{"id":5135,"date":"2014-08-31T09:48:24","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T15:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=5135"},"modified":"2014-08-31T09:48:24","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T15:48:24","slug":"our-long-nightmare-is-finally-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/our-long-nightmare-is-finally-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Long Nightmare Is Finally Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dunnx-wide-community\"<\/a>What started with such promise back on December 2, 2010 finally came to an end today as\u00a0Adam Dunn’s White Sox career came to an end when he was traded to the A’s. \u00a0Dunn was supposed to add some left handed power to a White Sox team that was predominately right handed, but wound up disappointing every one associated with the franchise for the last four years.<\/p>\n

The White Sox first showed interest in Adam Dunn during the 2009 season, while he was playing for the Washington Nationals.\u00a0 The speculation of a deal increased when Kenny Williams pulled the trigger on a deal that sent young pitcher Daniel Hudson to the Diamondbacks in exchange for Edwin Jackson, whom the Nationals were reportedly interested in as part of a package for Dunn.\u00a0 However, Dunn balked at having to play designated hitter and, as the\u00a0trade deadline passed, no deal was\u00a0made.<\/p>\n

Following the season, Dunn apparently came to terms with playing designated hitter, signing a four year deal worth $56 million with the White Sox.\u00a0 As the 2011 season got under way, things looked to be off to a great start.\u00a0 Dunn was hitting .286 with 1 home run, an opening day blast against the Indians, and 5 RBIs when he came down with appendicitis on April 6, a mere four games in to the season.\u00a0 When he returned, things completely\u00a0fell apart.<\/p>\n

\"dunn095\"<\/a>As the 2011 season went on, things started crumbling for the White Sox.\u00a0 The relationship between Kenny Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen had worsened to\u00a0the point of no return, and Dunn, their big free agent signing, had completely gone off the rails.\u00a0 Despite missing time due to\u00a0his appendicitis, Dunn managed to rack up 100 strikeouts before the end of June.\u00a0 As the season went on, Dunn saw less playing time and he finished the year with a .159 average and only 11 home runs and 42 RBIs.\u00a0 He managed to strike out 177 times in only 415 at bats.\u00a0 Had he gotten a mere 6 additional plate appearances, he would have qualified for the batting title and would have posted the lowest batting average by such a player since 1909.<\/p>\n

Looking to put the 2011 season behind him, Dunn pledged to adjust his offseason routine in order to bounce back in 2012.\u00a0 Which, to a certain extent, he did.\u00a0 Dunn finished the year with 41 home runs and 96 RBIs, becoming just the 4th left handed hitter in White Sox history to hit more than 30 home runs in a season.\u00a0 He also managed to raise his batting average 45 points, which was a tremendous improvement, but still left him barely above the Mendoza line at .204.\u00a0 To put the icing on the cake, he became the third player to surpass 200 strikeouts and set the American League record of 222, one shy of Mark Reynold’s major league record set in 2009.<\/p>\n

By this point, most White Sox fans were ready to wash their hands of Dunn, but it is not easy to move a player earning $15 million a year who is unable to hit his weight.\u00a0 So, Dunn returned for the 2013 season.\u00a0 Injuries to Paul Konerko allowed Dunn to move back to the field, where he always maintained he felt more comfortable.\u00a0 He responded by improving his batting average to .219 and leading the league in errors for first basemen.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the White Sox cratered around him, finishing with their worst record in over 20 years.<\/p>\n

2014 was really no better, except that nobody had any expectations for either the White Sox or Dunn. \u00a0Today, both sides can finally look to the future and move forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What started with such promise back on December 2, 2010 finally came to an end today as\u00a0Adam Dunn’s White Sox career came to an end when he was traded to the A’s. \u00a0Dunn was supposed to add some left handed power to a White Sox team that was predominately right handed, but wound up disappointing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[123,299,2385,122,571,115,894,133,117,893,127,49],"class_list":["post-5135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-as","tag-adam-dunn","tag-daniel-hudson","tag-diamondbacks","tag-edwin-jackson","tag-indians","tag-kenny-williams","tag-mark-reynolds","tag-nationals","tag-ozzie-guillen","tag-paul-konerko","tag-white-sox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5135"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6651,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions\/6651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}