Friday, July 28, 2006

Adam Dunn, stolen base king

Dunn homered last night off of Taylor Buchholz. This was Dunn's 31st homer of the season, his second off Buchholz this year. It was Dunn's first home run in Houston since 2002, ending the second longest drought Dunn had at any stadium. Dodger Stadium is the only non-Washington D.C. National League stadium that Dunn has not homered in during the last three years.

Two nights before that, though, Dunn swiped a base off of Roger Clemens. Only twenty men in major league history have been 6'6" or taller and stolen a base. Dunn now has 45 of them. This puts him 5th all-time behind Dave Winfield, Darryl Strawberry, Dave Kingman and Deacon Nicholson. I'm pretty certain Dunn is the leader in steals for anyone who weighs as much as he does. The problem is that weight fluctuates. Dunn is listed as 275 this season but the official listing for him is 240 which is likely his rookie weight. Regardless, his ability to steal bases given his size is as impressive as his home run power.

In the rearview mirror: Surhoff and Porter. I was in error last time. Dunn's previous homer put him ahead of Bobby Higginson and Mike Stanley.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Thirtieth of the year

And number 188 of the career, passing B.J. Surhoff and Darrell Porter on the all-time list.

This is the third straight season that Dunn has hit at least thirty home runs. The dates of his thirtieth home run in the previous two seasons:

2004: August 4 off Brett Tomko
2005: July 29 off Brian Lawrence

Dunn's home run yesterday was off of Tom Martin, the first ever he has hit off of Martin. The last eight home runs Dunn has hit have been the first home runs he has hit off that particular pitcher.

Longer streaks of unique pitcher home runs by Dunn:
Homers 1-25 (#26 served by Ruben Quevedo, server of #15)
Homers 27-35 (#36 by Glendon Rusch who allowed #27)
Homers 37-49 (#50 and #28 by Kevin Millwood)
Homers 67-76 (#77 and #51 courtesy of Kerry Wood)

The last home run Dunn hit off a pitcher whom he had hit a home run off of previously was Doug Davis on June 13, 2006. Dunn has homered off of 141 unique pitchers. 26 pitchers have surrendered two or more home runs to him.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Moving on up

Yesterday I posted about Dunn's place in the Cincinnati dinger echelons, a place in which he should continue to progress up unless the Reds decide they need more mediocre relief pitching. I did not mention that with Dunn's home run on Friday he moved into the top 300 home run hitters of all-time.

For the fun of it, I'm going to continue to add on to the list of who he has passed on the all-time list as he does it.

Newest folks passed: Glenallen Hill, Minnie Minoso, Jorge Posada (186)

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Get ahead of Dunn and he's done

From the Elias Sports Bureau:

"Adam Dunn hit a home run on an 0-2 pitch Friday, the first time he has done that since hitting an 0-2 homer off Pete Munro on Aug. 30, 2004. Between then and Friday Dunn went 6-for-81 with 63 strikeouts on at-bats with a 0-2 count."

This was Dunn's 187th career homer as a Red, moving him past Vada Pinson into sole posession of 8th place all-time among Reds players. Those ahead of him and the number of games it took for each player to reach 187 homers with the Reds:









NameReds HomersG to 187
Johnny Bench389811
Frank Robinson324816
Tony Perez2871,173
Ted Kluszewski2511,046
George Foster2441,001
Eric Davis203889
Barry Larkin1981,944
Adam Dunn187751

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Keeping current

I try to be as up to date on Adam Dunn's home run ranking of most home runs hit in history. As such, I need to keep track of who is hitting home runs throughout the season. Here are the players near Dunn who have played in the majors this season:

J.T. Snow 189
Alfonso Soriano 189
Carlos Beltran 187
Rondell White 187
Dunn 186
Jorge Posada 186
Brian Jordan 184
Mike Sweeney 184
Geoff Jenkins 182

And a list of who Adam Dunn has passed so far this season, active and retired, on the career home run list:

Steve Balboni, Hank Bauer, Adrian Beltre, Clete Boyer, Bill Buckner, Pat Burrell, Mike Cameron, Chris Chambliss, Sam Chapman, Donn Clendennen, Harland Clift, Nate Colbert, Tony Conigliaro, Walker Cooper, Del Crandall, Joe Cronin, Jose Cruz, Alvin Davis, Willie Davis, Don Demeter, Bob Elliott, Julio Franco, Charlie Gehringer, Jim Gentile, Mark Grace, Chick Hafey, Jim Ray Hart, Harry Heilmann, Woodie Held, Tommy Henrich, Babe Herman, Jose Hernandez, Keith Hernandez, Jim Hickman, Richard Hidalgo, Larry Hisle, Elston Howard, Geoff Jenkins, Derek Jeter, Charles Johnson, Brian Jordan, Ken Keltner, Ron Kittle, Tony Lazzeri, Jim Lemon, Bill Madlock, Bill Melton, Don Money, Lloyd Moseby, Dwayne Murphy, Pete O'Brien, Tony Phillips, Tim Raines, Aramis Ramirez, Bill Robinson, Eddie Robinson, Henry Rodriguez, Pete Rose, Joe Rudi, Juan Samuel, Andy Seminick, Enos Slaughter, Roy Smalley, Al Smith, Paul Sorrento, Terry Steinbach, Mike Sweeney, Alan Trammell, Gus Triandos, Andy Van Slyke, Mickey Vernon, Claudell Washington, Bob Watson, Frank White and Preston Wilson.

75 players total.

Monday, July 10, 2006

How long has it been

Adam Dunn's most recent home run at each NL road ballpark:

Turner Field: July 9, 2006 off Oscar Villarreal
Miller Field: July 5, 2006 off Derrick Turnbow
Busch Stadium: June 6, 2006 off Josh Hancock
Wrigley Field: May 29, 2006 off Scott Eyre
Chase Field: May 7, 2006 off Orlando Hernandez
Coors Field: May 5, 2006 off Josh Fogg
PNC Park: August 26, 2005 off Mark Redman
Petco Park: July 31, 2005 off Woody Williams
AT&T Park: July 5, 2005 off Noah Lowry (called SBC Park at the time)
Citizens Bank Park: May 14, 2005 off Ryan Madson
Shea Stadium: June 22, 2004 off Matt Ginter
Dolphins Stadium: June 1, 2004 off Nate Bump (called Pro Player Stadium at the time)
Minute Maid Park: August 24, 2002 off Tom Gordon
Dodger Stadium: May 2, 2002 off Odalis Perez
RFK Stadium: None (homered at Stade Olympique on May 29, 2004 off Zach Day)

Dunn has hit seventy home runs on the road, fifteen of them at Wrigley Field, since the last time he homered at Dodger Stadium. Since that time two ballparks in which he had hit home runs changed their name, one team switched countries, and Dunn hit homers in four American League ballparks. Dunn will have three chances at most this year, from August 28th to August 30th, to make his most recent Dodger Stadium home run more current.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Making like a turtle

After a slow start in June, Dunn has begun July slowly as well, taking until today, July 9th to hit his second home run of the month. He homered on the 5th of July in the tenth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers for his first of the month.

Even though he has begun two months slowly, Dunn still enters the All-Star break with more home runs than he has had at the All-Star break any of his other seasons. Dunn's 28th homer of the year places him tied for second in the National League with Ryan Howard of the Philadlephia Phillies and behind Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Dunn's homer today was his first at Turner Field in Atlanta since May 26, 2003. Tomorrow I will post when Dunn hit his last home run at each of the National League ballparks.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Bobbing for homers

Adam Dunn hit home runs off of a pair of Bobs the past two games. On Thursday, against the Kansas City Royals, Dunn followed Felipe Lopez's home run to leadoff the third inning with a titantic blast to right that was as high as it was far. Bobby Keppel was the victimized pitcher as the Reds went on to win 6-5.

Yesterday, the Reds bats were silent through the first eight innings against Paul Bryd and the Cleveland Indians. Down 7-0, the Reds scored four in the eighth. The Indians added one in the top of the ninth. Closer Bob Wickman came in despite it not being a save situation. He turned it into one by giving up two singles and a pair of walks which brought Dunn up with bases loaded, two outs and the score 8-5.

Dunn lined the second pitch into right for the game-winning home run. This was his sixth grand slam, his first since July of last year and his first that was a walkoff. The Reds have won every game that Dunn has hit a grand slam in.

The series continues today against the Indians. Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia take the mound for the Indians in the next two games. Dunn has never hit a home run off a pitcher who goes by his initials.