Originally Posted by
medford
As far as I can tell, at least based upon his tenure with the Reds, Dusty likes to protect his players as much as possible. That includes keeping a guy on the DL or out of the lineup a few extra days to make sure they're really 100%, not throwing rookies or young players into the fire, letting guys ride out slumps, or sitting them for a few days to clear their head. In a game where 1 out of 3 is considerred a success, and "mental make-up" if you will plays such a huge role, it seems, to me anyways, that Dusty is out to protect his players, vet and young, as much as possible.
By nature, fans are much more knee-jerked reactionary. If a manager acted that way for too long, they'd wear out their welcome with the players. The players all seem to love Dusty, and I think its easy to see why. He doesn't throw them under the bus, he doesn't put them in positions too often where they can't succeed, he's willing to give a guy a few more chances than they probably deserve to prove themselves. I think Dusty has handled not only Bruce, Votto & Stubbs with great ease, but also some of the veterans like Rhodes & Coco, or a guy like Phillips who can get a bit moody at times.
I doubt Valiaka gets much more than a bench role, Dusty or no dusty. He's not going to start over Phillips at 2nd too often, he's not ideal at SS (or so his minor league time at 2b seems to say), Rolen is going to get the nod at 3b more often than not. When Rolen rests, then I hope the plan is to have Francisco start in his place, alternating b/w 3b once or twice a week, and LF (unless another left fielder is brought in) 2-3x a week. Not much room for Valiaka in my book. Not really his fault, I like what he did in the minors, but I'd rather have Janish's glove out there, and cozart in reserve (or vice versa) than Valiaka at SS every day. There's really no where for him to play outside of an occasional start and a pinch hit appearance 4 times a week.