Major League Baseball

Dunn's struggles represent daily dilemmas for some DHs

Published Jul. 14, 2011 7:14 p.m. ET

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The job doesn't seem like it should be all that difficult.

Pick up a bat. Head to the plate. Try to get a hit, drive in a run or whatever the situation demands. Take a break. Repeat three or four times over the course of three hours.

On the surface, the designated hitter seems like the least stressful position in baseball - if you can even call it a position, that is. Some things, however, are easier said than done.

"Over the course of my career, I probably lost 30 points on my batting average once I became a full-time DH," Frank Thomas told the Boers and Bernstein Show on WSCR-AM in Chicago.

Thomas isn't the only player to think so. In fact, a fellow White Sox slugger would call the Big Hurt's approximation downright conservative.

This season, six players have become their team's primary DH: Detroit's Victor Martinez, Kansas City's Billy Butler, Texas' Michael Young, the New York Yankees' Jorge Posada, the Los Angeles Angels' Bobby Abreu and Chicago's Adam Dunn.

The transition has been relatively smooth for Martinez, Butler and Young, although Young has voiced displeasure about the role and asked for a trade so he can play the field again. Posada and Abreu have seen their productivity dip, but they also appear to be on the downswing of their careers at the respective ages of 39 and 37.

Dunn, however, should still be in his prime at 31. Yet he's hitting as if retirement is right around the corner.

Prior to signing with the White Sox in December, Dunn spent his first 10 seasons in the National League. From 2004-10, only Albert Pujols' 294 homers were more than Dunn's 282. Dunn's RBI total of 709 ranked ninth and his on-base percentage of .381 was 23rd.

At last season's All-Star break, he was hitting .288 with 22 homers and 59 RBIs and had a .372 OBP as a first baseman for Washington. As the DH for Chicago, he's batting a major league-worst .160 with nine home runs, 34 RBIs and a .292 OBP.

Dunn's batting-average freefall of 128 points from one All-Star break to the next is the largest for a player with a minimum of 200 at-bats in each season's first half since Paul Konerko - another member of the White Sox - went from .328 in 2002 to .197 in 2003 for a drop-off of 131 points.

Changing leagues could be part of the problem, but Dunn never had such troubles hitting against AL pitching prior to this season. Over his first decade in the majors, he hit .247 against the AL while averaging a homer every 13.3 at-bats. Those numbers were largely consistent with his performance against the senior circuit, where he hit .251 with a home run every 14.1 at-bats.

The major observable difference this year? Well, the DH position has no position.

"It's still baseball, but it's different," Dunn said of the switch to the AL and DH. "It's something I didn't anticipate being that big of a deal."

It doesn't seem like it should be.

In fact, it almost seems like Dunn should be better prepared offensively given all the new-found time he has to focus on his next at-bat. That, however, is where players can run into problems, especially if things aren't going well at the plate.

"(There's) a lot of time to kill between at-bats and stuff when you're DHing," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said during last season's NLCS. "You're always thinking about your hitting and ... everything about your hitting comes into play. You have a tendency to press and try hard and things like that. You've got to try to find something to kill that downtime."

At the time, Manuel was discussing one of his former players, Pat Burrell, who can certainly relate to what Dunn is going through.

Burrell hit 33 homers and had a .875 OPS for Philadelphia in 2008 before signing with Tampa Bay at age 32 to become the Rays DH. He hit 14 home runs and had a .682 OPS for Tampa Bay in 2009. After batting .202 with two homers 24 games into the 2010 season, the Rays had seen enough, and released him.

San Francisco wound up signing Burrell to a minor league contract. He was called up in June and hit 18 home runs in 96 games with a .872 OPS, helping lead the Giants to the postseason and an eventual World Series championship.

Burrell said if he knew the reason he had so much trouble adjusting to DH, his time in Tampa probably wouldn't have ended so disastrously.

"For me, it has something to do with being in the flow of the game, playing in the field, being active in the game," Burrell said. "I think that's a huge part of it for me."

Most players that DH believe it's essential to find a routine and approach the game just like they would if they were playing the field. Some even participate in pre-game defensive drills just to stay in the right frame of mind.

Between at-bats, however, is where things can get tricky. It's not uncommon for a DH to go 50 minutes between plate appearances. And with just a couple of opportunities to leave an imprint on a game's outcome, the pressure is amped up.

In the dugout, a DH will likely spend time on the bench when his team is batting so he can observe the pitcher and pick up any tendencies, just like any other player. But when his team takes the field, he may try to stay loose by stretching, riding an exercise bike, hitting in the cage or getting a quick look at a previous at-bat in the video room - but without spending too much time away from the field.

All the while, if he's slumping, it's hard not to overanalyze during all the downtime.

"That's the only thing you can do, you can't play defense, you can't do other things. It's just ... hit," said Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who is 1 for 17 (.059) with six strikeouts lifetime as a DH in interleague games.

"If you're struggling, obviously you're going to think about it more because that's your only job. Unless you have a routine and until you figure out what you need to do, it's basically four pinch hits in a game."

While grabbing a glove and heading out to the field can help a player take his mind off hitting, it's also obviously a significant part of the game of baseball. Hopes of pulling off a highlight reel defensive play or even making a routine catch in a tense situation late in a game can drive some athletes. But it's a potential opportunity every DH is lacking.

"All you can do is help your team on offense," said Harold Baines, who spent parts of 14 of his 21 major league seasons with the White Sox and is currently their first base coach. "If you can play defense, if you have a bad day at the plate, you can play defense."

Baines began his career as a right fielder, but spent the last 15 years primarily as a DH due to a series of knee injuries. He ended his career as baseball's all-time DH leader with 1,688 hits and 1,643 games played, and is the only player to make 1,000 appearances as a DH and play at least 1,000 games at another position.

"It wasn't a hard transition for me because I couldn't play another position," Baines said. "It might have been a little easier for me to accept the role. That is all I could do."

When Dunn's name was mentioned during last season's trade deadline, he adamantly voiced his disapproval of being traded to the AL and becoming a DH. He felt he could still play the field and contribute defensively.

"This guy is playing out of position," Thomas said of Dunn. "He's been an outfielder, first baseman his whole career. You come to a new league and you got to DH every day? It's not easy. I've been there."

As a 30-year-old in 1998, Thomas became the White Sox's primary DH. He hit .265 with 29 homers a year after batting .347 with 35 home runs.

Although Dunn was reluctant to vacate his defensive responsibilities when he became a free agent last offseason, he signed a four-year contract for $56 million with the White Sox, knowing he'd become their full-time DH.

"I know what I signed up for," Dunn said. "I knew it was going to be tough."

No one, however, envisioned it being this difficult.

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