"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Vets over rookies.
This may have been rehashed already, but just curious what promising rookies languished on the bench because Dusty decided to play vets over them.
Ryan Theriot came up to the Cubs last year, but if he was sitting it was because Ronny Cedeno(Age 23) was playing in front of him.
I hear two contradictory criticisms of Baker.
He play vets over rookies, and he plays guys like Corey Patterson(ages 23-25) way too much.
I've heard this tweaked to say if you produce than he'll play you no matter what, but if you're a rookie and you struggle, then he'll play the struggling veteran over you.
This is probably true of any manager who hasn't been given assurances that he'll manage beyond the next year.
I understand the criticism of Neiffi and Jose Macias, but as was mentioned at about page 10, every manager has their own personal blind spots.
I'm not sure about the Giants, but the Cubs farm system hasn't exactly had a whole lot to write home about the last few years.
As for the arm wrecking, he is old school no doubt, but Wood and Prior were likely headed for the good doctor regardless of who managed. For every Wood and Prior, I can point to Zambrano and Hernandez, two guys that throw a ton of pitches every year with seemingly no ill affect.
About the only positive thing I can say about the hiring of Dusty Baker is that sometimes a team wins despite, not because of, its manager. For example, in 1982 the Orioles won 94 games with Earl Weaver at the helm and just missed winning the AL East. The next season, with Joe Altobelli as manager, the O's won 98 games and the World Series. Does anybody believe that Altobelli was a better manager than Weaver?
Sometimes you are just lucky. A few players have career years, a few new rookies or acquisitions suddenly do better than you could have imagined, and...well you are lucky-you get hot, you win more than your share of close games-and you are a winner. In those instances, you tend to fall back the next season.
So that's the best I can do when it comes to Dusty Baker. Maybe the Reds will be lucky and win despite him.
"Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."
There's a side to this equation you have to take into account.
It's not just that Dusty Baker would let potentially promising young position players rot on the bench for extended stretches. It's that he would play veterans over them who should not have seen the kind of playing time they got. It's one thing when you keep a promising young player on the bench because you have a pretty good veteran producing. It's another thing when you trot out Neifi Perez every day as a top of the order hitter instead of one of those promising young players.
In other words, Dusty was a-okay with starting arguably the worst everyday player of this generation over someone like Ronny Cedeno or Ryan Theriot. That doesn't speak well to his judgment.
Everyone keeps mentioning the Cubs as Dusty's resume... whither the 10 years in San Francisco?
Who were the young guys buried there?
Those 10 years have been expunged from the records with an asterisk in their place
One thing that has happened since the Reds left the West and you see those teams a few times a year out here is that you forget they play when they aren't coming to town but once a year. Another feather in Bud Ball.
“And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith
Yeah, why am I not surprised that this view of the Indians' success is completely software-centric? I'm sure Diamondview is helpful, but more essential tools of the Indians current success were already there before Shapiro et al took over.it was the the innovative philosophical transformation of the Indians FO by Shapiro where the reliance upon a statistically-driven system formed the core of their philosophy that allowed them to retool so quickly and successfully.
Sabathia, signed in 1998.
Peralta in 1999.
Victor Martinez in 1996.
Carmona, probably 2001 or 2002, and I doubt his signing in the Dominican owed anything to Diamondview.
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