Adam Dunn is swinging hard coming back and closing in on an odd record

Adam Dunn was a punching bag and a punch line last season, his first with the Chicago White Sox and his first in the American League.

It wasn't pretty at all. He hit .159 and struck out 177 times, perhaps the worst performance by an established hitter in a full-time role ever. His batting average was the lowest in MLB since 1900 among hitters with at least 450 plate appearances. After hitting 38 homers or more in seven consecutive seasons in the National League, he hit 11 in 2011, and none in his final 28 games. His OPS was more than 300 points below his career average.

But Chicago stuck with him this season - they had little choice because they still owed him $44 million - and the old Dunn has returned. Dunn belted his 10th homer of the season on Wednesday night in Cleveland in the White Sox's 8-2 victory.

Fangraphs has an interesting look at Dunn's resurgence, and the stats suggest that the familiarity with the American League has finally kicked in. He's been more aggressive, which has helped his power numbers.

But then there's this staggering stat: Dunn has stuck out at least once in his last 36 games. The White Sox are off Thursday. With a strikeout at home against the Royals on Friday, he'll tie a modern major league record set by Bill Stoneman in 1972. Stoneman -- a pitcher -- struck out at least once for the Montreal Expos in 37 consecutive games he played in.

So there's some bad with the good. But you know what? The White Sox will take it.

Angels first baseman could be wild card in AL West and its not Pujols

With the expanded playoffs, the American League West might have room for two teams in the postseason this season, because there are two big-time teams that will go for the division in 2012. And very little separates the two-time pennant winners (Rangers) from the team that used to dominate the division (Angels).

One has a good shot at the wild card, and the biggest wild card in the division is on the Angels: Kendrys Morales.

Morales hasn't played in almost two seasons since getting hurt in a freak accident, breaking his leg in a home-plate celebration early in the 2010 season. He wasn't even known as Kendrys Morales then - he was Kendry. But he was a blossoming star as the team's first baseman, hitting .306 with 34 homers in 2009. Barring a major injury he won't be the Angels' first baseman -- that's Albert Pujols' job now -- but Morales could be the designated hitter.

In a workout Sunday, Morales ran the bases in cleats for the first time since the injury. He believes he could play in a spring training game this week.

Said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, to the Los Angeles Times: "There's still hurdles. You can't simulate adrenaline, secondary leads. It was his left foot [injured], though, so the right foot should be fine. The quick twitch, things you can only see in playing, is what we'll watch to get a guide."

If Morales is healthy and hitting close to the way he did three years ago, the Angels could put a great lineup together to go with a solid rotation, setting up an intriguing AL West race.

2012 Preview: American League West

Jamie Moyer on cusp of incredible feat Making a team at age 49

Granted, it was the 2012 San Francisco Giants. Their hitters are not likely to ever be compared favorably to the 1927 Yankees.

But Jamie Moyer, 49, no-hit them for four innings last week. And it certainly appears that he's going to make the Colorado Rockies roster as their No. 5 starter.

It's an amazing story, and writers all over are digging up facts. One of them is the fact that Moyer is older than any Rockies starting pitcher from their expansion season in 1993. Moyer was 30 then, and the oldest man to start a game for the 1993 Rockies was Bruce Ruffin, who was 29 then and is now 48. (Ruffin's son, Chance Ruffin, is a pitcher in Class AAA for the Seattle Mariners.)

Jim Caple of ESPN.com researched 49 incredible stats about Moyer. The most incredible one:

"At 49 years and four months, Moyer not only is older than Robert Redford was when he played Roy Hobbs in 'The Natural' (46 when filming began), he's older than was Wilford Brimley (48 at start of filming), who portrayed old manager Pop Fisher."

Another: "The major league minimum was $60,000 when Moyer made his debut. Alex Rodriguez made more than that every time he stepped up to the plate last season ($74,000)."

Roughly a third of the Rockies 40-man roster wasn't even born when Moyer made his debut in 1986. The Cubs cut Moyer in 1992, when he was 29. He had 34 wins. Since he turned 30, Moyer has won 233 more. Since turning 35, he's won 178 games. That's two-thirds of his career total.

Related: 2012 NL West preview

Zumaya once reached the outer limit but his speed caught up with him

Physiology can only take us so far. Throwing a ball is not a normal motion that can be repeated infinitely. And once you're on the outer limits of just how fast that ball can be thrown, the body will react.

That seems a plausible explanation for the right arm of Joel Zumaya.

Zumaya in 2006 for the Detroit Tigers threw the fastest pitch ever recorded by a radar gun: 104.8 mph. He hasn't been the same since. He's had his elbow reconstructed twice and had myriad other injuries since then (one sustained, famously, playing "Guitar Hero"). He missed the entire 2011 season with a broken elbow, and was signed to an incentive-laden deal by the Minnesota Twins in the offseason.

After 13 pitches in the Twins camp on Saturday, he left with elbow pain. And an MRI showed he had a torn ulnar collateral ligament in the same elbow, ending his 2012 comeback before it even began.

While the human body finds ways to break records in track and field and swimming all the time, peak velocity seems to have been reached in baseball. A story in Slate back in 2005 quoted experts in biomechanics why.

"Why do sprinters keep getting faster while baseball pitchers seem to have maxed out? Because track athletes don't approach the limits of what human tendons and ligaments can handle. When you run the 100-meter dash, no single stride represents as violent a motion as the arm makes during a single overhand pitch. Sprinters can build up their muscles without worrying that the extra force will rip their ligaments apart."

Science 2.0 also has an interesting article on the science of how fast a human can throw a baseball.

Zumaya left camp without speaking on his injury, which might require Tommy John ligament transplant surgery if Zumaya wants to keep going.

"The kid's a really good kid," manager Ron Gardenhire said to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "You get to know people from the other side, and he looks like some monster out there pitching against you. But you get him in your clubhouse, and you realize there are special people, and he's a special person, and it's a really sad day for him and his family and our baseball team, too. We were all hoping this guy would be able to get back on this thing and make it through. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."

Zumaya, 27, might be done as a major-league pitcher. Meanwhile, Jamie Moyer, 49, is still pitching in camp with the Rockies.

One threw the hardest; the other one of the softest.

Step by Step: How to Throw Four Kinds of Fastballs

Adam Dunn is swinging hard coming back and closing in on an odd record

Adam Dunn was a punching bag and a punch line last season, his first with the Chicago White Sox and his first in the American League.

It wasn't pretty at all. He hit .159 and struck out 177 times, perhaps the worst performance by an established hitter in a full-time role ever. His batting average was the lowest in MLB since 1900 among hitters with at least 450 plate appearances. After hitting 38 homers or more in seven consecutive seasons in the National League, he hit 11 in 2011, and none in his final 28 games. His OPS was more than 300 points below his career average.

But Chicago stuck with him this season - they had little choice because they still owed him $44 million - and the old Dunn has returned. Dunn belted his 10th homer of the season on Wednesday night in Cleveland in the White Sox's 8-2 victory.

Fangraphs has an interesting look at Dunn's resurgence, and the stats suggest that the familiarity with the American League has finally kicked in. He's been more aggressive, which has helped his power numbers.

But then there's this staggering stat: Dunn has stuck out at least once in his last 36 games. The White Sox are off Thursday. With a strikeout at home against the Royals on Friday, he'll tie a modern major league record set by Bill Stoneman in 1972. Stoneman -- a pitcher -- struck out at least once for the Montreal Expos in 37 consecutive games he played in.

So there's some bad with the good. But you know what? The White Sox will take it.

Angels first baseman could be wild card in AL West and its not Pujols

With the expanded playoffs, the American League West might have room for two teams in the postseason this season, because there are two big-time teams that will go for the division in 2012. And very little separates the two-time pennant winners (Rangers) from the team that used to dominate the division (Angels).

One has a good shot at the wild card, and the biggest wild card in the division is on the Angels: Kendrys Morales.

Morales hasn't played in almost two seasons since getting hurt in a freak accident, breaking his leg in a home-plate celebration early in the 2010 season. He wasn't even known as Kendrys Morales then - he was Kendry. But he was a blossoming star as the team's first baseman, hitting .306 with 34 homers in 2009. Barring a major injury he won't be the Angels' first baseman -- that's Albert Pujols' job now -- but Morales could be the designated hitter.

In a workout Sunday, Morales ran the bases in cleats for the first time since the injury. He believes he could play in a spring training game this week.

Said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, to the Los Angeles Times: "There's still hurdles. You can't simulate adrenaline, secondary leads. It was his left foot [injured], though, so the right foot should be fine. The quick twitch, things you can only see in playing, is what we'll watch to get a guide."

If Morales is healthy and hitting close to the way he did three years ago, the Angels could put a great lineup together to go with a solid rotation, setting up an intriguing AL West race.

2012 Preview: American League West

Jamie Moyer on cusp of incredible feat Making a team at age 49

Granted, it was the 2012 San Francisco Giants. Their hitters are not likely to ever be compared favorably to the 1927 Yankees.

But Jamie Moyer, 49, no-hit them for four innings last week. And it certainly appears that he's going to make the Colorado Rockies roster as their No. 5 starter.

It's an amazing story, and writers all over are digging up facts. One of them is the fact that Moyer is older than any Rockies starting pitcher from their expansion season in 1993. Moyer was 30 then, and the oldest man to start a game for the 1993 Rockies was Bruce Ruffin, who was 29 then and is now 48. (Ruffin's son, Chance Ruffin, is a pitcher in Class AAA for the Seattle Mariners.)

Jim Caple of ESPN.com researched 49 incredible stats about Moyer. The most incredible one:

"At 49 years and four months, Moyer not only is older than Robert Redford was when he played Roy Hobbs in 'The Natural' (46 when filming began), he's older than was Wilford Brimley (48 at start of filming), who portrayed old manager Pop Fisher."

Another: "The major league minimum was $60,000 when Moyer made his debut. Alex Rodriguez made more than that every time he stepped up to the plate last season ($74,000)."

Roughly a third of the Rockies 40-man roster wasn't even born when Moyer made his debut in 1986. The Cubs cut Moyer in 1992, when he was 29. He had 34 wins. Since he turned 30, Moyer has won 233 more. Since turning 35, he's won 178 games. That's two-thirds of his career total.

Related: 2012 NL West preview