Dusty on Dunn's spot in the lineup

[Reds Fanatic]

From John Fay:

I asked Dusty Baker if he considered moving Dunn somewhere else in the lineup, given that Dunn is walking so much and hitting so little:

"Well, it's kind of two-fold. A lot of the walks he gets he gets that one pitch to hit. Sometimes he takes it. Most of the time he's been fouling it off. Pitchers aren't going to come at him, come at him, come at him. I told him the other day: Hey man, you're fouling a lot of balls off. You're fouling them straight back, which means you're on them but underneath them. With our situation here, it's not that easy to flip flop that lineup. We'd too many lefties in a row. A lot of it falls in Eddie (Encarnacion). As Eddie goes, we're going to go. Eddie has a lot of chances. I'll try to stick with this for a while. Hopefully, some of the guys come out of it. As far as protection, Hank Aaron used to tell me I was his protection. He told me to get some doubles and singles and that'll stop them from walking him. I had (Keppinger) batting behind (Dunn) a couple of days. He's our hottest hitter right now. He's a prototypical second hitter."

[cincyinco]

Swap dunn and griff for a few turns. what's the big deal dusty?

[Blitz Dorsey]

The Dumb Donkey just needs to start hitting. Has nothing to do with batting order.

[KronoRed]

Swap dunn and griff for a few turns. what's the big deal dusty?

Hall of famers don't bat 5th.

[Spring~Fields]

Dusty, Dusty, take what the other guys give you.

Move Dunn up to the second or third spot, cash in on those walks, Dunn will hit better too.

[*BaseClogger*]

I don't even know where to start with this quote...

He mentions:

*not easy to flip-flop lineup (can it get easier?)

*too many lefties in a row

*stick with this for a while

*compares to Hank Aaron and the era when he played

*Keppinger prototypical second hitter

[Blitz Dorsey]

Dusty does love them "me was batting in front of Hank Aaron, dude" references.

[SteelSD]

Dusty does love them "me was batting in front of Hank Aaron, dude" references.

Baker name drops. It advances his own "legacy", which is really what he's after.

Aaron and Baker played together only three full seasons, beginning when Aaron was 38 years old.

After reviewing the lineup slots where both accumulated most of their PA, it's likely that Baker may have hit behind Aaron around 40% of the time Aaron was in the lineup and hit ahead of him only 18% of the time. The two certainly weren't paired up by the manager considering that over the three-year span Aaron produced 1392 PA and Baker 1845 PA.

I don't doubt that Aaron may have said something to Baker about being his "protection", but I'm not sure what that has to do with the Reds right now, especially when the next comment is about how Jeff Keppinger can somehow "protect" Adam Dunn.

[Ron Madden]

Dusty seems to do very well with clubhouse politics.

I have very little faith in his resoning concerning the use of the 25 players on his roster. I hope I'm wrong here.

[BRM]

Fay has today's lineup posted.

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/redsinsider/

OK, so Junior and Dunn can hit back to back against the LHP, Ted Lilly, but never against a righty. Whatever works I guess. Its nice to see them 3-4 for a change anyway.

[RedsManRick]

I will never understand why you should separate your lefties artificially for 3/4 of the game to avoid a potential late game scenario with a LOOGY. Bat your guys in the order that makes the most sense based on their skills. I'll never understand why lineups get built around avoiding or taking advantage of infrequent scenarios to the detriment of the frequent ones.

Let Dunn and Junior bash the righty back-to-back, give us a lead and render the LOOGY useless to begin with.

[Highlifeman21]

I will never understand why you should separate your lefties artificially for 3/4 of the game to avoid a potential late game scenario with a LOOGY. Bat your guys in the order that makes the most sense based on their skills. I'll never understand why lineups get built around avoiding or taking advantage of infrequent scenarios to the detriment of the frequent ones.

Let Dunn and Junior bash the righty back-to-back, give us a lead and render the LOOGY useless to begin with.

Sound logic that is most likely lost on The Dusty.

[Cyclone792]

IIRC, the short time period in which Dunn and Griffey batted back-to-back (in either order) last season, both were crushing the ball.

If it were up to me, they'd hit back-to-back every night and I wouldn't even worry about it.

[RichRed]

IIRC, the short time period in which Dunn and Griffey batted back-to-back (in either order) last season, both were crushing the ball.

If it were up to me, they'd hit back-to-back every night and I wouldn't even worry about it.

Dusty seems to like sticking with a lineup as long as it's working (call him the anti-Bob Boone), or at least perceived to be working. Let's hope they put up a dozen or so runs today and give Dusty a reason to bat Dunn & Junior back-to-back regularly.

[Spring~Fields]

Fay has today's lineup posted.

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/redsinsider/

OK, so Junior and Dunn can hit back to back against the LHP, Ted Lilly, but never against a righty. Whatever works I guess. Its nice to see them 3-4 for a change anyway.

Yes, I am glad that you pointed that out. Also, he can hit Hopper and Freel at the top but Baker can't bat Keppinger and Phillips one two no, we have to have Patterson up there.

Keppinger Phillips Dunn Griffey or Keppinger Dunn Phillips Griffey impossible!

Dusty just showed us that he can bat Keppinger, Phillips, and Dunn up there and Griffey behind them if he wants to. Where's the bullheaded icon?? I would have asked for the bull ---- icon but it is a family board.