Originally Posted by Cyclone792
Yes, 2003 was a bad year for Dusty, as far as handling his Sp's anyway.
Kerry Wood was #2 in PAP points, Mark Prior was #4 and the new kid, Carlos Zambrano was #11.
But the good news (for Reds fans, anyway) is that 2003 was, by far, Dusty's worst year in handling pitching, at least as far as PAP points goes.
I looked back on his years as manager, from '93-02 with SF, and then '03-'06 with the Cubs.
Dusty's first 6 years he had exactly 0 (zero) SP's in the top 10 of PAP (pitcher abuse points).
*then it started (SP's in the top 10 of PAP):
'99- Russ Ortiz
'00- Livan (to be fair, every year Livan pitches, he appears in the top 10 of PAP points)
'01- Livan
'02- Livan, Ortiz
'03- Wood, Prior, and Zambrano (11th)
'04- Zambrano
'05- Zambrano, Prior
'06- Zambrano
To be complete, and fair, the same pitchers show up every single year on the PAP points. Most of them are seldom injured, and have pitched for years and years. These guys are workhorses. Names like, Schilling, Clemons, Johnson, Martinez (until of late), Harang, Livan, Schmidt, Halladay and Zambrano.
Also of note- only one single time has Kerry Wood appeared in the top 10 of most abused pitchers (2003), and only twice has Prior (2003, 2005). Zambrano has appeared on the list every single year since 2003 (no matter who is managing him). I would term Zambrano (and Harang along with him) a HORSE. Some guys can throw a lot of pitches, and some guys cannot. Good for Lou, holding Zambrano to a lower pitch count in the playoffs, since he was planning on using him on short rest.
Here's a question- Is it up to the manager to decide which SP's throw more pitches than others, or is it the responsibility of someone else to decide that?? in other words, is Dusty Baker responsible for 2003, and the ruination of Kerry Woods and Mark Prior? or are they just fragile arms? (which does indeed happen).
I'm sure if Baker interviewed here, this was all discussed in detail. I'm going to assume that Kriv and his staff know more about baseball than I do.
