In Dusty We Trusty: DC Edition
The Washington Nationals are a team we've been waiting to take the National League for quite some time now. They've got the talent. Time is on their side too, it's good young talent. It seems like they're always the favorites of the preseason magazines but by th time the postseason magazines roll around, they're nowhere to be found. Last season was rock bottom, as they folded like a tent down the stretch and missed the playoffs entirely after leading the NL East for most of the season. Manager Matt Williams lost control of his team, as indicated by the fight in the dugout during one of the last games of the season between star player Bryce Harper & closer Jonathan Papelbon. It was time for a new approach.
So the Nationals hired the most experienced manager on the market. Dusty Baker.
Dusty Baker has had some very good baseball teams. The San Francisco Giants were good for most of his ten seasons there and came within a game of winning a World Series. The Chicago Cubs were really good his first season there and came as close as they have since 1908 to making the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds got back in the playoff picture for the first time since 1995 during his time there. Dusty is the winningest African-American manager of all time & has the second-most wins all time among managers that haven't won the World Series.
Of course, that last part is the hangup a lot of people have with Dusty. His teams get to a certain level and can't get over the hump. The 1993 Giants finished a game behind the 1993 Braves after being 9.5 games ahead. The 2002 Giants were up 3-2 in the World Series & lost two straight. The 2003 Cubs were up 3-1 in the NLCS and then Steve Bartman happened in Game 6 & broke the Cubs for another decade. The 2012 Reds won the first two games on the road in the NLDS, then lost three straight in Great American Ballpark.
As a Reds fan I heard a lot of other Reds fans talk about how terrible Dusty was as a manager and that he had to go. I don't think Dusty could have done anything to win these people over, even if he'd won the World Series they would have said it took too many games. After 2013 moving on was the right move for both parties, though I think most Reds fans have now figured out that the main problem wasn't the manager. Or at least they'll admit that Dusty was better than the current manager.
Should Dusty have won a title by now? He probably should have won in 02 with the Giants. The Cubs were the Cubs, so it's tough to expect one there. And as much as Cincinnati fans probably don't want to admit it, the Reds never had as much talent as the Cardinals.
Winning the World Series is the one thing Dusty needs to take his place among the upper-echelon of managers. Until he does that he has to be on the tier below guys like Torre, Sparky, LaRussa, Cox, & the other greatest of all time. Bruce Bochy has a lower winning percentage than Dusty, but he's got three titles. The ring's the thing, and I think he's in a pretty good situation to get one.
Dusty's managed a lot of great players. If Bryce Harper reaches his ceiling, he could be better than all of them. Yes, that includes Barry Bonds. He'd have to be really good to do that, but it's within the realm of possibility. Dusty's played with & managed some of the best of all time. His expertise can only help Harper further his career, and so far Harper has been more than willing to listen. It helps that Dusty's a pretty laid-back kind of guy and should be all about Bryce's campaign to Make Baseball Fun Again.
One has to keep in mind that the Nationals have played six games against the Braves, three against the Marlins & three against the Phillies. Not exactly a Murderers' Row there, so don't expect them to win at a .900 clip for the rest of the season. They should make the playoffs pretty easily since they're one of the six/seven good teams in the National League. I imagine the general school of thought will be to shy away from picking the Washington Nationals managed by Dusty Baker in the postseason due to previous events.
Which means you might make some good money on them.
Reds Update
We said in last week's column that how the Reds did in Chicago & St. Louis would tell us a lot about where the team actually is in comparison to how they did in the first homestand. Well, the verdict is in.
They suck.
That might sound a little strong, but they're certainly not in the class of the teams that will lead the NL Central this season. The Chicago Cubs early on look like the team to beat, and with the exception of Monday's game where Brandon Finnegan took a no-hitter into the seventh inning only to have things fall apart due to mismanagement of the bullpen by Bryan Price, the Reds looked nowhere near the Cubs' level. Finals of 9-2 & 8-1 sum up how Game 2 & 3 went, and things didn't get much better when they went to St. Louis. 14-3 sounds like a football score but that's what happened on Friday night. They did squeak out a victory on Saturday (almost blowing it in the 9th, of course), then managed a close defeat on Sunday when the Cardinals scored in the 8th to ensure victory. Noticing a trend in those two?
5-1 in the first homestand, 1-5 in the first road trip. They're going to need to keep that home record up if they're going to remain somewhat close in the standings during the first half of the season. This week they get the Colorado Rockies for three games & the Cubs for four. The Rockies look pretty good so far this season, and we've already seen what the Cubs can do. 4-3 would make me extremely happy, I'm thinking 2-5 is more realistic.
On the bright side, my work schedule kept me from watching everything except the last two games in St. Louis. So I didn't get my blood pressure going too high.
Baseball's Top 10: Mascots
The Phillie Phanatic celebrated his 38th birthday on Sunday in Philadelphia. No wonder the Phillies beat the Nationals in 10 innings, there was no chance that they could let the Phanatic down on his special day! The Phillie Phanatic began the trend of baseball teams having their own official mascots, as the San Diego Chicken's popularity across the nation caused Phillies brass to think that maybe having their own mascot would increase interest from children. The Chicken has appeared at countless Padres games but was never their official mascot. He was too big for such things.
In honor of the Phanatic and all of MLB's great mascots, I'm going to dedicate our first edition of Baseball's Top 10 to the best current mascots in Major League Baseball. Here we go!
10. DJ Kitty
DJ Kitty serves as one of the mascots of the Tampa Bay Rays, and is also Tropicana Field's official DJ. Gotta love a cat that can multi-task.
9. Slider
Slider was reportedly going to be phased out in 2015, but Cleveland management smartly figured out that it was a good idea to keep a non-controversial blobbish mascot around instead of trying to come up with something Indian-themed. Slider has been well-behaved in his appearances in Cincinnati during Ohio Cup games.
8. The Pirate Parrot
When you think pirates, you think parrots. The Pirate Parrot would probably be higher on the list if Pennsylvania's other mascot wasn't green.
7. Dinger
Dinosaurs are always popular with me, and apparently they were quite prevalent in the Rocky Mountains back in the day.
6. The Mariner Moose
The Moose ran for Vice President back in 1996 on the same ticket as Ken Griffey Jr.. I'm pretty sure I'd take the Mariner Moose over at least four of the main presidential candidates in 2016. #FeelTheBern
5. Rosie Red
Rosie is the most-tenured female mascot currently in Major League Baseball. The ROSIE Reds are a female fan group that formed in the early-60s to prevent the Reds from moving away from Cincinnati. They still do charitable work & make frequent road trips to support the team. Rosie is a great hero for young girls that are interested in baseball.
4. Lou Seal
Lou Seal is a callback to the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League back in the day, and probably has the coolest name of any mascot.
3. Mr. Met
The Phanatic & the Chicken popularized the mascot genre, but Mr. Met was the first of his kind, debuting in 1964. All baseball-headed mascots owe their existence to him.
2. Bernie Brewer
Not only does Bernie have a fantastic mustache, he has a gigantic slide that he goes down whenever the Brewers hit a home run. Milwaukee is also home to the Sausages, the loveable meat products that originated the "racing mascots" craze.
1. The Phillie Phanatic
The king stay the king.
Feel free to hit me up on the Twittah with your hot mascot takes, along with your suggestions for future Baseball Top 10s! I think next time we'll go with top 10 MLB Network Hotties. My boy RoFlo should do pretty well there.
Three Series To Watch This Week
1. Cubs at Cardinals (Monday-Wednesday): It's the Midwest version of Yanks vs. Sawx before Boston was able to win championships. The Cubs have come out of the gates like bats out of hell, but now they head into St. Louis to take on the dominant team in the NL Central for the past 20 years. This will be an interesting series to see where these teams are in relation to each other since they'll be deciding the division later on.
2. Orioles at Royals (Friday-Sunday): People forgot about the Orioles, but they're reminding us early in this season that they can do some things. These two teams faced off in the 2014 ALCS and there's still some bad blood over the "These O's Ain't Royal" t-shirts worn by the KC players during that series. OK, I don't know that for a fact, but since baseball players never forget slights I think it's a safe assumption.
3. Dodgers at Rockies (Friday-Sunday): I like it when the Rockies are good. The thin air in Denver provides for exciting baseball and the more important games there the better. Trevor Story and the crew are looking formidable early, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when the always-dangerous Dodgers come to town.
Welp, that's all we have time for this week! Thanks for reading, and we'll be back next week with the latest baseball news and views!
No comments:
Post a Comment