It’s no secret of my adoration for Dusty Baker. I think he’s the right man for the job, and the only truly gifted manager the Cubs have had since…well, the dinosaurs. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do and say some dumb assed stuff.
Yesterday, Dusty was asked about his opinion on the importance of hitters’ drawing walks and having a high on base percentage. How can you be anti-on base average? If your on base average is .000 you can’t possibly score a run…ever. (OK, you could reach on an error…but still…bare with me here.)
Bruce Miles has this in today’s Daily Herald.
“I think walks are overrated unless you can run,” Baker said. “If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps. But the guy who walks and can’t run, most of the time they’re clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.”
That kind of talk is nothing short of heresy for those in the OBP-is-king camp. Baker, an old-school sort, doesn’t seem to mind.
“Who’s been the champions the last seven, eight years?” he asked “Have you ever heard the Yankees talk about on-base percentage and walks? Walks help. But you ain’t going to walk across the plate. You’re going to hit across the plate. That’s the school I come from.
“It’s called hitting, and it ain’t called walking. Do you ever see the top 10 walking? You see top 10 batting average. A lot of those top 10 do walk. But the name of the game is to hit.”
Just how incredibly dumb is all of this? Well, let’s see.
“But the guy who walks and can’t run, most of the time they’re clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.”
Huh? Just how many times in a game do you think, “Man, the guy at second would have scored if he could have just passed the slow guy at third clogging up the bases!”?
“But you ain’t going to walk across the plate. You’re going to hit across the plate. That’s the school I come from.”
Remember the “Leave it to Beaver” when Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford convinced Beaver and Larry Mundello that if they didn’t do better in their classes that they’d have to spend the summer in “Dumb School”? I think that’s the school where Dusty learned “you ain’t going to walk across the plate.” I’m so confused right now, my eyes are bleeding.
“Who’s been the champions the last seven, eight years? Have you ever heard the Yankees talk about on-base percentage and walks?”
Uhh…YES! They do talk about it. They also do it. They walk! That’s why they are always in the top five in runs scored in the AL. In fact, they led the freakin’ league in walks four times in the last seven years!
That’s not to say Dusty was completely daft yesterday. He had an interesting take on how a lineup should be set up. And for a guy who doesn’t care about walks and on base percentage, note how many times he comments about the importance of on base percentage.
“You hope your leadoff hitter scores twice as many as he drives in unless you’ve got a real good eighth hitter. Your second hitter should drive in a few more than your leadoff hitter but score a lot more.
“Your third and fourth hitters and your fifth hitter should be pretty even. They should account for 200 runs, where they score 100 and drive in 100. And your sixth and seventh hitters, most of the time they’ll drive in more than they score because they’re hitting with two outs and (in) situations.
“Then, you hope again your seventh hitter is a good clutch man and drives in more than he scores. Your eighth hitter, you hope he drives in some key runs and scores fewer runs than he drives in. That’s the guy where you need a higher on-base percentage because he gets the pitcher to the plate. That’s my little-basics stuff.”
How then, should the Cubs lineup be arranged to fit Dusty’s theory? Hmm?
1. Walker or Gruddy (“your leadoff hitter scores twice as many as he drives in”)
2. Patterson (“should drive in more but score a lot more”)
3. Sosa
4. E-ramis
5. D. Lee (3-4-5 “should account for 200 runs each”)
6. Barrett (Dusty didn’t really describe his sixth hitter except to say that he should drive in runs)
7. Gonzalez (“good clutch man”)
8. Alou (“need a higher on-base percentage because he gets the pitcher to the plate”)
Do we think he’d actually bat Moises eighth? Hell, no.
In fact, it was Moises who started this whole crapstorm yesterday. A reporter asked Dusty about a comment in the 2004 Baseball Prospectus that the Cubs should use Moises as a leadoff hitter because of his on-base ability, and that’s what started Dusty on his rant about slow guys clogging up the bases. It would have been nice though, if he’d have just stopped there.
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The other big “news” is the no-news that the Cubs aren’t sure if The Franchise will be ready to make his first regular start on April 8. They didn’t say he wouldn’t, but even the chance of him missing it has apparently freaked out most of Chicago.
Why do we worry about things so far in advance? I’m not freaking out until I actually see him fall off the mound, grab his leg where his Achilles’ used to be and vomit on himself from the pain.
You know, if that happened to Jim Edmonds, it would be so cool, wouldn’t it?
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The Cub Reporter just published part two of his Cubs Roundtable, you know the one they didn’t ask us to participate in, but I had so much fun answering the first set of questions, I think I’ll do it again.
Q: Recently, GM Jim Hendry locked up Greg Maddux, Kerry Wood and Derrek Lee for the next few years. Who on the current roster, if anyone, should get the next long-term contract?
As long as it’s not Chip Caray, I could give a damn. Really though, it has to be E-ramis. He’s the only young player the Cubs could lose to free agency next year. I’m not saying to give him Scott Rolen money, but if at midseason he’s as good as we all think he’ll be, offer him some cash to keep him off the market.
Q: The Hee Seop Choi for Derrek Lee trade was a classic example of trading potential for current performance. Do you think it was the right trade to make for this year? What about for the future of the team?
My original reaction was that the Cubs gave up on Hee Seop too early, but the reality is that even the most opitimistic expectations of Hee Seop wouldn’t make him much better than Derrek Lee already is. The Cubs are a team with a shot to win now and in the next few years, and trading for a good 28 year old first baseman (the best they’ve had since…Frank Chance) was a good thing. Besides, this deal was everything the Cubs never do. They traded a cheaper, younger player for a more expensive one, because the new guy is good. Who knew?
Q. Jim Hendry was very active this winter. Everyone expects the Lee and Maddux acquisitions to help the team immensely. Was there another, lesser transaction the Cubs made this winter that you think will have a significant impact on the team?
I’d like to say Jose Macias, but I won’t, because I’m not clinically insane. Since you left LaTroy Hawkins off your list, I’d say him, but that’s too obvious, so is Todd Walker. So that leaves us with Todd Hollandsworth. He’ll help because he’s not Troy O’Leary or Lenny Harris.
Q: As a Cubs fan, are you having a hard time dealing with the fact that the Cubs go into this season as favorites?
These are the kinds of questions that piss me off. Hell no, I’m not having a hard time dealing with the Cubs going into the season as the NL’s best team. It’s the whole point of playing the game, right?
Q: What are you looking forward to about the 2004 Cubs? What are you dreading about them?
I’m looking forward to them running roughshod over the National League. I’m dreading having to listen to Chip Caray narrate it.
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Who is Jimmy Greenfield and why is he on my computer?
The Tribune on Mark Prior’s fragile Achilles.
Injuries to Gruddy, Mercker, Remlinger and The Franchise have opened spots for guys like Jimmy Anderson! Whooeee! Great! Sigh.
Legend of the Falls?
Jose Valentin isn’t going to bat lefthanded anymore. He was a whopping 14 for 107 last year lefthanded! How could he give that up?
Maybe Eddy Curry had some unused cell minutes to burn?
Rosey on what the Sheffield injury could mean to the Sox. Whatever.
Kiera Knigtley says that people are disappointed she’s not prettier when they meet her in person. She should just wear her Pirates of the Carribbean wardrobe all the time, then.
America’s finest news source on why the Defense Department has dropped the Comanche helicopter project.
When you make signs for a living, you’ll spell a few words wrong. Get off my case!!!
I’m confused about what Dusty was trying to explain about his lineup preferences…
As long as he knows what he thinks he is doing out there, I guess it’s fine.
I will bet $20 Alou doesn’t bat lower than sixth all season for the 2004 Chicago Cubs, excluding any pitch-hit appearances of course.
I said that, not Dusty! He lets me answer the reporters’ really dumb questions. Glad everyone likes my answer. hehehehehehehehe
I can’t get no respect from this team! Seems the hitters want more K’s than the pitching staff. I’m telling ya!
Hey! Cut that out, thats scary; more scary than the first time I had sex…I was all by myself. I’m telling ya!
Dammit, why can’t you people understand that Prior will be out for the season and that the Cubs are doomed…DOOMED!
Dusty says: "Your second hitter should drive in a few more than your leadoff hitter but score a lot more."
This is the one part of Dusty’s lineup "rules" that confuses me. Why do you want your second hitter to score more runs than your leadoff hitter, much less "a lot" more? It makes sense that you want him to drive in more, but the rest of it confuses me….
What the hell is Steve Rosenbloom talking about in his column today? The NHL is the best league because they have a late trading deadline? Then he rails on baseball for not having their trading deadline be Sept. 1 and for not promoting rivalries enough with scheduling. I am a hockey fan (and I know nobody talks hockey on this site, so forgive my breach of protocol), but no league has flushed as many great rivalries down the toilet through scheduling errors and realignment as the NHL. It boggles my mind that Rosenbloom would suggest other sports should emulate the NHL at all. I mean, face it, the NHL is a joke. It makes me laugh every time I hear someone refer to "the big 4". The NHL has no business being put in the same category as MLB, NFL and NBA.
I thought I read somewhere that Aramis is only arbitration-eligible after 2004. Whatever the case, I agree that the All-Star break is at least how long the Cubs should wait to see if wrapping up $25-35 million in this guy is wise.
Have any anecdotes about some episodes we were in, Andy?
Just wanted to briefly drop in and share some of my thoughts about Keira Knightley…but instead, just wanted to re-iterate how overrated St. Joseph’s has been all year. I bet they won’t even win the A-10 tourney, let alone the NCAAs, and they are…
…what? Xavier stomped they ass? Can’t be. They’re top ranked?
I-L-L…
CT, your table is ready! Of course the other leagues should be more like the NHL. Imagine how much better the NFL would be if most of the players were Canadian!
I would LOVE to see a baseball game where a slow runner clogged the basepath for the faster runner behind him. Who wouldn’t? I’d like to see it happen every time I went to a game. It would have to be one of the funniest things to watch, let alone one of the most exciting. People say that a triple is the most exciting play to watch. Nonsense! Imagine Bako on second base and Patterson getting a long hit. Will Patterson catch up with him before he scores? Will Bako even make it to third before Patterson is breathing down his neck? They did that in "Rookie of the Year" which everyone here hates, but that scene was hilarious.
So by Dusty’s logic, a single by a slow runner is bad too! May as well just forefeit your at-bat if you’re slow and there isn’t a runner in scoring position.
…I-N-I!!!
On Cubstalk.com, they are talking about Kerry Wood developing a new "secret pitch"… Interesting. I will post the link to it in a second.
Here’s that link I was talking about (The original Wood comments are actually from Cubs.com, which this link is from):
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/news/chc_news.jsp?ymd=20040310&content_id=648601&vkey=spt2004news&fext=.jsp
If he’s got a secret pitch, I hope it’s a strike.
If you can hit it, you can name it.
What pitches does Wood currently throw? Fastball, Curveball, that pitch that always hits Fernando Vina in the knee…
Masterbator.
So what anti-inflammatory (read steroid) are they giving Bonds for his bad back?
Dan LeBatard reports that Human Growth Hormone has been approved to fix Barry’s achin’ back.
Well, JACK, you know there are only 2 kinds of people in this world…..those that admit to masterbation and goddamn liars.
Anyone looking to join an ESPN keeper league, email me for info on joining my private league. It’s a 12-team MLB league — the kind where the talent pool is so deep that Derrek Lee ends up riding your bench like Raffy rode Cindy.
so dolan, previews before the season starts. come on now.
What category do I fit in?
I heard on ESPN radio yesterday (so you know it’s true) that Barry Bonds’ hat size is 9 7/8. Man, that’s one big fucking head.
The truest things you hear on Chicago sports radio?
The commercials.
I wish I wasn’t being serious when I say this.
The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children is contrary to every principle of moral justice. by online poker