In Dusty we Trusty?

So your team just finished the baseball season with a dismal 72-90 record, while finishing 5th in their division and 13 games out of 1st place. They haven't posted a winning record in 7 seasons and the future does not look bright as your lineup consists of multiple aging players and an unproductive minor league system. This leads to the hiring of a new manager.

Now speed ahead 5 years and your team has finished with their second division title in those five seasons, two 90 plus win seasons, and a bright future thanks to a solid core group of young players just entering their prime. In the last five seasons, your team has compiled a record of 419-391. The typical baseball fan would be ecstatic about such a turnaround and most likely would be declaring their manager, "The Best in Baseball". True or not these declarations would be heard in almost any city in Major League Baseball, except Cincinnati.

Johnnie B. Baker was hired by the Reds in after the 2007 season in order to bring some experience and success to Cincinnati. Mostly remembered for the failure of the Cubs to reach the World Series, thanks in large part to Steve Bartman, actually that is not true. Moises Alou had no shot at catching that fly ball and if he had simply jogged back to his position like a normal player then Bartman's life would not have been ruined. Sorry got off topic. Where was I? Oh yeah, Baker is remembered as the manager of the Cubs team that should have made the World Series, but did not. The fact that he was very successful the first three years of his stint in Chicago tends to be overlooked. Baker was 26 games over .500 as the manager of the Cubs before they gave him a AAA team to put on the field in 2006 which resulted in a 66-96 record.

For some reason, unknown to me, this one bad season led to Baker being labeled as a poor manager and as someone that ruins young players and prefers veterans even if they are not as talented (I'll get to this later). This label is outrageous and Baker is forced to put up with way more scrutiny than any successful manger ever should.

Let's start by debunking some of the myths that follow Baker around.

Firstly, the idea that Baker "ruined" the career of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood is simply an excuse that Cubs fan use in order to cope with the heartbreak. For starters, anyone vaguely familiar with baseball could have told you that Wood would experience arm problems simply because of the herky jerky motion in which he pitches. As for Prior and his "can't miss" abilities, he fell victim to the injury bug as well but not by any doing of Baker's overuse (as claimed by those who are anti-Baker). Early is his career Prior suffered injuries while running the bases, getting hit by a line drive and an unrelated Achilles Tendon injury. Prior did go on to suffer arm and shoulder injuries later in his career but they have been attributed to his delivery and not to the amount of innings that Baker asked him to pitch as a young starter.

The second outlandish myth is that Baker would rather play a veteran over a rookie regardless of ability. This is simply untrue. By all accounts, Dusty Baker is a great "player or locker room" manager who knows exactly what is important to the flow and energy of the team. He goes out of his way to speak Spanish with any Spanish speaking players, learning hunting techniques to be able to communicate with players better (Homer Bailey), and is apparently a very avid listener of all types of music which allows him to connect better with the young guys. What does this have to do with playing a veteran over a rookie you ask? Well Dusty has been excellent at pinpointing veterans who's simple presence on the field help the team even if they are struggling a bit while playing, and he is incredibly loyal to players that in his mind have earned the right to have his loyalty. What this allows is an environment that all players want to play in and an environment where a player will run through a wall for their manager. Yes, last season Scott Rolen was given a long leash even when everyone else wanted Todd Frazier to start every day, but Baker stuck with Rolen as a method of protecting Frazier. Multiple times Baker would point out that Frazier was sitting because the Reds were facing a pitcher that threw a lot of off speed pitches and those simply would not Frazier's strong point so he would rather play him against teams in which he can have success. So in response to all of those naysayers who claim that Baker never plays younger guys, they apparently overlook Zach Cozart last season, Jay Bruce early in his career, Joey Votto playing nearly every day once called up, and even Todd Frazier last season, maybe if you step back and stop looking for reasons to complain about Baker and instead recognize that he does things that will help his younger guys in the long run - such as protecting their confidence and putting them in better situations to succeed.

Day in and day out in Cincinnati there are large masses of "fans" that want to argue and complain about every lineup that Baker puts on the field. Number 1: If he was not good at his job, he would not have been awarded Manager of the Year on three occasions. Also, you do not know more about baseball or managing a team than Baker does and if you think you do, please refer yourself to my recent post about annoying fans because it may have been written indirectly about you. Last year, every Joe Reds fan wanted to move Ryan Hanigan up to the number two hole or even lead off simply because of his on base percentage. What most of those fans did not take into account is that fact that Hanigan's OBP was greatly helped by being an #8 hole hitting on an NL team which results in pitchers pitching around him to get to the pitcher on deck. These are the types of things that Dusty Baker gets paid millions of dollars to consider and judging by his team winning 97 of their games, he is doing his job well.

I am imploring the Reds fan base this season to rather than complaining and nitpicking on every move that Baker makes, let's instead celebrate the fact that we have a very successful manager leading our team. If you ever start to waver on the fact that he is a top flight manager and great for this city and the Reds, just think back to the days of Bob Boone or Jerry Narron and then remember that Baker is at the helm of a squad searching for their third NL Central crown in in 4 years.

For every Corey Patterson in Baker's career there is also a Zach Cozart and for every Mark Prior there is also a Johnny Cueto. Have faith and trust in the man leading your team this season. Let's spend the summer cheering and supporting the Reds rather than trying as hard as possible to find reasons to whine and complain. In Dusty we Trusty!