Adam Dunn‘s numbers weren’t very glamorous at the end of last season.
After it was all said and done, Adam had a mere .159 batting average with 415 total at-bats. He batted only .128 in the month of September.
But Dunn’s new manager Robin Ventura is excited about him, according to this quote from csnchicago.com’s Chuck Garfien, via his Twitter account:
“Ventura on Adam Dunn: “He’s on our squad. He’s not going anywhere. I’m patient and I know it’s there.”
Encouraging news for a player who many fans have questioned even being in the lineup.
But Dunn has been his own toughest critic. Arriving at spring training, he talked about the immediate things on the agenda, which includes working with new White Sox hitting coach Jeff Manto.
“We’ll kind of go over some things and see what he wants me to do and how he wants me to approach the season and kind of go from there,” said Dunn in the Chicago Tribune, who struck out 177 times in the 2011 season.
“My main goal is to be ready for Opening Day, and that’s what I’ll do.”
But Dunn worked hard to counter his slumping numbers in the offseason. Working on the fundamentals of his swing by taking several batting exercises, he hopes to find the success he had in 2009 when he batted a career-best .267.
We’ll have to see if the batting practice pays off. Surprisingly enough, if you ask Adam about it, he’s not so optimistic.
“No, other than I’ll probably be a little better in [batting practice] than normal,” Dunn said. “Other than that, I don’t know.”
His desire to compete at a high level and bring his team success is still there.
“My goal is to be ready for opening day, and that’s the ultimate goal,” Dunn said. “It doesn’t matter to me if I go out and hit .500 with 20 home runs this spring. That probably won’t translate over to the season.”
Of course, better numbers can always turn his attitude around.
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