NY rumors, is a 22-year-old '06 3rd Round pick who's (7-5) in 17 starts and 95.0 IP this year at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, averaging 2.2 BB/9 and 7.1 K/9 over the course of his 5 seasons in the Yankees' organization, and he was ranked as the second-best pitcher in New York's system in Baseball America's John Manuel's Dec. '09 list of the Yankees' Top 10 Prospects. Ivan Nova's a 23-year-old Dominican-born right-hander who's currently (7-2) with Triple-A Scranton in his fifth year with NY. David Adams is a 23-year-old '08 3rd Round pick who's currently hitting .309/.393/.507 with Double-A Trenton while spending most of his time at second in the Yankees' system. Eduardo Nunez, labeled the "Best Infield Arm" by Baseball America's John Manuel in the most recent prospect list, is a 23-year-old shortstop who's hitting .310/.361/.416 with Triple-A Scranton this season...
Realizing this is just a hypothetical scenario thrown out by a random writer, is anyone biting on two of these four Yankees' farmhands plus a "prospect thrown in for good measure" as the return on the Nats' big middle-of-the-order bat? I asked the same in last night's game thread and also asked how you'd sell this to the DC Faithful if you were the Nats' Front Office? Is this the kind of deal you'd expect in return for the Nats' 40/100 first baseman?
• In a Chicago Sun-Times article by White Sox beat writer Joe Cowley entitled, "Konerko: Sox don't need outside help to keep rolling", about what moves Chicago might make before the July 31st Non-Waiver Trade Deadline, Mr. Cowley writes that, "The Sox cooled on pursuing Washington Nationals slugger Adam Dunn two weeks ago," with reports surfacing around the same time that the Nationals had asked about both 2B Gordon Beckham and OF Carlos Quentin.
• The latest word from Adam Dunn? Washington Post writer Adam Kilgore spoke to the 30-year-old first baseman yesterday in a Nationals Journal post entitled, "Adam Dunn says he hasn't changed view on contract talks", where Dunn denies ESPN.com's Buster Olney's (@Buster_ESPN) recent tweeted assertions that Dunn had, "...lost interest in working out a long-term deal with the Nationals", telling Mr. Kilgore:
"'I mean, it's been frustrating because of this, of having to answer the questions," Dunn said. "That's the thing that's frustrating. Other than that, whatever. They're going to do what's best for them. I'm just here, man. Employee number 44."
Uh...that doesn't sound like a happy Dunn? 14 days and counting...