Dusty Baker was signed to a 3 year contract prior to the 2008 season.  Many viewed the Reds as having a great deal of young talented players and it was only a matter of time before it all came together.  His record through two seasons in Cincinnati is 152-172.  He is working for the owner who fired his hand picked GM less than a month into his third season, and while that was earlier than most of us expected, the writing was on the wall the day Walt Jocketty became a part of the Reds' front office.  Yet the media is not portraying Dusty as a man on the hot seat, and Dusty seems very comfortable with his job.  If I were Dusty I would not be at all comfortable going into this season.  He is in the 3rd year of his 3 year deal and he has yet to oversee a winning team.  There were fairly high expectations going into 2008 and 2009, this team was picked by many people as a dark horse in the central last season.  Both years were disappointing campaigns.  I feel that Cincinnati may be Dusty's final stop in his managerial career.  He had plenty of success in San Francisco, left Chicago in terrible fashion, and has had no success in Cincinnati.  Shouldn't he be somewhat concerned about his job security?

In an interesting side note only one Cincinnati manager since Ray Knight has gotten another Major League managing job after leaving Cincinnati, and that is Jack McKeon.  Ray Knight, Bob Boone, Dave Miley, and Pete Mackanin have not managed any MLB teams since being fired.