John Fay writes about how Dusty “bristles” at questions about Mesoraco. There are so many Dustyisms in this article that make me crazy, I don’t know where to start…but I’ll just include a few:
“I don’t know,” Baker said. “I’ve got to catch (Ramon Hernandez) some time. I can’t just shelve Monie. Monie will catch Volquez. I get so tired of everyone wanting to know my lineup before I even print it.”
It was mentioned that a lot of people are interested in Mesoraco, the club’s top prospect.
“I’m interested in the kid, too,” Baker said. “When we called all these kids up, everyone wanted to know how I was going to play them all. I’m playing as much as I can as well as playing the guys who were here before. You can’t shelve the guys who were here before either. You can’t just say: ’Hey man, you’re not playing anymore.’ Everybody here’s trying to make a living. Everybody here is trying to have a good year.
Everybody here is trying get a job for next year, whether it is here or somewhere else. So you do what you can.”
First question to Dusty: Why can’t you shelve “Monie”? But then he says that “you can’t shelve the guys who were here before”….I’d ask, why not? He answers this later.
And if they’re not going to be here next year, should he care about them trying to get a job somewhere else?
Later in the article he says:
“Joey’s trying to get 100 RBI. Jay’s trying to get 100 RBI. Stubbs is trying to get 100 runs. These are things you can’t take back. Brandon is trying to have the best year he can because his contract expires.
You try to keep all these things in mind. Whether people understand or not, I don’t have any remorse about it. These guys have been busting their butts all year long.”
Now, I don’t have a problem that Stubbs, Bruce, Votto, and Phillips are still playing full time. They’ll all be here next year and will all be starters.
But what I do have a problem with is the logic employed by Baker…that the individual stats they’re trying to achieve are more important than the long term success of the team. Earlier in the article he mentions that Cairo hasn’t played hardly at all since the callups…well, duh. And he felt he needed to talk to Cairo about it.
My question on this is, if Cairo is the “leader” Dusty claims he is, shouldn’t he have known why he wasn’t playing without being “talked to”? Now, maybe it was a courtesy thing, which I can also understand, but Baker acts like Cairo should be playing rather than Frazier or Francisco. Thank goodness that Rolen’s having some soreness or Baker would be worried about finding him playing time too.
Now, back to Hernandez. He’s been a great addition to the Reds the last two seasons. MUCH, MUCH better than I predicted or believed he would be. Why he wasn’t traded at the All Star break or when he was claimed on waivers, I have no idea (and the decisions made by the front office are something for another post); but just because he’s still here, especially when it’s apparent he will not be here next year, doesn’t mean he needs to play at the expense of getting Mesoraco more PT and experience.
I’m just wondering if Dusty feels like he has to finish above .500 to keep this job? If he believes this, what he’s doing makes some sense (from his perspective)…but if I’m the GM, nothing he can do in the last few weeks of the season would change my mind about his future. If he’s coming back, that’s already decided…if he’s going to be fired…that is also.
Does anyone think this team will be better next year because Dusty Baker is brought back? And conversely, does anyone think the team will be worse because he isn’t?