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It seems every year Adam Dunn's name comes up as a potential trade target and every year he remains in Cincinnati striking out and hitting as many home runs as he can. Toronto Blue Jays manager may have shed some light on why GM's aren't exactly fighting over the 'Big Donkey's' services, but he probably didn't need to exactly share as much as he did.
J.P. Ricciardi is one of the younger breed of GM's who follow sabermetrics, which comes from his successful stint working with Billy Beane of the Oakland A's. Another sign of him being dissimilar from the normal baseball GM is that he has a weekly radio show where he provides fans an opportunity to interact with the Blue Jays organization.
As you can imagine, this brings on a lot of fans who feel they have all the answers and trade suggestions. One such fan wanted to know about Adam Dunn. Big League Stew provides the exchange:
Said Ricciardi: "He’s a lifetime .230, .240 hitter that strikes out a ton and hits home runs."Uh, J.P., I think you got into more specifics than was probably necessary. Is he right? Most likely, but not exactly great practice to go bad mouthing other players. His last statement was all that was really necessary.
Said the caller: "“Yes, he hits home runs, which none of the Toronto Blue Jays are doing."
Said Ricciardi: "Do you know the guy doesn’t really like baseball that much?” Ricciardi said to the caller. “Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much? How much do you know about the player?
“There’s a reason why you’re attracted to some players and there’s a reason why you’re not attracted to some players. I don’t think you’d be very happy if we brought Adam Dunn here …
“We’ve done our homework on guys like Adam Dunn and there’s a reason why we don’t want Adam Dunn. I don’t want to get into specifics."
Naturally, Dunn got word of these comments this morning and couldn't resist a response:
I don’t know the clown. I don’t know, and you can use the word ‘clown’ if you like.General Manager-Player fights within one organization are special enough, but when you've got a National League player getting into a media fight with an American League GM, now that's special... well, at least for a boring Thursday.
I’ve seen it, I haven’t heard it. I really don’t care what one guy thinks, to be honest with you. If I’m a G.M., I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to discredit a player -- if I’m a player. He’s obviously won more than me, I guess. Or hasn’t. I know nothing about him.
The players didn’t say anything, it’s just some clown sitting in a front office pushing paper. I don’t play for any other reason than the guys here. I’ve said it all along, it doesn’t bother me what people say or think, especially someone outside of the organization who has no idea of anything that goes on here. He’s not even in our country. This guy’s in another country talking ****.
[...]
I’m not converting my dollars into looneys and twoneys just yet. They’re really good, actually.
Toronto's in last place and Dunn is hitting .227 with 71 strikeouts. I don't think anyone is going to win this battle. Even better.
Dunn: 'I don't know the clown' [Lot D]
J.P. Ricciardi does not think very highly of Adam Dunn [Big League Stew]
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