J.P. Ricciardi has apologized to Adam Dunn who in turn, basically told the Toronto GM to go fuck himself.
This all started on Wednesday when Ricciardi was doing a call-in-show on a local radio station. A caller asked about acquiring Dunn from the Reds, which caused JP to blast Dunn.
“He’s a lifetime .230, .240 hitter that strikes out a ton and hits home runs”
To which the caller correctly answered
“Yes, he hits home runs, which none of the Toronto Blue Jays are doing”
Ricciardi then tried to find other faults of Dunn. He said Dunn didn’t like to play baseball, had no passion, and then asked the caller how much he knew about Adam Dunn.
So what do we know about Adam Dunn? We know that despite the .224 batting average he currently has, his OBP is .391 (thanks to leading the majors in walks) which 60 points higher than the NL average. He is the only player to have hit 40 home runs in each of the last four seasons, a period in which no Blue Jay has hit 40 homers in a season once. With all that production, who gives a flying fuck if he doesn’t like baseball?
It’s hard to believe that JP Ricciardi was once a disciple of Billy Beane. Beane had helped his team win because he found undervalued players. One of the undervalued stats that Beane used to evaluate players was OBP. Beane and Paul DePodesta had discovered that the only stats that affected a team’s record were slugging percentage and OBP. Both of which Adam Dunn brings a surplus of to his team.
I like that Adam Dunn did not accept JP’s apology. JP didn’t just insult his stats, but his character. Too often in our society an apology is accepted, no matter how insulting the slight was or how sincere the apology was. Adam Dunn can play baseball and he doesn’t need to take shit from JP Riccardi. Just because he bats .247 for his career doesn’t mean he doesn’t have passion or that he doesn’t like baseball. And it damn sure doesn’t mean he’s a bad player that wouldn’t help the Jays considerably.
