Dusty Baker cannot help himself with the lineup

Over the weekend you might have missed the post where the Reds are toying with the idea of hitting Jay Bruce lead-off.

You should not be surprised by this. Dusty Baker has been known for handling young players poorly for a long time, and building particularly funny lineups when the obvious answer is hitting him smack dab in the face.

On Bruce leading off: “What’s more important? On-base percentage or 1-0 to start the game?”

“The way Stubbie starts has a lot to it,” Baker said.

Baker also mentioned Bruce as one of the possibilities in clean-up when Scott Rolen is not in the lineup. Baker prefers not to have left-handers back-to-back in the lineup.

“I’d rather not have two lefties in a row,” Baker said. “Unless you have lefties like (Ryan) Howard and (Chase) Utley who don’t have as much trouble hitting lefties. If you’re learning to hit lefties, they can bring in one lefty to take care of two guys. I’d rather split them up. Eventually they might. Jay is getting better at hitting lefties.”

Because Lord knows, you just can’t build your lineup when there is the possibility of a match-up looming later in the game that might occur once or maybe twice. Where did this ignorant thinking come from?

Baker uses the shining examples of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley as who ‘don’t have as much trouble hitting lefties’ (as Jay Bruce and Joey Votto back to back). But a look at the numbers shows that DUHsty is once again incorrect.

Bruce hit .277 with 12 HR against southpaws last season. That is better than Howard who hit only .264 with 12 HR, and Utley was a hair better with less power, .294 with 10 HR.

So go ahead Dusty. Hit Jay Bruce lead off some nights. Why is it so damn hard to hit the kid 4th all year and see what happens? I swear, sometimes fans could manage a big league club better than these so called paid experts. This is ridiculous.

Let’s be honest, Dusty will hit him 6th or 7th, protect him again with the Dream Team of Ryan Hanigan, Ramon Hernandez and Paul Janish and wonder why he gets off to a slow start. At least hitting lead-off he would have the benefit of a capable hitter or two hitting behind him. Moron. Protect your young hitter, you goon.