November 02, 2006
Interviewing Baker
The Padres invited Dusty Baker for an interview:
Such a man does not normally consent to courtesy interviews. Such a man would not allow himself to be used simply to illustrate the Padres' commitment to diversity. If Dusty Baker is going to be a party to this process - if he's going to go through with a Monday interview as the sixth candidate under consideration to succeed Bochy - he has to believe he's the front-runner.
That all of this flies in the face of everything the Padres have done so far only makes it that much more intriguing.
In failing to offer Bochy a contract extension, in allowing him to depart for a division rival, and in drawing up a list of possible replacements who have mostly induced shrugs and elicited yawns, the Padres had encouraged their fans to be cynical.
Their strategy appeared focused on finding a field manager who would both know his place and accept a salary substantially lower than Bochy's. They seemed to be screening candidates based on potential cost and prolonged obscurity: Bud Black, Trey Hillman, Jose Oquendo, Tim Wallach and Ron Wotus.
This was the business model Walter O'Malley used when he ran the Dodgers (at considerable profit), one in which he equated employees to a row of peas in a length of pipe. By squeezing a low-cost pea into the near end, O'Malley would cause a high-cost pea to tumble out the other end.
"That, gentlemen, is how you make money," O'Malley said.
I believe it's simply a diversity interview. Oquendo is the only minority among the five. By interviewing Dusty also, the Padres keep the commissioner off their back.
Posted by David Pinto at
12:35 PM
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Ummm, not to put too fine a point about this, but the last time the Padres hired a manager they also hired a cheap, obscure former player with little experience - and he managed to keep his job for 12 years and 4 division titles. (And an NL pennant)
I think it's important to add that Bud Black, Manny Acta, Ron Wotus, and Trey Hillman aren't the cheapest guys the Padres could find... each of them are being interviewed by at least one other team, and Black was much coveted in previous years.
I especially like the idea of Oquendo, who managed in the WBC, and Hillman, who successfully managed Japanese players. Considering the rapid internationalization of the game over the last thirty years, it's nice to see some managerial faces that reflect that fact.
Boy, I'll bet Baker could really help Peavy and Chris Young develop!
Can see no reason the Padres would actually hire Dusty Baker since under his leadership the Cubs finished in 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th in order over the four years he managed the club. 66 wins is the lowest win total of any year he has managed. Baker has seen a lot of key injuries while with Cubs namely Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Derrek Lee but they still should have played better than they have. They went from being 4 under .500 in 2005 to 30 under in 2006. For some reason Baker seems to be older than he is being only 57 while Joe Torre is 9 years older at 66. Maybe teams are perceiving him as being old and may be affecting their decision on whether to interview him and subsequently hire him.
IF Baker is willing to concede some of the autonomy he had in San Francisco & Chicago and adhere to the anti-small ball philosophies Alderson & Towers both utilize, Baker would actually be an amazing candidate. Keep in mind the toughest thing for a manager to do (team motivation) is the very thing that Baker excells in...
Peter,
I appreciate your devotion to Baker's "motivation" skills, but I lived in Chicago the last couple years and the man is a walking disaster. His skill with player motivation doesn't begin to excuse his odd fascination with Neifi Perez or Tony Womack or Ronny Cedeno or Cesar Izturis or Todd Hollandsworth. Plus, he tends to foster an "us vs. them" mentality with his players and the press, which doesn't help his team (i.e; Steve Stone). Baker's skill is more suited to a veteran team, which the 2007 Padres will not be. I'd love to see what Baker could do with, say, the Red Sox or Angels, though.
Don't go blaming Dusty for Derrick Lee. That was a freakish on-the-field injury that could have happened to anyone.
On the other hand, he does deserve blame on the way he handles his pitchers. It would be one thing if he stuck with pitchers when the situation demanded it, instead Dusty recklessly abuses them. Take Game 2 of the 2003 NLCS rout, he left Prior in to throw 120+ pitches in a 12-3 rout. Was it any surprise that Prior wilted after 90+ pitches in game 6?
That was typical Dusty. Leave a pitcher in the game to rack up an obscene amount of pitches even when the game is decided or has little import.
The rational was that you've got to save the bullpen, even though pitchers like Mark Prior and Kerry Wood meant far more to the health of the franchise than the likes of Kyle Farnswoth.
Going beyond Dusty's reign of terror on pitchers, this is the same guy who uttered, "walks clog the bases". In 2005, he repeatedly batted Corey Patterson (.254 OBP) and Neifi Perez (.298 OBP) 1-2 in the batting order.
End result? Derrek Lee has one the great years by a first baseman (1080 OPS, 177 OPS+), but only had 107 RBIs.
Screw you Dusty. I hope you go to the Padres.