Plan "B"

[spidernat]

Reds fans hated him. 

It sounds like they unfairly singled him out for all their failures. He's not the only player this has happened to.

[BerkeleyNat]

Fine. Bring him here and then his play on the field will do all the talking.

I don't see how I am biased. I'm not related to NJ and I don't hate Dunn. I just think he's a bad player and I'm not alone if you venture outside of this forum. Reds fans hated him. GMs see him for what he is and are not interested in him. How can you explain no one being interested in Dunn this off-season?

[HalfSmokes]

Fine. Bring him here and then his play on the field will do all the talking.

I don't see how I am biased. I'm not related to NJ and I don't hate Dunn. I just think he's a bad player and I'm not alone if you venture outside of this forum. Reds fans hated him. GMs see him for what he is and are not interested in him. How can you explain no one being interested in Dunn this off-season?

How do you know no one is interested. Do we know anyone is interested in any of the remaining hitters left?

[PatsNats28]

Slightly OT, but on ESPN there is a poll on the front page asking who will win the AL East. I voted, and opened it... and the state of Maryland has the O's down. Talk about homerism in the extreme.

[MrMadison]

So people insist that we can't land top FA's because we're a losing franchise. They also say we won't be able to sign any good players until we start to win. However, these same people oppose signing a player that should help us win more games this year and say we should wait until next year (likely after another losing season) to sign FA's.  

and next year, sportsfan will be here saying the exact same thing again, only about another player that would improve the team.

such is life as a Nats fan.

like I said, the gameday threads should be pretty quiet in regards to the cursing and POSTING INSULTS IN ALL CAPS at our first basemen for pretty much the entire season, regardless of how many weak tappers to the 2nd baseman they hit.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

sportsfan has a bo-ner for young players.  I'm sure he'd just prefer that we call up Rhinehart no matter how ready he is.

And then he'll post a bunch of these in the GD threads once he hits .100 with no tools of which to speak.

Edited so as not to offend.

[hammondsnats]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/where-do-the-ofs-land/

Washington seems to make the most sense for Adam Dunn - he knows Jim Bowden from his days with the Reds, his best friend in the world is Austin Kearns, and the Nats are reportedly looking for a first baseman, since they don’t want to count on either Nick Johnson or Dmitri Young for 2009 and beyond. Dunn has experience at first base and would probably be willing to move there for a full time job and a decent contract. But considering that the rumored offer from Washington for Bradley was 3/30, it’s unlikely that they’d go higher than that for Dunn, especially in a market where he doesn’t have too many other obvious fits. Would Dunn settle for a contract in the 2/20 range? He might have to, because while he is younger than Burrell, they are comparable players, and his options are quickly dwindling.

Let’s assume Dunn does end up in Washington. That leaves Abreu trying to convince the Braves, Angels, and Mariners to start a bidding war for his services. None of them seem particularly interested, though.

[sportsfan882]

sportsfan has a bo-ner for young players.  I'm sure he'd just prefer that we call up Rhinehart no matter how ready he is.

And then he'll post a bunch of these in the GD threads once he hits .100 with no tools of which to speak.

Edited so as not to offend.

Nope, I have a "bo-ner" for good players.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

Let me ask you this: would you prefer Eric Hinske to Adam Dunn?

[sportsfan882]

Let me ask you this: would you prefer Eric Hinske to Adam Dunn?

No. Really, I'd prefer neither.

[Minty Fresh]

What's the answer then?
Play another year of pathetic ball?

So then your saying if we sign Adam Dunn we'll be so much less pathetic?  Dunn maybe gets us 0 more wins. 

If we can stay healthy without any further additions we should easily win 15 more games than last year.  We were the only team in the bigs with injuries at every single position. 

Adam Dunn isn't going to get us any more wins.

If you're in the "Lerners are Cheap" camp then why would youadvocate them wasting their money on a guy like Dunn when there are many better options in next year's market?  The Lerners dump 15MM per on Dunn and we might as well resign ourselves to no free-agents next year.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

Because signing a free agent this year doesn't mean you can't sign any next year?

My sweet lord, signing Adam Dunn for 15MM per still only gives us a payroll of around 70 mill!

[sportsfan882]

Because signing a free agent this year doesn't mean you can't sign any next year?

My sweet lord, signing Adam Dunn for 15MM per still only gives us a payroll of around 70 mill!

If we sign Dunn forget about next year and probably the year after that. Holliday > Dunn, no?

[Minty Fresh]

Let me ask you this: would you prefer Eric Hinske to Adam Dunn?

I'd prefer a shot at:

Adam LaRoche
Brian Roberts
Hank Blalock
Jason Bay
Carl Crawford
Matt Holliday
Josh Beckett
Erik Bedard
Tim Hudson
or
Brandon Webb

If we waste money on Dunn and he sucks balls (like he probably will) and this team wins only 70 or so games with him (when they could just as easily win 70 without him) the Lerners aren't going to pony up in 2010.  And we'll still be stuck with Dunn.

Dunn is a bad contract waiting to happen.

I will qualify that, though, with the idea of liking the potential deal outlined from the blog hammondsnats posted where he might be had for a two year deal.  I could live with that.

[Minty Fresh]

Because signing a free agent this year doesn't mean you can't sign any next year?

If you dumped a boat-load of dough for a mediocre, overpaid statue who happens to draw a lot of walks, wouldn't you be hesitant too the next time the subject comes up?

I know I would. 

[Minty Fresh]

If we sign Dunn forget about next year and probably the year after that. Holliday > Dunn, no?

No.

Holliday >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dunn.

[MrMadison]

If we sign Dunn forget about next year and probably the year after that. Holliday > Dunn, no?

but according to your infallible logic, Holliday would never sign here anyway because what good player is willing to play for the Nats, right?

seriously, are we going to do this every offseason? team needs obvious improvement, there is a method of improvement in the area we require that is attainable, and you spend all your energy telling us it's not a good idea and to wait until next offseason?

we gonna do this next year too?

[sportsfan882]

but according to your infallible logic, Holliday would never sign here anyway, right?

If we show some progress this year we could definitely draw some FAs. I'm just banking on us not losing 102 games again. Hopefully we can get close or over .500.

[Minty Fresh]

but according to your infallible logic, Holliday would never sign here anyway, right?

I think with the way we handled the Tex thing and if we can manage to win 70-75 with our modest moves we've made so far, free agents will look at us as a team moving in the right direction.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

I'd prefer a shot at:

Stop right there.  Already, you're assuming that even half of these guys will hit the FA market after this season.  I remember looking at the FA list before the 07/08 offseason and thinking it looked good.  Then guys started signing extensions all around the league and that went straight to hell.

Also, which of those guys is going to join this crapbag team if it doesn't improve?  We already saw that happen with Teixeira.  I understand your thesis about Dunn not being good, and we'll agree to disagree on that, but do you think this current team is going to attract free agents?

If you agree that it won't, who do you propose we target instead of Dunn if you want these FA's of next year so badly?

[MrMadison]

fine. do nothing. make no further attempts to get the middle of the order bat that we need.

go with the first basemen we have. Johnson, Young, Casto.

I don't wanna hear any nagging about the first base play from you two for the entire season.

let's just pray that Johnson can stay healthy for once in his life, and that  Dukes and Milledge and Zimmerman don't light the entire world on fire. that's what you wanna do, then fine. but if they don't, no nagging about that either.

and I don't wanna hear any Cheap Lerners or "the Lerners aren't willing to improve the team" nagging from you two.

[spidernat]

sportsfan has a bo-ner for young players.  I'm sure he'd just prefer that we call up Rhinehart no matter how ready he is.

Maybe this is sportsfan's thinking. He doesn't want one of our stud prospects to be blocked and Dunn may prevent one of them earning a spot or being called up during the season.

Because signing a free agent this year doesn't mean you can't sign any next year?

My sweet lord, signing Adam Dunn for 15MM per still only gives us a payroll of around 70 mill!

It's not rocket science but I guess our owners are proving to be cheap bastards so we may really be stuck with one acquisition per generation.   

[sportsfan882]

Stop right there.  Already, you're assuming that even half of these guys will hit the FA market after this season.  I remember looking at the FA list before the 07/08 offseason and thinking it looked good.  Then guys started signing extensions all around the league and that went straight to hell.

Also, which of those guys is going to join this crapbag team if it doesn't improve?  We already saw that happen with Teixeira.  I understand your thesis about Dunn not being good, and we'll agree to disagree on that, but do you think this current team is going to attract free agents?

If you agree that it won't, who do you propose we target instead of Dunn if you want these FA's of next year so badly?

I'm hoping that the players we have here stay healthy and finally live up to their hype.

[spidernat]

we gonna do this next year too?

We'll have to go through it again until our prospects become superstars. 

[KnorrForYourMoney]

I'm hoping that the players we have here stay healthy and finally live up to their hype.

Wish in one hand, crap in the other...