Why does Dusty Baker refuse to make late inning defensive changes?

[OnBaseMachine]

Why does Dusty Baker absolutely refuse to pull his bad defenders (Gomes, Cabrera) for better defenders late in games? It's a mystery I'm trying to figure out. With a 9-5 lead in the 8th inning tonight, Jonny Gomes was still out there in left field despite being an absolute horrible defender. And of course, a flyball was hit in his direction and he managed to turn it into a double which led to a big inning. Chris Dickerson and Laynce Nix were both available. Why aren't they in the game at that point? I simply do not understand it.

[mbgrayson]

Dickerson in now playing left in the 9th tonight. Janish also in now at short I think....Dusty must be reading RedsZone.

[KronoRed]

Can't hurt anyones feelings.

[edabbs44]

This used to come up with Dunn a few years back where he would get replaced in the 8th or 9th and then the pen would blow it. And the mgr at the time would get shredded for taking him out.

Gomes was coming up in the 8th and if Dickerson replaced Gomes then that would have given LA the option of bringing in Sherrill to neutralize Bruce and Dickerson in a row. If the top of the inning unfolds the way it did then it could have been problematic in the bottom half.

I'm not sure that Gomes actually turned that ball into a double. That ball was smoked. But I would have agreed if Dickerson came out for the 8th in LF. It would have made sense to me.

[Captain Hook]

I have no idea why Gomes was still in the game for the 8th.He's not Dunn and with a 4 run lead even if he was I'd like to see Dickerson in there.

As far as Janish not being inserted for Cabera, that made perfect sense.I'm sure Dusty knew that if the Reds did blow the 4 run lead the team would need the hot bat of Paul Janish to come in and win it.

[nate]

I prefer to have no Gomes ("Gnomes") after the 7th with the lead.

[bucksfan2]

Tony LaRussa double switched Matt Holliday out before the 9th inning of their 20 inning marathon game against the Mets. You don't think that Holliday could have made a difference getting 3-4 more at bats in that game?

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

Tony LaRussa double switched Matt Holliday out before the 9th inning of their 20 inning marathon game against the Mets. You don't think that Holliday could have made a difference getting 3-4 more at bats in that game?

I think he did that because Holliday was complaining of fatigue.

[OnBaseMachine]

Originally Posted by Chip R

I think he did that because Holliday was complaining of fatigue.

Correct. Holliday missed the previous game with the flu and was running on fumes in the 20 inning game.

[Brutus]

I think the late inning defensive replacement thing is overdone, truthfully. You don't know that it will save you anything, and if it doesn't or the other team ties the game or takes the lead, then you've hurt your chances to score runs later.

Gomes is a bad defender, obviously, but I actually prefer the less is more theory when it comes to late inning substitutions. Especially since this team has had enough problems scoring consistently as is.

[flyer85]

as bad as Cabrera has been at SS there is no way that Dusty will start consistently replacing him for defensive reasons. If you are going to make a defensive substitution the SS one is a no brainer. Far more important than LF.

[OnBaseMachine]

Again I ask, why does Dusty refuse to make defensive changes late in the game? His decision to keep Orlando Cabrera in the game in the 9th inning tonight almost came back to bite him in the butt. Russell Martin hit a routine grounder up the middle that Cabrera waved at as it rolled into CF. I counted three hits tonight that Cabrera gave away with his defense. Thankfully he contributed with the bat, though.

[edabbs44]

Originally Posted by OnBaseMachine

Again I ask, why does Dusty refuse to make defensive changes late in the game? His decision to keep Orlando Cabrera in the game in the 9th inning tonight almost came back to bite him in the butt. Russell Martin hit a routine grounder up the middle that Cabrera waved at as it rolled into CF. I counted three hits tonight that Cabrera gave away with his defense. Thankfully he contributed with the bat, though.

Hard hit ground ball up the middle. That was a base hit.

I guess there needs to be something to complain about on a daily basis now that Taveras is gone. Defense of Gomes and Cabrera, welcome to the microscope.

[RedsManRick]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

Hard hit ground ball up the middle. That was a base hit.

I guess there needs to be something to complain about on a daily basis now that Taveras is gone. Defense of Gomes and Cabrera, welcome to the microscope.

It certainly wasn't an error, but I'm fully confident Janish would have had it. Up 3 in the 9th, isn't it fairly standard practice to put in your defensive wizard?

Some people ask why sweat the small stuff. But it's all stuff. A bad lineup here, a failure to sub in good defenders there and suddenly you've given away a handful of games for no good reason.

[Screwball]

Originally Posted by edabbs44

Hard hit ground ball up the middle. That was a base hit.

I guess there needs to be something to complain about on a daily basis now that Taveras is gone. Defense of Gomes and Cabrera, welcome to the microscope.

If you can't see and admit that Cabrera has abysmal range (especially for shortstop), then I gotta think you have an extremely biased view on the matter.