Dusty Baker is overrated.

 

He's a great motivator for sure. And he's a great regular season manager. But in that game 7, he sure mucked it up.

 

I mean, you gotta have ppl warming up in the pen during a game 7. The thing was friggin' empty.

 

And when you do bring someone is, it's VERES???? HUH????

 

Anyone else want to help me out here? What other reasons is this guy overrated?

Dusty Baker is overrated.

 

He's a great motivator for sure.  And he's a great regular season manager.  But in that game 7, he sure mucked it up.

 

I mean, you gotta have ppl warming up in the pen during a game 7.  The thing was friggin' empty.

 

And when you do bring someone is, it's VERES????  HUH????

 

Anyone else want to help me out here?  What other reasons is this guy overrated?

I think you've the basic idea covered. You could go into other details, like why wasn't Clement used when Wood started faltering.

yea. he only took an average team in the cubs and took them to game 7 of the NLCS.

Dusty Baker is overrated.

 

He's a great motivator for sure.  And he's a great regular season manager.  But in that game 7, he sure mucked it up.

 

I mean, you gotta have ppl warming up in the pen during a game 7.  The thing was friggin' empty.

 

And when you do bring someone is, it's VERES????  HUH????

 

Anyone else want to help me out here?  What other reasons is this guy overrated?

I think you've the basic idea covered. You could go into other details, like why wasn't Clement used when Wood started faltering.

Dusty's really established himself a track record here of blowing postseason series he had in control...If he ever gets back in, that's gonna play with his mind...

 

I heard a Cub fan come up with a new idea on the Score yesterday. He said Dusty should have closed out the Prior game...with Kerry Wood. I'm not saying that's the best idea in the world, but I found it interesting. Might even have gotten them into the playoffs. He wouldn't have had to throw anything but heat for two innings...

I'm not going to say anything but praise to a guy that gets an 88 win team to within 5 outs of the World Series with no bullpen, an average closer and an average offense at best.

 

If the Tribune finally goes out and gets the pieces needed to make the next step (something they failed to do in '84 and '89) like a LaTroy Hawkins, Billy Wagner, Ritchie Sexton, Miguel Tejada...for example...then look out.

yea.  he only took an average team in the cubs and took them to game 7 of the NLCS.

Won a mediocre NL Central.

Would not have won ANY other division in MLB with the record they earned.

Had the worst winning percentage of any team in the playoffs.

Beat a fading, aging Braves team in the NLDS.

Choked vs. a young, rising team in Florida.

 

Did they achieve some good things? No doubt.

Did they do more than the 2003 Sox? Absolutely.

Was it ALL luck? No.

Was there a LOT of luck involved? I think so.

Does that make Dusty Ditka a good manager? Not necessarily.

There were some very weird decisions made, especially in Game 7. The two most obvious were the lack of ANYONE warming up when Kid L was running out of gas and the decision to pitch to the Alex Gonzalez who CAN get key hits when Beckett is standing in the on-deck circle and there are 2 outs.

 

Baker did not give his team the best chance to win that seventh game, and it exposed some of his weaknesses as well as the team's.

As a motivator the guy is unchallenged IMO. With the Sox talent he would have won 100 games. He needs a stronger bench coach to help him make pitching decesions, because he does not have a clue there.

You do need to give them some credit. There was no way of knowing that Karros and Grudz would work out as well as they did. They also beat a tough Braves team which no one thought they would beat. I remember when the Cubs brought Dusty over, how much of a deal was made about it. If it takes the guy winning the WS with how good the team did last year, well no one is going to succeed. They are only going to keep getting better now, they did pick up two young players who have show signs of being good ones.

 

I don't think he is overrated, just he mismanages sometimes.