Yeah, the baseball season is over. But snackin’ season never ends.
#SaveStephenStrasburg: According to Jon Heyman, talks between the Nationals and presumed new manager Bud Black have stalled. In a stunning turn of events, sources claim that our pet trainwreck, the Washington Nationals, are going to hire Dusty Baker for their new manager. Hold on, I gotta take a second.
OK, I’m back from laughing my ass off. Seriously? Dusty Baker? Heyman says that the Nats are interested in Dusty because he has experience managing superstars like Barry Bonds, and they want someone who can handle Bryce Harper. He’s also notorious for screwing up young pitchers, and while the Nationals’ pitching staff isn’t particularly young, there’s five words that should strike fear into the heart of anyone with a lick of common sense. Those words are DUSTY BAKER MANAGING STEPHEN STRASBURG.
I see this in Stras’ immediate future:
The Forecast Is Party: So, last night, Kansas City partied so hard that it showed up on radar. For real.
That’s some serious celebration. Somewhere Andrew WK is crying.
Here’s Your Stupid For The Week: If the Nats considering Dusty isn’t enough stupid for you, you’ll need to sit down for this one. This comes courtesy of a man we all love to hate, Curt Schilling. His stupidity will speak for itself.
I just. I can’t. First Terry Collins is to be avoided like grocery store sushi at the end of the night. Harvey is ride or die. Then suddenly Collins is an idiot for leaving him on the mound? That was your plan of attack, Schill!
You know he’s over there re-reading his twitter timeline like
[A tip of the cap to Scout for the heads up.]
Fan Interference 
I saw the Dusty Baker news and did a double take. That is exactly the wrong type of Manager for a team like the Nats. That said, he’d have only have Strasburg for 2 seasons before free agency (1 if they do poorly and decide he’s a trade chip). I just don’t think there is room in the game anymore for someone who manages based on look and feel vs playing the best odds.
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It only takes one season to forever screw up an arm.
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I guess I don’t really see him as that big of a threat. It is widely recognized these days that Mark Prior’s motion was seriously messed up, and the same goes for Kerry Wood. I’m not aware of anyone else people think he ruined, but do we blame LaRussa and Matheny for the Cards routine pitching breakdowns or the various Toronto managers for their pitchers breaking down?
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Prior’s motion was messed up, yes. The inverted W. Also he was never the same after that base path collision that screwed him up big time. And Kerry Wood had all sorts of various problems, too.
However, Dusty has been a little too rough on young arms. Back when he was managing the Reds he overworked Edinson Volquez. He overworked Aaron Harang and I don’t think he’s ever been the same pitcher since. Those are the two off the top of my head not counting Prior and Woody.
I don’t blame LaRussa for overworking the Cardinals’ pitching staff because they had one of the best pitching coaches in the history of the same in Dave Duncan. I do blame LaRussa (and also Matheny) for poorly using a bullpen. That’s a completely different animal.
All I’m saying is that Dusty doesn’t believe in preserving a pitcher’s arm, he doesn’t believe in pitch counts, he doesn’t take the necessary care that some of these guys who obviously have problems like Prior did need. I have said for years that Stras and Prior are like two peas in a pod. Stras doesn’t have the inverted W throwing motion but to my eyes there’s something off. With his history of injuries, the knowledge that every other pitch could mean another stint on the DL, do you really want to trust that to a guy who gives no fucks about properly managing a pitching staff? I don’t.
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There’s some that think Dusty played a role in permanently breaking Homer Bailey.
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Good for Dusty if Homer has stopped throwing his riders.
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I am not a Baker fan and I don’t want to rain on the narrative or anything, but here are the stats –
Dusty Baker: 2008 – 2013
Aaron Harang: 2008 – 2010, 153IP/Average, 184IP/Max (prior to Dusty, Harang threw 200+ innings for four years)
Edinson Volquez: 2008 – 2011, 104IP/Average, 196IP/Max
Bronson Arroyo: 2008 – 2013: 206IP/Average, 220IP/Max
Johnny Cueto: 2008 – 2013: 161IP/Average, 217IP/Max
Mike Leake: 2010 – 2013: 169IP/Average, 192IP/Max
Homer Bailey: 2009 – 2013: 154IP/Average, 209IP/Max (started in 09 as that is when he got at least 20 starts)
Travis Wood: 2012 – 2013: 178IP/Average, 200IP/Max (started in 2012 as that is when he got at least 20 starts)
The only questionable decision I see in there is with Volquez who jumped from 34 major league innings in Texas in 2007 to 196 innings in 2008. That said, it wasn’t a real leap as he’d thrown 144 additional innings in the minors in 07. None of these workloads appear excessive, and most remarkable is that his core pitching staff stayed reasonably intact and healthy for 4+ years.
Again, I’m not a fan of Baker, but abusing young pitchers is not something he appears to have done with the Reds. A starting pitcher is supposed to put up 200 innings per season in the 1-4 rotation slots. He rarely asked for more than that.
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The even better news is Stras is a free agent after this season, not next. At what point does Boras consider staging a hold-out?
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Good point, Kevin.
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Pazuzu was born considering a holdout. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that he was a breach birth.
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Aha, I was misreading his page. Forgot that 2015 is actually a done deal.
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Here’s Deadspin’s take: http://deadspin.com/dusty-baker-named-nationals-manager-after-they-cheap-ou-1740226658
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Apparently the official story is the Nats tried to low-ball Bud Black on their offer, and he was so offended that he basically walked, forcing the Nats to go after Baker. This of course came two days after Baker cried sour grapes to the San Francisco papers about how there were not enough minority hires in MLB, a point that is worth making, but probably best not made from a guy who was just passed over for a position.
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I guess they offered him 1.6 mil a year? Which for you or me is great, but is kind of a slap in the face if you’re Bud Black.
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Not only that, but they loaded it up with options that were very team friendly.
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Dear Buddha. He might as well have applied to be Speaker of the House.
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Gator, at least Paul Ryan gets to spend quality time with his oodles of kids.
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Yeah, that is a great philosophy.
Spend $150M on MLB payroll, spend time and effort scouting, drafting, signing, and developing players…then go cheap on the manager so that he can just piss away wins that everyone else in the organization has worked hard for and paid for….seems really short sighted to worry about a few million bucks when the wrong manager can undo much of an entire organizations’ hard work.
It takes a lot of effort to add wins to a roster….having a manager that will give those away is just silly. Of course, I feel like the Cardinals have such a manager…he’s horrible managing the bullpen, deciding when to pull starters, deciding who to play, arranging those players into a lineup, and oh my fucking god the double switches….he’s pull a good player out for a double switch when the pitcher’s spot is coming up…and then fucking pull the pitcher anyway…so he could have had a better lineup and just pinch hit for the reliever. He also loves to leave the starter in to bunt during a rally, only to pull him after facing one batter the next inning.
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Mr. Burns – You! Strawberry! Good effort today, take a lap and hit the showers. I’m putting in a right-handed batter to hit for you.
Darryl Strawberry – You’re pinch-hitting for me?
Mr. Burns – Yes. You see, you’re a left-hander and so is the pitcher. If I send up a right-handed batter, it’s called ‘playing the percentages’. It’s what smart managers to do win ballgames.
Darryl Strawberry – But I’ve got 9 home runs today.
Mr. Burns – You should be very proud of yourself. Sit down. Simpson! You’re batting for Strawberry!
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They got this idea from watching Matheny manage.
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Matheny was still working his way through the minors when that episode first aired back in ’92.
Perhaps you’ve got it backwards….Matheny learned to manage by watching the Simpsons
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Stop ruining my fun….your explanation is also plausible.
Point is…he doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing. He hardly ever had position players sac bunt this year though, and hit-n-runs with slow guys were down….but those things could be a 1 year blip rather than real learning.
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I’ll be willing to bet that this will help Zimmermann decide who he’ll sign with, too.
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