no one else finds this statement absurd? i don't care how you twist or turn it, striking out a guaranteed 160+ times a season is not meaningless. Dunn has almost achieved 200 freaking strikeouts a season.
I'll try this once only. Forget OBP, lets go back 30 years in terms of stats.
Take batting average. Ted Williams was the last guy to hit .400. That means, for each plate appearance that was a hit or an out, Williams got out 6 out of 10 times. Some were strikeouts, pop ups, foul tips, grounders, double plays. Baseball is a game of failure. Out of 500 plate appearances, that's 300 outs that aren't sacrifices. If 160 of them are strikeouts, frankly, who gives a crap. They don't advance runners, but they aren't DP's either.
The best thing you can do is fail the right way. If you hit a sac fly or a sac bunt, that's a productive failure, so it doesn't count against your average (again, stats 30 years ago).
If you strike out with bases loaded, it's a hell of a lot better than a double play with 1 out. It's the same as a pop up with 2 outs. You have to take your understanding beyond the 3rd grade level.
One modification:
Hitting 4th and walking 100 times, no way Dunn gets to 500 appearances, so strikeouts are most of his outs.
