MVP2110 wrote:coolhandluke121 wrote:MVP2110 wrote:
Frelick has an OPS+ of 82, Chourio's is 75, Dunn's is 74. None of them have been great with the bat(which after reading Ken Rosenthal's article about young hitters he published yesterday doesn't seem like it should be surprising). But the difference is Dunn has been taking starts over Joey Ortiz who has been awesome this year(OPS+ of 150). Whereas Frelick & Chourio don't really have anyone behind them pushing for more PT. I think that's the key difference.
But Dunn is just a utility player, and I'm sure Ortiz will start getting a much bigger share of those PA's soon if this keeps up. Dunn has also played solid defense. You have to keep all of your reserves ready for larger roles during a long season. I think it's too early to assume that a solid but far from sensational prospect with 108 career ABs like Ortiz has already made a similar guy like Dunn completely irrelevant.
Dunn has gotten more ABs than Ortiz has this season so far, admittedly it's close. Ideally I think most of us would like to see Ortiz take the Lions share of starts at 3b over Dunn with Dunn getting 1 or 2 starts a week.
I'm not saying that Ortiz shouldn't get a lot more starts, and soon. I'm just not that down on Dunn. I'm not going to pretend that I watch every game, but he looks fine to me, and I think his numbers will improve. I want him on my team. Also, it's not like he and Bauers have been total liabilities, or even negative value players. I think they've faced some unfair criticism. It's like people have completely forgotten how many absolutely wretched performers the Brewers have had in their lineup in recent years, sometimes even when the team has been pretty good overall. Bauers and Dunn have NOTHING on Rowdy or Winker suckitude just last year, for example.
