Reds G.M. Wayne Krivsky outlined his vision for the Reds offense. The most notable part of it is that he's willing to cut down on power, if it means less strikeouts.
Charlie from Bucs Dugout says exactly what I would about this plan (in summary, it's a very, very bad idea), and JD from Red Reporter looks at how the Reds don't care about on base percentage. With this recent revelation, is it time to enter Krivski into the race for worst G.M.?
When I ran my worst G.M. poll back in June, Krivski stayed out of the running because as bad of an idea as the Bronson Arroyo for Wily Mo Pena trade was, Arroyo was the best pitcher in the NL at the time. Combine this with the success of the guys he took a flier on, Brandon Phillips and Scott Hatteberg, and I just couldn't put him in the poll.
One month later, the Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns for middle relief trade happened, and then Krivski managed to raise the Reds payroll by several million dollars in a desperate attempt to find a middle reliever. Finally, Krivski managed to fire one of the first bullets of the offseason by resigning Juan Castro, he of the career .272 on base percentage, to a multiyear contract.
I realize that every G.M. isn't going to strictly follow sabermetric tenants, but the few that have completely dismiss on base percentage, Jim Bowden, Jim Hendry, and Dave Littlefield, for example, lead some of the most hopeless teams in baseball. Is it now valid to add Krivski to the list?
Anyway, the main thrust that I got from the article is "I want to trade Adam Dunn". Since his value will be lower that it should be, is it worthwhile for the Dodgers to go after him? Dunn had one of the worst years of his career this year, hitting only .234/.365/.490, but there is far more to it. Dunn was one of the most unlucky players in baseball on balls in play this year. He had a 23.5 line drive percentage, by far his best in the last three years, yet his BABIP was only .278, if you set him to his "natural" BABIP of .355, and assume he only hits singles, his line improves to a far more impressive .276/.399/.532. Since he should hit a few more doubles, the slugging would probably increase to around .550.
There are some issues with acquiring Dunn, however. The big one is that he plays in a launching pad, inflating his stats. While that didn't have much of an effect in 2006, overall, Dunn's OPS is about 80 points higher at home. The second problem is that Dunn is a guaranteed rental player. He gets paid 10.5 million this year, and if he gets traded, his team option becomes voided.
If Krivski is willing to let go of Dunn for a couple middle relievers, sure bring him in. Otherwise, he's not enough of an upgrade over Andre Ethier to justify the cost and talent it would take to acquire him for one year.