Shawon Dunston

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Shawon Donnell Dunston

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 175 lb.

High School Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn)

Debut April 9, 1985
Final Game September 29, 2002
Born March 21, 1963 in Brooklyn, NY USA

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[edit] Biographical Information

Shortstop Shawon Dunston played 18 years in the big leagues and was a two-time All-Star. The bulk of his career was spent with the Chicago Cubs, although most of his post-season appearances were with other teams.

Dunston was the first overall pick in the 1982 amateur draft. As a result, he was a highly visible minor leaguer who was brought along carefully by the Chicago Cubs. He spent 3 1/2 years in the minors. When he finally made the majors in 1985, he had great defensive range and could hit with some power, although he never learned to draw a walk in his 18-year major league career. He also never won a Gold Glove, but then Ozzie Smith was winning the award year after year in those days. Dunston stole 212 bases in his career, with a high of 30 in 1988.

For many years he and Ryne Sandberg formed the double-play combo for the Cubs. Dunston was three years younger than Sandberg, and came up in 1985 to replace veteran Larry Bowa when Sandberg had just won the MVP award in 1984.

In 1997, Dunston walked a shockingly low eight times all season, tying Doug Flynn for the fewest walks in a full season, post-WWII (450 or more at-bats). In 1999 he had an even lower ratio of walks per 100 plate appearances, getting 2 walks in 255 appearances.

He never led the league in any major hitting category, but was third in the league in doubles with 37 in 1986. Due to his tendency to draw very walks, his OPS+ scores were usually low in spite of a decent batting average and moderate power.

The second-most-similar player, based on similarity scores through 2008, is Jim Fregosi. However, Fregosi did win a Gold Glove, played at a time when batting averages were at historic lows, and drew walks pretty well, thus showing the limitations of the similarity scores method. Perhaps a better comparison is Dunston's contemporary Juan Samuel - while Samuel is only tenth on Dunston's list of most similar players, Dunston is # 2 on Samuel's list.