Home Run Derby

It amazes me how completely clueless Baseball Executives can be sometimes.

The Cincinnati Reds hired Dusty Baker to manage their ballclub.

Apparently, GM Wayne Krivsky didn’t do research into Baker’s tenures as a manager or watch ESPN while Dusty was taking up space in the broadcast booth.

To Baker’s credit, he seems to have his best effect on a team in his first year – but his track record plummets after that. We’ll explore three jobs that Baker has had coaching in the Bigs.

• Hitting Coach of the San Francisco Giants (1989-1992)
• Manager of the San Francisco Giants (1993-2002)
• Manager of the Chicago Cubs (2003-2006)

So let’s do some of that, shall we?

Hitting Coach – San Francisco Giants (1989-1992)

In 1989, Dusty Baker became the hitting coach of the Giants. Baker inherited a lineup which had scored the second-most runs in the NL (670) behind a patient group of batters (2nd most BB in the NL).

To his credit, the Giants improved their hitting and modestly increased their scoring over the next two seasons, but batting declined in 1991-92. However, the team was noticeably less patient at the plate, and finished 6th, 9th and 11th (twice) in NL Walks during Baker’s tenure as hitting coach.

Manager – San Francisco Giants

After the ‘92 season, Baker was promoted to Manager of the Giants. Perhaps the Giants brass thought he could do less damage there. The Giants immediately flourished with the addition of free agent signee Barry Bonds in the lineup and finished 103-59, but still finished one game behind Atlanta in the NL West. No Wildcard back then.

In Baker’s ten years as Giants’ manager, he won the NL Manager of the Year Award three times (1993, 1997, 2000) and the club won the NL West twice and went to the World Series in 2002 as a Wildcard. In that World Series, the Giants lost after leading 3-2 in the series with a 5-0 lead in the 7th inning of Game Six. Many thought Baker’s move to pull his starter in the 7th led to the collapse.

Despite the Giants’ success under Baker (six straight winning seasons and three playoff appearances from 1997-2002), the club did not renew his contract for 2003. Baker was often cited as allowing preferential treatment for star player Barry Bonds, which alienated other players on the team.

Manager – Chicago Cubs (2003-2006)

Baker went to manage the Cubs and inherited a team which had just finished 67-95. Although little was expected of the Cubs in that 2003 season, a pitching staff led by the young arms of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, the bats of Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou, and midseason additions Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton took the Cubs to the playoffs and within 5 outs of the team’s first World Series in 58 seasons.

With a 3-0 lead in the 8th inning of Game Six, Baker was closer to the World Series than he was with the Giants the previous October. But after a grand mal tantrum by his left fielder after a fan deflected a catchable ball (in the stands), Baker this time left his pitcher in the game (even though Prior and the team were rattled). Eight runs later and a Game Seven in which many thought Baker went with Kerry Wood too long, the Cubs had to wait until next year.

The 2004 Cubs looked as if they would make the playoffs again until the last week of the season, where the Cubs blew their shot as they went 1-7 (1-5 against inferior teams) before being eliminated. Cubs’ TV announcer Steve Stone questioned some of Baker’s decisions during the collapse (in Stone’s typical foresight) and criticized some of the players’ performances. When some of the players seemed more concerned what was being said in the booth than what was happening on the field, Baker stood up for his players and seemed to be insulted that Stone had questioned him, and Stone (as a result) left the Cubs.

Sammy Sosa was traded away for scant peanuts and the Cubs became a shell of the team they once were with a pitching staff (Prior and Wood) which many people believed was overworked in 2003 and 2004. The team was a laughingstock when it came to the fundamentals of baserunning and fielding. Even with the Cubs out of contention, Baker hardly ever played some of the Cubs’ younger players, instead relying on players “with prior records of success” even though their current performance was way below average. I’m talking about you, Neifi.

Baker’s act got tired in Chicago when the Chicago sports media would have to ease up on their questions because he had brought his six-year old son Darren to the postgame press conference … yet again.

After a League-worst 66-96 season (in which Baker celebrated the day his team avoided 100 losses) Baker’s contract was not renewed.

Baker seems to succeed in situations where he doesn’t have to manage a baseball game.

• He relies too much on veteran players repeating their past successes (that’ll be Griffey in 2008), often to the detriment of younger players who need the experience.
• He overtaxes his starting pitchers (Homer Bailey, meet Dr. Jobe) and will often replace them one batter too late.
• Or he pulls a pitcher too soon to employ the double-switch.
• His teams often employ a “swing-first-ask-questions-later” mentality at the plate (Adam Dunn will love it).
• His teams are often lacking in baseball fundamentals.

Older players (who otherwise would have to fight off a up and coming youngster for playing time) love him. Baker does well as a “face of the clubhouse” manager, as players know he won’t sell them out to the media if they falter. But these strengths can be weaknesses if the veterans fail to perform yet still stay in the lineup. Or if the vets get injured and have to be replaced with younger players without enough MLB experience and guidance.

Baker is good at managing the clubhouse.

It’s the three+ hours from the first pitch to the final out that you really have to worry about what he’s going to do to your franchise.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 12:09 am and is filed under Cubs, Giants, Reds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.