Baker Leaves Best Pinch-Hitters on Bench as Cubs Lose
Dusty Baker provides example #1 of the 2005 season for why he is a poor in-game manager. With two outs and Derrek Lee on first in the top of the 9th tonight, with the Cubs down 5-4, Baker had 4 options to choose from as the pitcher's spot in the lineup came up. Jason Dubois is the best hitter on the bench. Too obvious. Henry Blanco is the backup catcher, so cross him off. Jerry Hairston, Jr. is the second best hitter on the bench. But, like Dubois, apparently too good for Baker. Instead, Baker chooses his worst hitter: Neifi Perez. Perez grounds out to end the game.
Baker also had to call upon a pinch hitter in the top of the 7th with Mike Remlinger due up. There were two outs and none on at the time and Baker chose Jose Macias.
So with two pitch-hitting choices to make, Baker left his two best bench hitters on the bench. Using Dubois and Hairston in those situations may not have changed the outcome of the game, but Baker did not do what a manager is supposed to do: put his team in the best position to win the game.
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Wow. This is like everyone's
Wow. This is like everyone's worst nightmare come true. We seriously ought to keep track. I propose that for every bone-headed decision like this that winds up potentially being the difference in the game, we assign Baker one-third of a loss (and only that much since there's no guarantee that had he chosen differently they would have worked out). Baker gets one-third of a win for every bone-headed decision that winds up working. Let's subtract one from the other at the end of the year and see what happened.
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Kevin B. O'Reilly
http://kevin.oreilly.net/howl/
Well ...
At least the bullpen did not give up any runs.
And the Cubs had two scoring opportunities.
I'm sure Dusty didn't want to "burden" his budding superstar Dubois with such heavy expectations so soon into the season, and he was saving Hairston for something important, just in case.
Well again ...
At least the bullpen only gave up a "meaningless" HR.
And the Cubs had more scoring opportunities.
I'm sure Dusty wanted to give his two stars off the bench the benefit of the doubt, and wouldn't you know it, Macias pulls a double out of his cap. Neifi just needs a little more time.
RE: Well again ...
Yes, the bullpen has pitched well in two straight games. Nice to see.
As for Perez needing more time, isn't 4,516 career plate appearances enough time to demonstrate that he has just a little bit of trouble with a bat in his hand?