Dunn swings and disses
Coach says self-criticism part of persona of evolving Reds slugger
BY JOHN FAY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
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TAMPA, Fla. - The numbers Adam Dunn has put up the past couple of years have impressed everyone but Adam Dunn.
"My thing is I think I stink right now," he said.
Say what?
Dunn, at 26, is one of baseball's premier sluggers.
He has averaged 43 home runs and 101 RBI over the past two years.
He is the only player in the rich history of the Reds franchise to drive in 100 runs, score 100 runs and walk 100 times in back-to-back years.
So, does he actually think he stinks?
"Yeah, I do," he said. "I'll go home sometimes and think, 'I don't know what I'm doing.' "
A lot of that is because even after five years in the big leagues, Dunn still considers football his first sport. That comes from the fact that he played so much more football than baseball when he was young.
"In football, you can control what you do," he said. "If I had a bad game, it was because I played bad. I was as good as I could be in football. That's all I did. My mechanics were perfect.
"In baseball, they're not so perfect."
Hitting coach Chris Chambliss, who deserves a large share of the credit for Dunn's success, thinks the self-deprecation is just Dunn being Dunn.
"He's not afraid to laugh at himself," Chambliss said. "He doesn't take himself too seriously. That's a good attitude."
Chambliss saw the same attitude in former teammate Thurman Munson. When Munson was bad, Chambliss said, he'd be the first to say it.
"It really helps them let the steam off," Chambliss said. "Adam has the same kind of personality."
That is not to say Dunn doesn't take the game seriously.
"This is my third year with him," Chambliss said. "He knows what his keys are right now. He works on them every day.
"He's swinging the bat really good right now in batting practice."
Dunn's swinging the bat pretty well in games as well. He hit a home run in the intrasquad scrimmage and hit another homer in his first Grapefruit League game Friday.
What Chambliss likes about Dunn's work habits is he's not trying to pull the ball to right field and hit it 500 feet every time. Dunn has seen how Ken Griffey Jr., owner of 536 home runs, works.
"Adam's best when he's hitting the ball all over the field," Chambliss said. "He's doing that now - not just spraying the ball but driving it. Junior is a good influence. Junior does that himself. You don't see them just hitting home runs, which they could do, against the slow batting practice pitches and make a joke out of it.
"They're driving the ball to center field, left field."
One of Wayne Krivsky's first acts as general manager was to persuade CEO Bob Castellini to invest $18.5 million in Dunn over the next two years and perhaps as much as $34.5 million over three years.
Dunn is just glad to have the whole contract thing behind him. It had been speculated that he would get out of Cincinnati the first chance he had. But he committed to the Reds for what would have been the first year of his free agency.
"I just didn't want anything to interfere with playing," he said. "I didn't want to go to arbitration. I'm glad I don't have to go through that."
It's hard to say how much of his potential Dunn has tapped. He hit 40 home runs last year and 46 the year before. But he struck out 168 times last year and 195 the year before.
"He's got great power - no doubt - but I don't like putting numbers on guys," Chambliss said. "I try to pay more attention to other things - less strikeouts and hitting for a higher average. He hit .249 last year. He can hit higher than that.
"When those things improve, the numbers get even better. He'll get more RBI."
Dunn has 50-home run potential.
"You can throw a number out there and say he's capable of hitting 50 home runs," Chambliss said. "He is. But I'm not the kind of guy who looks at numbers. When he's healthy, he's going to hit some home runs."
Health is another thing on Dunn's side. He is durable, playing 160 games last year and 161 the year before.
Last year, he probably suffered a broken hand, but he refused to have it X-rayed and kept playing.
"He's a gamer," Chambliss said. "He's out there every day."
And, a lot of days, Dunn thinks he stinks. But he never lets his self-criticism keep him down.
"I get over it, because I know it's part of the game," he said.
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