It seems like it is time to put together one of those why/why-not sets of reasons for firing Dusty’s butt or letting him stay. This topic is roiling to the top of the pot with so much of the recent criticism of the team gathering around Baker and the decisions he has made or not made, the good and bad lineups, the good and bad substitutions, etc. And then having this little tidbit popping up about a rift between Chas McCormick and Dusty Baker.
And being one of those types of people who like pro-con lists, well here you go.
Pros – Why Keep Dusty Baker
- The Astros have only one manager that has won a championship that has not been the subject of constant ridicule, and that man is Dusty Baker.
- He came into the organization while it was in chaos and immediately brought calmness and respect (well relatively) to the organization. Obviously, the respect for him personally did not protect the whole organization from the ridicule they deserved, but just imagine the constant bombardment of questions if the team had promoted someone from within who could be linked to the scandal.
- In his three full seasons he took the team to three ALCS’s, 2 World Series appearances and 1 World Series title.
- This success was not just due to the talent on the team, even in the pandemic season of 2020, he helped the team overcome the losses of Justin Verlander, Yordan Alvarez, Roberto Osuna, Chris Devenski, Collin McHugh, Will Harris, Brad Peacock and others.
- He is the ranked 8th in wins all time in the major leagues with 2134 wins and will sometime in the next couple months pass Bucky Harris for 7th all time at 2158. Catching Sparky Anderson for 6th at 2194 would require the 2023 Astros finishing with 101 wins, which does not look like its going to happen.
- Along with the 26 seasons of managing, Dusty played 19 years in the majors winning a World Championship ring in the process. The man knows what it takes to make the majors, stay in the majors and win in the majors as his reaching the playoffs as manager of 5 different teams attests.
- Especially in 2021 and 2022 he did a masterful job of utilizing his pitching staff, doubly so in the 2022 playoffs as they rode brilliant bullpen usage and performance to the championship.
- The players (with one possible exception) love him. He was the first person they all mentioned when being interviewed after the WS win in 2022.
- You don’t fire a manager after the success he has had, coming off a Championship and while holding the team in a pennant race despite losing starting pitchers Justin Verlander, Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia, and Jose Urquidy. Of course, this is an organization that basically let go of their GM, James Click, weeks after winning the championship. (Yes, they offered him a one-year contract – a big slap in the face).
Cons – Why It’s Time to Kick Dusty to the Curb
- Face it – many people were hoping that Dusty would take his first championship ring as a manager and head back to the vineyard. It felt like the right time for the organization to move to a younger choice.
- He does not seem like he is that engaged this season. He has not been popping out of the dugout to defend his players over a plethora of bad ball/strike umpiring. His press conferences are about as animated and thrilling as a Henry Kissinger interview. (Henry turned 100 a month ago, by the way).
- Yes, he has had great success with the Astros, but who would not have? A lot of the players’ performances, especially the pitching, may well be more a product of the coaching and, of course, the talent of the players themselves. A.J. Hinch stunk when he managed the D’Backs and now as he manages the Tigers, but was great when he had great players with the Astros.
- Baker’s lineup construction with an underperforming offense has been questionable. Keeping Jose Abreu in the cleanup or 5th spot despite terrible production, over-use of an aging and poor offensive catcher in Martin Maldonado, sliding Kyle Tucker so far back in the lineup for long stretches of the season, and on and on are all problematic.
- He also seems to apply OG baseball moxie instead of cyber-statistical finesse with his lineups. Jeremy Pena totally tears things up in the second spot, so he rarely appears there. Chas McCormick eats up lefty pitching and overall has one of the higher OPSs on the team and then shares equal time with Jake Meyers, who is underperforming. Jose Altuve struggles upon his return from the IL, breaks out with a four-hit game, then immediately sits and returns struggling again.
- The biggest reason to consider replacing Dusty is if what is in the article above is true about his handling of Chas McCormick. Managers and players don’t have to like each other, but personal feelings should never set the agenda. If a manager has to punish a player, he pulls them aside and tells them what the punishment is, what he did wrong, and what he wants to change, and that should be it. If it keeps happening, then you have to up the punishment or ask the front office to send the guy down or trade the guy. If the problem is that Chas wore a MAGA hat in the clubhouse, then you have a different problem.
In the end, it is highly unlikely that, barring a health problem, Dusty will be let go during this season. Perhaps if the team goes spiraling downward and it appears that Dusty has lost the clubhouse, something may happen. But more likely, the team will finish the season well or poorly, and perhaps Jim Crane will not re-up Dusty for another season in 2024.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
36 responses to “Dusty Baker: The whys and why nots”
All pros and cons aside, I don’t think it’s realistic to send Dusty home at this point. But I also think it’s time for Crane to sit down with his GM and manager and let the manager know he wants the best team on the field and the final determination of that will be the responsibility the general manager. I won’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve seen enough to recognize that the man with a great baseball resume is not fully committed to playing the guys that give this team the best chance to win baseball games.
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Guess who’s back….
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/06/24/jon-singleton-signs-minor-league-deal-with-astros-after-release-by-brewers/70353983007/
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He’s the one first baseman in the majors who hit worse than Jose Abreu (yeah it was only 11 games).
I don’t see the point unless it is to block other/ better prospects.
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That’s what I was concerned about, him blocking other prospects. What the heck was Brown thinking about??
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Do we have to start worrying about our GM now too? Loperfido might have been a nice fit in Sugarland to fill in the Bligh opening. And really, what’s Bligh going to do on the major league roster?
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I’m with you on wondering about Brown.
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Blight’s here to block Singleton- to block Loperfido…
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Dan, we’ll see Loperfido sooner than later if he keeps doing what he’s doing. I just love the combination of a .421 OBP and a .986 OPS in Corpus. And 14 of 15 stolen bases. I just wish he was spending more time at first base. I wonder why he’s playing so much center and 2nd?
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Welp, Baker once again mismanages and we have a tied ballgame.
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It did not look like Abreu and Diaz were in sync tonight.
We had plenty of chances to score more than 7.
We gave them 8 runs on 5 hits.
A tough game to give back.
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I did not have the sound on – but saw Stanek going nuts over the balk call – I thought you could step back off the slab
But I guess Dusty finally left the dugout to get thrown out of the game. Why didn’t he come out when the balk was called?
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Dusty or no dusty, our Astros have a very short window to get back to respectability. We have a four-game series with the Rangers – who are twice the team we presently are – next week. They already lead us by 6 games – and we aren’t looking much like a contender. If we blow the upcoming head-to-head series the way we have totally ‘Tinanic sub tour’-ed the Dodgers series, we can turn out the lights on the 2023 season.
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That was supposed to be ‘Titanic sub tour’ – or ‘Tie, Stanek! sub tour’ as you may prefer.
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I have a hard time getting too upset at Dusty here. I’d prefer more standard lineups that included Chas and Diaz. If it were my choice we’d never see Altuve sit unless he was sick/nursing an injury. However, we’re only 6.5 games back of the Rangers despite their offensive output and our offense running half a team out there most nights. Where would we be if Hinch, Bo Porter, or some of the less than luminary managers from our history were running the show? I don’t want to give Dusty too much credit here, but I’m thinking he deserves at least some. If you ever to guys who played for him you would understand how he works a little better. Best example I can give would be Doug Glanville. He got traded to the Cubs during a pennant run while he had been a stating CF. Unfortunately for him, the Cubs already had a starting OF and he became a backup LF and bat off the bench. This wasn’t what he wanted to happen, but Dusty laid it out for him plainly. He said that Dusty tells guys when they are going to play and generally doesn’t change from that unless forced to do so.
As usual, daveb hit it above. If we have a poor showing against the Rangers it will really put us behind the eight ball. Winning the series would be progress in the climb back. Sweeping the series would be a shockwave.
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I just read that we’ve got 10 blown saves and 15 losses from the pen so far this year. Ironically, those are the healthy guys.
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It appears that whatever can go wrong does go wrong. We pitch well but don’t hit, we pitch well but bull pen blows it, we hit but pitch poorly, we hit but bull pen falls apart and the musical chairs of line ups, the injuries, or the bad calls. I guess it could be the convergence of everything bad. Murphy’s Law is in full force here. As for Dusty, I thought he should have rode off in the sunset after the World Series win. What did he have to prove afterwards? I’m just not too optimistic at this point but it would be nice to get back in the game.
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You’d think, especially looking at a sweep, you’d DH Atuve or Diaz. But then again, Julks is the favored son right now.
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This is Dusty’s way of saying to Astro fans exactly what Stanek yelled at the top of his lungs at the Dodger faithful.
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At least we don’t have to watch Bligh Madris look totally helpless today.
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Yes but you get to watch Montero blow a 3 run lead. Why in the hell was he in there? I’m so mad now I could just scream. In fact I think I will. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTf-b7r_3W4
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Mon’terror gives away another lead. This guy is totally broken. Let’s see if Dusty pinch hits for Maldy in the 9th.
Can someone pls explain the Jon Singleton signing? Abreu, Maldy and Jon. Three auto outs when Abreu is not popping. A useless signing I think
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You still have to field people at every position. Singleton isn’t going to win us the World Series, but gives them someone to play 1B at Sugarland who isn’t on the 40 man roster. I saw him last year at AAA and he looked good. Ultimately when they cut him it won’t hurt anyone other than Singleton, but the paycheck at AAA is surely better than the one in the Independent Leagues.
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Clearly going to eat that bad move, why 20 mil for three years guaranteed. Nobody else was offering him anything. Makes no sense. Same with bad relief pitcher 3 years 33 mil? If we released him instead of signing him he would be selling used cars or stocking shelves at Target or Walmart.
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Montero comes in and blows a 3 run lead (again). Base running mistakes galore. This game is painful to watch. I could just scream. In fact I think I will.
I think this says it all.
Hopefully this one will not vanish as previous post did.
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No words, Z
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Sorry about the double post. Never saw it till this morning.
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What a great job by our three rookie starters this past weekend. All three deserved a better fate.
Maldy is the anchor dragging behind the boat.
The guy with the highest slugging percentage and OPS on the team sat all night even as our worst hitter was sent back up to the plate in the tenth inning and promptly sent a bunt directly to the pitcher.
We ran the bases like we had not run them before.
Tucker must have gotten blinded by the sun in the 8th. He’ll tell us he should have made that catch. And it was not a terrible pitch by a totally battle field beaten Montero. If Nevis was going to pitch on his third day in a row, he should have started that inning.
We did not play well or get managed well in LA.
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The way this team looks at times we were lucky to get out of LA with a win. I’ve watched that balk call in slow mo 5-6 times now I can’t see it. The umps seemed to be against us the whole series. Brown really got squeezed yesterday on very similar pitch and locations that Gonsolin got. Monterrible showed up again and almost blew it.
Montero, Maldonado, and Abreu are indications of what is the problem with Dusty. A lot of franchises would have already released Maldy much less benched him. Not us, we just keep on trotting him out there.
I try and stay positive about Dusty. He seems to be a likeable guy. His lineups can be puzzling. You have a team that has struggled to find some offensive consistency. You have one of the 5 hottest hitters in the league right now. Yet, you sit him. Alot. Sometimes I wonder if he got benched at some point in his career and he doesn’t want to be “that guy” takes a role away from someone. Abreu really tatooed that one last night, it was not an accident a mistake he can still punish it, but it will be a week of really bad play before we see it again. And Maldy is hitting .178. I would never in my wildest imagination think a team that is struggling to score has a hitter in their lineup at .178 and are not putting two and two together. Especially when the back up is better offensively, defensively, I tell you Baker must really appreciate that nuanced thing about getting your staff ready, knowing opposing hitters, etc. because every metric (and my eyes) tell me Diaz is the better catcher.
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The 2023 clarification of the balk rule;
A balk occurs when a pitcher makes an illegal motion on the mound that the umpire deems to be deceitful to the runner(s).
Taken literally, it seems that it is okay to do something illegal as long as it is not deceitful to the runner(s).
Throughout my baseball watching life, I’ve never had a full grasp of what exactly a balk might be. I think that goes for most people.
But based on what Stanek did/did not do on Saturday night, it is clear that there was absolutely no attempt at deceit.
Valentine is standing out there during a big moment of a nationally televised game in LA and wants to be in the game. He LOOKS for a way. That’s my take.
Steven, talking about dusty is becoming exhausting. But he provides new fodder daily.
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Sometimes I think Brown could subvert him by releasing a guy that clearly is not helping the team. But Dusty still won’t play Diaz, he will probably call up Biggio and see if he will come catch.
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A shout back to the crawfishboxes for featuring us
https://www.crawfishboxes.com/2023/6/26/23773311/houston-astros-crawfish-boil-june-26-2023
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The new top 100 prospect list is out and again the Astros have only one player on it – Drew Gilbert at 76
https://www.mlb.com/prospects/top100/
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Dusty has always had issues with younger players especially talented ones who don’t take a lot of bullshit. Chas is clearly one of those, Peña , Tucker and a few others have had their moments with Dusty also. The Entirety of MLB doesn’t understand why Tucker hasn’t been kept in the 3-4-5 area of the lineup, Peña seems to be getting more ire this year. Stanek clearly not a favorite either. Time for Dusty to go home!!
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Welcome Ken – you may want to change your sign-in to remove your address.
Yeah – its interesting – did Chas not want to hear Hank Aaron stories?
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I’m sure Chas doesn’t mind Hank Aaron stories. I’m pretty sure he minded sitting on the bench and hearing them instead of playing.
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If this Chas/Dusty relationship issue is real, going back as far as last year, I wonder how much better Chas might have played if working in a more positive environment?
If there is something to the Rome claim, I have a special amount of respect for Chas. In spite of all we’ve seen and continually wondered why “Chas is not on the field” the guy keeps coming out with a smile on his face and playing reliable, sometimes special baseball. He’s one of the better guys on this club.
The thing that really sticks out to me is Chas sitting on the bench on Opening Day, Ring Day for the World Champions. That was his most significant benching ever. He got shafted.
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