Dusty Baker is back at it (Latest: Patterson leading off?... reply #63)

[1992casey]

"If you're passing it on to the next hitter, a lot of times, he's not as good of a hitter as you. Otherwise ... he'd be hitting ahead of you."

 

I was just going to echo what Ennder said. Dusty doesn't necessarily put the good hitters ahead of the poorer ones. It's not unusual to find crap hitters batting #1 or #2 with some good guys hitting #6 or #7.

[joepepsi]

from the Cincy Enquirer:

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Now that we know Jay Bruce is not going to be the Opening Day center fielder, who will be?

Reds manager Dusty Baker has a good idea, but he's not saying.

"I've got a plan," Baker said. "Everyone wants to know the plan. Everyone's guessing the plan. We'll let the plan play itself out."

http://gcirm.cincinnati.gcion.com/RealMedia/.ads/adstream_lx.ads/oh-cincinnati.enquirer.cincinnati.com/sports/baseball/nl/reds/article.htm/960989785/ArticleFlex_1/OasDefault/zaring_Jan08_home_bus_160/zaring_Jan08_home_bus_160.html/38613331323132623437653139303830?_RM_EMPTY_It appears Corey Patterson will get the bulk of the time in center. Norris Hopper and/or Ryan Freel might get some action there, particularly against left-handed pitching.

"We want to get guys playing together," Baker said. "That's the toughest part. Everybody plays a little differently. You're looking for the best combination. We have some talent and personnel here that fits. The sign of a good team is when you have too many, not too few. You never have too many good players."

Baker tried one combination Thursday night against the Minnesota Twins. Patterson hit second with Freel in the leadoff spot.

Ken Griffey Jr. was not in the lineup, so Freel played right field. Baker has talked about giving Griffey two days a month off, so Thursday's combo is one he could use occasionally.

[Baldkin]

Anytime Corey Patterson gets AB's over Jay Bruce this season against the 'crew is a plus for the Brewers. Go Dusty!

[Oldcity]

We might as well just pin the Dusty thread to save time.

[endaround]

Pin it and change the title to "Making Ned Yost look good: Dusty Baker"

[RyDogg66]

Great piece on firejoemorgan.com about some bonehead writer and Dusty. Here is the linky

 

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2008/03/theres-war-brewing.html

 

The writer is an absolute idiot.

[joepepsi]

As an aside, the Reds were in the running for Bedard over the winter but they told the Orioles Bruce was untouchable. Now they have Corey in CF who wasn't even good enough for the hapless, bumbling Orioles!

[stoutdude04]

Anytime Corey Patterson gets AB's over Jay Bruce this season against the 'crew is a plus for the Brewers. Go Dusty!

 

Bruce just got demoted.

[brettac1]

Two days off per month should be just enough to get Griffey on the DL by the end of May for sure.

[TooLiveBrew]

Glad to bump this up! Found some great stuff at Red Hot Mama, a Reds blog.

 

 

"RHM: Gameday has stopped responding; it's stuck on Griffey.

CTS: Well, Griffey pissed Dusty off by walking.

CTS: And then, in a surprising turn of events, that clog of the bases resulted in a run somehow when Phillips tripled.

RHM: This is exactly what the game wrap should say.

CTS: It gets better.

CTS: Phillips is clogging up third. But somehow, he scores when Dunn grounds out to short.

CTS: Now EdE's clogging up first. There are 2 outs and Javy's up.

CTS: Ah, and Javy ended the inning.

CTS: Strange. 2 runs scored without a single solo homerun.

RHM: Amazing.

RHM: Something just doesn't add up there."

 

...

 

"Reds Lineup

CF Corey Patterson

SS Jeff Keppinger

RF Ken Griffey Jr.

2B Brandon Phillips

LF Adam Dunn

3B Edwin Encarnación

1B Joey Votto

C Paul Bako

P Bronson Arroyo

I wanted to comment on the ludicrousness of this line-up, but then I saw the JTM commercial with Bronson Arroyo and Chris Welsh, and now I'm speechless. Wow."

 

Not sure what commercial she's referencing, but just look at that lineup for a minute or two. There are no words... I just feel so badly for Reds fans.

[jazzytrav]

Dusty is never going to live down this "base-clogging" crap. I just wonder if someday he'll realize how idiotic it really is and come on-air to apologize.

[TooLiveBrew]

Or he could just stop running out awful lineups. I could care less if Dusty were actually too dumb to understand how to ruin a lineup. Someone needs to convince him that Corey Patterson walks too much and Votto's a great contact hitter.

 

I actually am excited to see if he says anything crazy about Yost batting Kendall 9th. I hope he gives us a nice one!

[Kurt]

Has Dusty Baker completely lost his mind? Why on earth would you bat a guy like Corey Patterson, a guy who really should not have even made the roster, in the lead off spot? Patterson has a lifetime .297 OBP. Good grief, the number 8 batter, Paul Bako, the catcher, has a higher lifetime OBP than him. Sure the guy has some speed but batting him leadoff??

 

It's good to know the Reds will not be close to becoming contenders this year with Baker at the helm.

 

EDIT: Removed excessive puntuation from subject line - BtA

[adambr2]

I am still struggling to understand how the Reds came to the conclusion that Dusty Baker was the answer, but I have no problem with the fact that they did.

[ELCABALLO45]

Dusty Baker belives in the CF leading off, Its really strange.

[Gopher74]

Dusty Baker belives in the CF leading off, Its really strange.

C'mon....should this be in blue? Honestly, I've just gotten up on my high horse talking about how managers and such are generally in the position they're in because they know more than the casual fan...please tell me you made a mistake so that I don't look totally ridiculous.

 

What an arbitrary decision. Yea, CF'ers are generally good leadoff hitters, but that's just so ridiculous. Brandon Phillips would be much better off leading off...and he's not a real good option.

 

Fact is, I don't see who on that team really should be other than Keppinger.

I do think he gets just a little bit too much crap on this board for some of the stupid things that he says that he doesn't articulate well. I think he has some points saying that the OBP thing may have gotten a little carried away in a few particular cases and that maybe your middle of the order should try and drive in runs rather than look for the walk. That said, ARod, Manny, Ortiz, Pujols, or any other real great middle of the order guy who has 100+ RBI's every season all have great OBP's.

 

So I just think that there may be a fraction of a point in his "clogging up the bases" comments...

Mainly, I just wish he was in Chicago. I'd feel pretty good about our post-season chances then.

 

[adambr2]

I hadn't heard that C-Pat is the permanent leadoff man in Cincy now, but if he is -- wow. Patterson is well beyond the point of waiting for his potential to pan out. I believe the guy has a negative career VORP. He's just not good.

 

If they are that desperate for a CF/leadoff man, I'm sure we'd be willing to sell Gwynn high this year, although perhaps not to a division rival.

[Gopher74]

I hadn't heard that C-Pat is the permanent leadoff man in Cincy now, but if he is -- wow. Patterson is well beyond the point of waiting for his potential to pan out. I believe the guy has a negative career VORP. He's just not good.

 

If they are that desperate for a CF/leadoff man, I'm sure we'd be willing to sell Gwynn high this year, although perhaps not to a division rival.

The thing is, they shouldn't be that desperate. They've got some pretty good options. Jay Bruce is going to be a superstar, or at least it looks as though he will. They've got Drew Stubbs on his way up, and in the meantime they can play Freel, or Keppinger out there. Heck, Norris Hopper's a better choice than Peterson. I just don't get why he'd be getting so much PT, especially leading off.

 

[Dragonbait]

Don't forget, Dusty ruined Patterson's potential as a Cub... I do blame Dusty for not developing Corey into a better player.

[igor67]

With all that young talent the Reds may have had a legit 5-10% chance to make the playoffs this year, but hiring Dusty virtually guarantees that all of the things that would have to happen for them to get to say 85 wins won't happen.

[davego]

Maybe the thought is that Corey will not clog the bases, or the Reds can just get is 'out' out-of-the-way and let their good hitters go to work.

[Tbadder]

Yost's best friend is Dusty Baker. Patterson defies all logic except speed.

[berniebrewer4life]

It's funny, i had originally picked the Reds as my dark horse to win the Division. Glad to see Dusty decided to prove me wrong less than a week into the season!

[DuWayne Steurer]

It's one thing to say that the stuff Dusty says gets taken out of context, but when he bats a guy like Corey Patterson leadoff, he doesn't have to say anything at all. He's proving right there that the game has passed him by.

[kalle8]

dusty knows some sabermetrics we don't even imagine...