Dusty Baker has, in my opinion, 94% of a Hall of Fame resume.
In plain English, Dusty Baker may well be as much of an idiot as many of you claim that he is. I don’t really care; it’s not my problem. Good manager or bad, he has enjoyed a significant amount of success over a long period of time. He won 90 or more games with the San Francisco Giants five times, including 103 wins in 1993. He won a divisional title in Chicago, and has won two more in Cincinnati.
The San Francisco Giants won 75 games in 1991, and 72 games in 1993. They added Barry Bonds that winter—and Dusty Baker. They won 103 games.
Is it unrealistic to say that that team exceeded expectations by 27 games, given that they added Barry Bonds? Sure.
But the team did succeed. It is not unrealistic to say that the Giants exceeded expectations by 15 games in 1997, or that the Cincinnati Reds exceeded expectations by 15 games in 2012. Dusty Baker has had nine seasons in which his teams have exceeded expectations by a total 115 wins. That’s a very solid record.
Bill James