Custom Card of the Day: Dunn Edition

Here's a question: if Adam Dunn hadn't have sucked in 2011, would we be remembering his 2012 season at all?

I mean, here's a guy whose career has been thoroughly consistent. He hits well with the Reds. He gets traded to Arizona, cracks it open. Plays well for two seasons in Washington. And then they hand him to Chicago, and he has the one inconsistent year of his career, before hammering the crap out of the ball in 2012. Aside from that little fluke, you've got a consistently powerful hitter.

So, say in 2011, he goes to the White Sox and has a solid, albeit unspectacular, 30 Homer season. He gets an All Star nod, spends the year off the DL, and ends the year like he starts it. I'm not saying it happened, but let's imagine it did.

He goes on to do basically the same thing in 2012, only he starts a little grander than he finishes, and hits a few more home runs. If that were to happen, would people be as bat-crap crazy as they were for him after the poor season?

Well, no.

You have to remember, the people who saw Adam Dunn come back in 2012 had seen a different Adam Dunn, an inconsistent, slumping, ineffective one. So he comes back, and really gets off to a great start, and everybody loses their minds. Now, take away the crappy 2011 season, and the reaction goes down. People think 'oh, he's doing what he did last year. No big deal.' It's why nobody is too surprised that Dan Uggla's hitting well, or that Felix Hernandez is pitching well. These people have been so consistent that you learn to accept that. With Adam Dunn, it was surprising because of the year he wasn't good, and how it made an effect that he'd never be good again, only for it to be shattered.

Of course, now Adam Dunn's doing exactly what he had been doing before the slump, and now everyone's saying he's not as good as he was, and he's gone downhill.

You can't win with these people.

Coming Tomorrow- the only member of the New York Yankees who isn't infuriating the fans right now. Though, wait until the offseason and he might start.