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2/01/2006

THE THREE-HEADED 2ND BASEMAN

Fire Dusty Baker nails it with his analysis on recent comments from Cubs GM Jim Hendry.

Hendry: ''Todd, Neifi and Jerry are all going into camp with a chance to see who gets the most playing time. Dusty is going to decide from there who earns it. Playing time always has a way of working itself out by performance."

FDB: Does Hendry even watch Cub games? If he really does, he should notice one of the last people to play players based on performance is his manager. Do we have to rehash Murton, Cedeno, Hawkins, etc from last season again? How about Dusty thinking of sitting Lee during a hot streak last year because Ted Williams said hot players get tired? What about Lenny Harris, Jose Macias, Corey Patterson? If playing time is based on performance, these guys should have never saw the field.

Sad but true. Back in December I wrote this:

The Trib had an article that included Baker being asked about playing Murton and Cedeno. "If I don't [play them] I'll be accused of not liking young players." I found it rather odd that he would take a question about his club and make it about himself. He does a lot of that. And this quote certainly isn't indicative of his "player's manager" tag: "We weren't fundamentally good for my teams," Baker answered. "My teams never had that reputation. The Cubs have been fundamentally bad for a long time. It reared its ugly head." So none of that was his fault. Because his other teams weren't like that and because historically the Cubs have been poor at fundamentals. Huh?

I got a sawbuck says Neifi Perez comes out on top of this. And that would be the worst possible scenario. Here's a novel idea: Play Walker for 7 innings and then bring in a defensive replacement. There...was that so hard?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dusty Baker is a self-centered thug who is overrated and belongs nowhere near a manager's position. As much as I dislike the Cubs in general, I feel for you guys who have to put up with him.

The Zoner said...

I think thug might be a bit strong, but it's all too apparent he is not what he was billed to be.

BTW, if you haven't noticed I love your blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, and likewise.

I still say thug is accurate, but that may be my Cardinal bias speaking.

The Zoner said...

Well whatever you do don't read this: http://chicagozoner.blogspot.com/2005/10/i-hate-cardinals.html
or this: http://chicagozoner.blogspot.com/2005/10/cardinals-fans-vile-bunch.html

Anonymous said...

No problem -- as long as you don't read this.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see Baseball Musings backed-off his decision not to post to blogspot urls.

Great minds think alike.

If given the choice between Neifi, Walker and Hairston, Dusty chooses Neifi.

Although I am not convinced he doesn't play Neifi at SS over Cedeno and start Walker at 2B.

I addressed the same issue at http://rotomusing.blogspot.com/2006/01/chicago-cubs.html

And at various other times as one would expect a site devoted to Rotisserie baseball would do when dealing with Dusty baker.

The Zoner said...

Did you find this via baseball musings?

I'll have to go check out your column.

If you love roto, you should check out Scoresheet Baseball (scoresheet.com) It's more simulation than just compiling numbers. I find it to be the best game out there.

Anonymous said...

I did.

The Zoner said...

Cool. I just noticed he linked to me.