A clear-headed defense of Dusty

Hardly. It would be standard operating procedure on most other teams. Either putting in LIDRs or giving the scrubs a chance to play, depending on the score.

You think Miguel Cairo is going to be insulted at being pulled from the game? He’s happy just to be a big leaguer at this point. And you think Janish would be insulted to get a half-inning on the field? He’d be thrilled just to be let out of his box.

The biggest problem I have is that Lincoln and Cairo are in the team. Dusty using them is second. Yesterday is why. But Dusty didn’t make any in-game switches that lost the game IMO.

Also, I don’t feel the need to put in a defensive replacement for Nix. He’s a decent defensive LF.

I would have put Janish in for either Cabrera or Cairo. Every now and then, that matters; it just turns out to have mattered this time. I would also point out that it’s rather ridiculous to say that Cairo got a hit, but Janish probably wouldn’t have. Regardless of how good of a hitter you actually think Janish is, he’s significantly more likely to get a hit in any given AB than Cairo is.

Pinch hitting with Owings? Someone mentioned in one of the threads that he wanted to give Owings ABs since he was near home, so it was just a stupid Dusty move. It was a bigger mistake to PH with Owings the night before and then only pitch him one inning instead of two.

The big mistake here is the one that you separate into two: he left Lincoln in for a third inning, with nobody warming up. Sure, it seems silly to have to do this with such a huge lead, but he should have known it was possible to fuck this up. If he was going to push a guy into a situation he has just not excelled in then he needs to have a backup plan. Better yet, just put in someone else who could use some work. Not a big deal at all.

Once he made that supremely stupid move, he seemed determined to compound it. Either bring in Rhodes, bring in Masset, or bring in Cordero, but don’t bring in all three without proper warmup time and then wonder why they keep giving up runs. The Cordero decision in particular seems based entirely on it being a save situation, which only further compounds the stupidity.

On Lincoln: True he hadn’t thrown that many pitches, but he’s shown this year that he can’t really even handle 2 innings of work. 19 pitches is equivalent to one rough-ish inning, and with plenty of guys to choose from, it was just unnecessary to send him out there for the 3rd. (plus, I just can’t shake the feeling that Dusty sent him out to let him earn a save. Seriously, would you put it past him?) Also, not having someone warming up is ridiculous. Just to assume that he’ll be fine for a 3rd inning is lazy at best, ignorant at worst. Also, he should’ve thought to himself “I’d really like to not have to use any of my big 3 here, so let’s get Fisher going just in case.” What’s lost in this is that even if we’d won, we used our three late innings guys completely unnecessarily.

LIDR: I agree that replacing Cairo and/or Nix was probably unnecessary, esp. since the upgrade to Janish (esp. at 3rd) or Heisey would be somewhat negligible. However, something that’s bothering me is that Janish didn’t replace Cabrera in the 6th or 7th inning with the huge lead. Offense doesn’t matter at that point, and Lando NEVER gets a day off. Why not sit him for a few innings to give him a bit of a break? He does this with other players, why not with the 35 year-old slow SS?

Cordero: The Cordero use is really indefensible. True, he’s not super HR prone, but he is extremely walk prone. You’ve got the bases loaded with one out and a 3 run lead. What you need is a guy to come in and throw some strikes, and Cordero doesn’t do that. It wasn’t the issue yesterday, but it very well could’ve been. What really chaps me about this is his quote. He basically said that it’s CoCo’s job to close it out, and Rhodes’ job to get a tough hitter out, but you know if it was the 8th Rhodes would’ve stayed out there. Basically, it’s CoCo’s job to get all the saves. Which is beyond stupid.

Two straight relievers run out there without recording an out. Rhodes gets in and strikes out the first batter he faces – finally, an effective reliever, and……..he pulls him.

There are a couple moves that are reasonable, a couple that were at least kind of defensible, and a couple moves that were so ridiculous, and because we blew the game, it makes Dusty’s entire record look even worse.

Taking Leake out was not at all a bad idea. Putting Cordero in was not exactly a bad move – but really unecessary seeming. It really felt like Dusty was trying to do LaRussa’s bit where he overmanages the bullpen, in order to overcompensate for undermanaging earlier.

But why not put Janish in? We have to play Paul Janish sometime – and the best time is when you don’t need to count on scoring runs the next few innings.

And for the love of god, if you throw Lincoln out there for a third inning, have someone ready to come in immediately. Just having him out there for more than one is risky – to make that kind of move, you absolutely need to account for that risk and have backup ready.

Oh, and can we talk about Dusty throwing Coco under the bus after the game? How is that handling a big ego? How is that being a player’s manager? All I’ve ever heard to justify the ridiculous salary we’re paying Baker is that he’s a good clubhouse guy and protects his players. Well, all I’ve ever seen is him throw his players under the bus. From “these aren’t my guys” to rejecting any blame for this fiasco, and putting it all on CoCo, which is blatantly ridiculous.

I voted for D, but I wish I could change it now. If he can’t protect his players, especially the ego of the highest paid player on the goddamn team, he really has nothing that can justify him being our manager. Fire Dusty Baker.

The sky isn’t falling…

As fans, we can evaluate talent at our whim and it’s clear Lincoln and Cairo are the primary targets in our attack. Both are on the Reds roster for reasons that escape us, but obviously don’t escape the Reds management. I don’t like Lincolns, Fords or Buicks.

I didn’t want Cairo on the team, period. He’s there. Can’t say why.

But to defend or condemn Dusty is no different than saying Bobby Cox is a damned lucky or smart manager because his team pulled out a miracle victory, which would be what we’d be saying about our beloved manager had we come back from a 6-run hole in the 9th inning.

Spending a lot of time defending Baker is pointless.

but i dont think it’s reasonable to expect him to anticipate such a monumental bullpen collapse. this is the kind of thing that happens once every few years, and you just have to chalk it up to bad luck. i know it helps to vent the frustration by directing at an individual, but this wasnt Dusty’s fault. shit happens.

I really think Dusty went with Lincoln in the 9th because he could get a save by pitching three innings. That arbitrary stat has a crazy way of influencing managers’ decisions.

Not every decision a manager makes is a smart or popular one. The unpopular decisions might actually work and they might not; they’re all a gamble. Dusty Baker shouldn’t be crucified for trying to do his job, no matter how much anyone thinks he sucks at it. I’ve never managed a baseball team, so I won’t criticize, and neither should anyone else.

Games like this happen to every team. Thursday’s loss was just that: ONE loss. The season still has 120 more games to go. It’s not the end of the world. Everyone can vent frustration all they want, but no one person was responsible for the loss.

On a side note, I think Molly Flogger gives us Braves fans a bad name.

….we called up a reliever instead of a starter from AAA when Bailey went on the DL?