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Dusty Baker: Bay Area Genius Or Windy City Idiot?
Written by wrigleyville   
Tuesday, 01 December 2009
In his upcoming book "Evaluating Baseball's Managers, 1876-2008," Chris Jaffe ponders how "the Bay Area’s genius became the Windy City’s idiot." Yes, Dusty Baker. He examines numerous differences between the two teams - including San Francisco hitting vs Cubs pitching, veterans vs youth, the emotional makeup of the rosters, and even bat boys in the two cities. And, of course, Baker's view on the base on balls: Fourth, the Giants’ hitters minimized and Chicago’s offense maximized Baker’s blind spot for the base on balls. While with the Cubs, Baker publicly derided walks as things that clog bases. If it were just a press conference comment it would not matter. However, the team drew fewer free passes under his watch. In his first year, Chicago’s walks declined by 93, and the Cubs' walks dropped further each season he was there. In his final year, the Cubs had their worst walks-per-game rate since 1921. However, in 1921 the NL averaged 2.1 walks per nine innings, versus 3.3 in 2006. In context, that year’s Cub hitters did the worst job in franchise history working the count. The 2006 Cubs drew 292 fewer walks than they allowed, the worst differential in National League history. In Baker’s four years, they averaged 158 more walks allowed than drawn per year, easily the worst stretch in franchise history. The year after Baker left, Chicago’s hitters drew 105 more walks than the year before. In San Francisco, though, walks were not an issue. Bonds, the game’s all-time leader in walks, had his offensive philosophy. Baker was not going to make the multiple MVP winner radically alter his approach, making him generally more tolerant of walks. Go read the link, which is an excerpt from the book posted at The Hardball Times. We have had our fun with Dusty over the years, but believe he took more blame than he should have in Chicago - especially for the '06 Cubs. Look at that roster. A College of Coaches made up of Tony La Russa, Joe Torre, Sparky Anderson, Jesus and Ghandi couldn't have managed that bunch to 75 wins. As to whether Dusty was the Bay Area Genius or Windy City Idiot? Let's just say somewhere in the middle.


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