You are here: Home / Archives for Dusty Baker

Game 20, 2012: Reds Spirited comeback Falls Short

April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[Cincinnati.com] [Redleg Nation] [Better Off Red] [Crawfish Boxes] [Houston Chronicle] [Hal McCoy]

This was one of those rare games of which I did not see a single pitch. We had an NFL Draft party at our house, and when I got the alert on my iPhone that the Reds were down 6-0, I didn’t even bother flipping the game over to check the score.

This team is just flat-out not getting it done right now. There’s no mixing words and no other way to describe it. Mike Leake came out and got hammered around the yard again.

The Reds fought back with a spirited abandon. And I got several text messages about Scott Rolen hitting four balls directly on the screws and going 0 for 4. The comeback died in the 9th, but I think the four unanswered (along with what sounds like it could have been a lot more) bode well for us heading into the weekend.

Wandy Rodriguez continued what has been a career of success against the Reds. Six innings, two earned runs, six strikeouts. He’s got two wins and a 1.72 ERA now. And the Reds are just a game ahead of the putrid Astros.

I’m not fully blaming Dusty Baker–even though he says and does stupid things–but the Reds have got to show some response here soon and play hard for the guy. This is more of what we saw last year. And what is Baker doing hitting Jay Bruce 7th in this lineup? I don’t care if it’s a left-handed pitcher. It’s stupidity. Bruce has OPS’d almost at as high of a clip against southpaws. This is a manager not reviewing his data closely enough.

We’re headed to the ballpark today, and I am very confident we’ll see a win and the Reds will close out this series with two in a row over Houston. I’ve never been more sure in fact. Johnny Cueto is on the bump, and the Astros oppose with a guy I think the Reds will absolutely eat alive.

Highlights:

Wandy Rodriguez continues his mastery of the Reds

Todd Frazier RBI triple

Jay Bruce homers (5) to center field in the 9th inning

Devin Mesoraco goes back-to-back

Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds, F--k the Astros, Houston Astros Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Baseball Show: Chipper Jones is Retiring

March 23, 2012 By 1 Comment

Last night on The Baseball Show, Mike Rosenbaum (The Golden Sombrero, Bleacher Report), M.J. Lloyd (Halo Hangout, Off Base Percentage) and I discuss the following show topics:

-Mike’s move to Bleacher Report as a featured writer
-Prospects and players that have been impressive around Spring Training thus far
-Chipper Jones’ retirement announcement
-Would you rather have a player hang around as long as possible, or retire on their own terms?
-Dusty Baker on the hot seat, our reaction
-The Arte Moreno GQ interview
-As always, much more and a preview of next week’s over/under & predictions show

Filed Under: The Baseball Show by Diamond Hoggers Tagged With: , ,

Bobby Valentine is the new Red Sox Manager

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So today I’m getting texts and people want to know my thoughts on Bobby Valentine being named manager of one of baseball’s Cadillac teams.

The truth is, I don’t really have many thoughts on it. I kind of wished that Bobby V. would have gotten the Cincinnati Reds managerial job over Dusty Baker–but then again I find myself talking to my inner voice saying that baseball managers really don’t matter.

I think guys like Baker and Valentine are proof of that. You could stick a lot of figures surrounding the game of baseball in that Boston clubhouse and they might be able to right the ship. Whether Boston wins the series next season or finishes in fourth, I don’t think that Valentine will have a whole lot to do with it. A baseball manager’s best work is done when he quietly reminds you of the things you already know. Do I think Valentine has mastered that art? For as long as he’s been around the game it’s likely.

Just give me a guy who doesn’t rock the boat. A guy with just the right emotional balance to weather everything for 162 games. Sometimes that means just not doing anything to screw it up.

At the same time, every once in a while that’s not enough. Baker is a prime example of that with his lineup cards. A lot of people think Valentine is a proverbial dope. I guess I’m not one of those people entirely–but I think he’s an acquired taste. He’s just a guy who says stupid things sometimes. We’ve all been guilty of that at times in our workplace.

There’s a couple of good tales below on young Valentine no matter what side of the fence you sit on. In regards to my deepest thoughts on the hiring; I really don’t care. I think the guy will have about as much success as anyone that would have stepped into the position. Tim Kurkjian says it’s a home run hire. It’s Boston. The playoff field has been expanded. They’re going to spend money, and they’re likely going to win.

Meeting Bobby Valentine on New Year’s Eve | Return visit to Bobby Valentine’s

Filed Under: Bobby V, Red Sox Tagged With: ,

Some teams say they want to win; some go out and actually do it

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Something I’ve admired about the Cardinals and Tony LaRussa is their absolute cut-throat buring desire to win ballgames. Yeah, everyone wants to win, but they really want to win. They don’t give up in games, their front office doesn’t give up, and in fact nobody in the organzation gives up.

It was just 2-3 weeks back when Dusty Baker said the goal was to beat St. Louis for second place. Well, the Cardinals battled their way back. I didn’t think they had a chance. But obviously they didn’t see that and feel that way. And now look at them–one game behind Atlanta for a playoff spot. This whole time, Dusty’s boys have been even flatter than they were the rest of the season and have lost ground on their coveted second place trophy in the NL Central.

The Reds pretty well just gave up. From the front office on down. Baker alluded they bought their way back in but I think that’s lazy thinking. It’s a culture thing. And the Reds don’t have it right now.

Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Stink teams Tagged With: ,

Are Dusty Baker and Walt Jocketty on the same page?

August 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

Just a random thought after reading this snippet from John Heyman of Sports Illustrated:

Sources suggest there has been some difference of opinion over playing time between Reds GM Walt Jocketty and manager Dusty Baker, who has a year to go on his contract. The Reds are over .500 for the first time since early July, but it is curious how much playing time veterans Miguel Cairo and Freddie Lewis are getting in a lost season. Rival execs say they also would have traded Ramon Hernandez before the July 31 trade deadline and employed Devin Mesoraco as catcher. Hernandez was claimed on waivers by a competitor and pulled back by the Reds. He would have helped the Giants, among others.

Our take: With the non-trade of Hernandez, how can you blame anyone but the GM and the GM alone? It isn’t likely that Dusty Baker was in the room fielding the calls and said ‘keep Ramon’. That’s on the GM. And that shows that the GM is somewhat on Dusty’s page of keeping the veterans and playing veterans until the bitter end to try and accomplish something salvageable in terms of record this year. In that light, we have to disagree with Heyman a little bit.

Another scenario is ownership telling each them what to do in regards to the non-move of Ramon Hernandez. If the Reds want to draw well attendance-wise until the end of the year–or even respectably–they’ll need to win and win often down the stretch to even keep a fair amount of butts in the seats at Great American. Maybe ownership said to hang on to Ramon Hernandez for this reason. That’s the only thing that would even kind of make sense at this point.

From any other standpoint, the move (or lack thereof) makes no sense.

Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds Tagged With: , ,

Reds bring the Heat in Miami

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[Cincinnati.com] [The Real Mccoy]

Last night’s win said an awful lot about the character of the Reds. But before I talk about the game, I just want to talk about my state of mind as a fan right now.

It’s been really hard to maintain this blog this season. For anyone that has ever written about sports on the internet, you realize that if there is emotion involved–it’s not an easy thing all of the time. The Reds performance this year has really complicated me writing about baseball on this blog. So if anyone wonders about the future of Diamond Hoggers and the amount of writing that will be done on here; the show will go on as always and the tempo will pick up.

The Reds can’t stink forever, and I’ve been preparing to get married in September. Losing 15 pounds and planning a wedding has been some work albeit minimal. But baseball is what I love and on any random summer night it’s easy to remember why I love it.

Last night was one of those games. Hell, I even fired up the post game show on 700 WLW last night (too much Jimmy Buffett talk, not enough baseball but oh well) and watched Little Big League on Netflix as I was falling asleep. After games like last night, I’ll let it be baseball season until December!

A lot of Reds fans who my relationship has been in a stalemate with suddenly crept out of the woodwork last night as the Reds battled back on the road from a 5-2 deficit. Everything seemed to happen by design. Yonder Alonso hits a bomb to get things going a little bit, and then Jay Bruce (hitting 3rd in the lineup) hits a bomb to right field to cut the deficit to 5-4.

Nick Masset came in and promptly shit his pants as he’s so often done this season and gave up a sac fly to Emillio Bonifacio in the bottom of the 8th to seemingly end the game.

Dusty Baker makes a Dusty Baker move in the 9th inning. He allows Paul Janish to lead off, and even listening to the radio I’m wondering what the Hell a .217ish hitter is doing leading off when we need one base runner. The Reds would bail their manager out from there; as Joey Votto pinch hit and had a Joey Votto at-bat where he fouled off a few tough pitches and got the full count walk, his 93rd of the season. Brandon Phillips did the same, had a tough at bat and ended up fouling off a few pitches until he got something he could handle and singled to center.

From there you’ll see the highlights below that took the Reds home winners down in the Miami humidity.

I think the reason people are so happy is they feel in a lot of cases that the Reds have given up just because this season is over and so many of us have given up our hopes and expectations we had. While this time last summer was a magical time in our lives, we’re left adjusting at the present time and wondering how to feel. Last night the Reds reminded us that meaningless baseball on a summer night can still be great because it is baseball.

And soon enough the boys of summer will be giving way to another sport. So we best enjoy it for all we can for another few weeks here before we say goodbye for another long winter.

This has been a really weird season. I’m not sure what it is. But it’s not unlike any other baseball season I’ve lived through despite having it’s share of ‘blah’ moments. There are points when the season seems a few days long and then when you think back to the beginning parts you can’t believe that this is the same season at all.

It’s the puzzling life of being a baseball fan. We all go through it and there is no exact psychology that fits a textbook of how to do it correctly. You just exist, you take it in, you watch. You try to draw conclusions or deductions or similarities to past seasons. If we’re honest with ourselves, baseball is so unique that while many players and teams are patterned after their past, in some ways every day is statistically unique and unpredictable. And that is what keeps us hooked.

You never know when the Cincinnati Reds–who you had thought had ‘quit’–score four in the 9th to win the damn thing. God I love this game.

Top Plays:

Yonder Alonso’s 2nd home run of his career

Jay Bruce hits a Ricky Nolasco hanging breaking ball into the seats

Dave Sappelt’s double to the wall ties the game in the 9th

Alonso puts the Reds ahead with a 2-run double

Potpourri

-Due to another damn hurricane, the Reds and Marlins will play a doubleheader today.

-Ricky Nolasco passed Dontrelle Willis as the all-time strikeout leader in Marlins history last night.

-It was about a year ago that I wrote this about Jay Bruce. I don’t know if it’s ever been more true.

-It was about a year ago on a Sunday, the Reds were playing the Marlins. And they took over first place for good. We were there.

Filed Under: Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Reds vs. Indians in the Diamond Seats

July 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

There’s the infamous window in the Diamond Club at Great American Ballpark, and Dusty Baker going out to visit yet another game in his long career in the game of baseball.

This game was an awful game, thanks to Bronson Arroyo and his Bugs Bunny 69 MPH pitch. So I’m just going to speak on the experience, and not a lot about the game which was over when Arroyo gave up several bombs and put the Reds in a 4-0 hole.

It’s Fourth of July time at the Ballpark, and a perfect opportunity for the Reds to serve up these beauties. I am on a wedding diet so I didn’t partake, but I probably should have.

If you ever wanted to see the bar inside the Diamond Club at Great American Ballpark, here it is. Now, I’ll tell you right now that if you attend a game in the Diamond Club, you might as well just plan on drinking beers all night. They do not serve shots of liquor, and while they do serve mixed drinks; something is up with the booze at the ballpark.

I won’t go into too many details, but I drank Johnny Walker Red Label all night with soda, one per inning approximately. I also had two or three before the game and two after the game during the fireworks display. I left the park about as sober as could be.

I don’t know if they’re watering them down–but if my BA content is any barometer–something is rotten in Denmark with the booze at the Diamond Club.

Here’s Carlos Carrasco being pre-game interviewed. He has been on a real roll for the Cleveland Indians lately.

And here’s the star of the night Justin Masterson. This guy seems like a really great kid, and he has ace stuff. Flat out, the guy can be as good of a pitcher as the Indians have had. There’s a lot to be excited about with him.

We joked with Masterson several times during the game, and he was genuinely very nice to us and some of the family members we were at the game with and our friends. We told him his stuff is straight filthy in MLB The Show ’11 and his face lit up like a kid. Love Masterson, wish he was a Cincinnati Red.

I spy Kirk Herbstreit. Actually, maybe the Johnny Walker did get to me a little bit because he was in line with his four kids and wife right in front of me in the Diamond Club and I didn’t recognize that it was him. Terrell Pryor was not a guest of honor in the Herbstreit party either. His wife is not that hot at all.

Carlos Santana is a stud. Probably my favorite Indians player. He always rolls with a huge hog in, and he always hits bombs when I’m at the park. True to form, he lined one into the Reds bullpen off Bunny Arroyo.

Brandon Phillips collected the 1,000th hit of his career last night, hitting two home runs and finishing off a 3 for 4 ballgame. You have to love this guy. He was out for blood against the team that traded him away and on a night where the Reds got a few paltry singles you really appreciate that Phillips had half of their hits last night.

Another game in which I’m present at the park and Jay Bruce has another 0 for 3 night. Nice view of the Moondeck here out in right field, look how full it is. It must really be something to play in front of that many people on some nights. One guy on display like the bear or elephant at the zoo, at this moment that guy was Jay Bruce.

Here’s a Cuban Missile Crisis: Austin Kearns vs. Aroldis Chapman. The epitome of over-matched.

Here’s Lon Chisenhall up close. He seems like a little bit of a dickhead to be honest. He had a big extra base hit last night though. Maybe it was the Johnny Walker Red.

Filed Under: Booze and baseball, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Diamond Seats, Dispatches, Interleague Play Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Game 37, 2011: Astros 4, Reds 3

May 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

[Box Score] [Cincinnati.com] [Crawfish Boxes]

The Reds finished off a road trip in which they went 4-2 yesterday with a loss to the Houston Astros. The Reds won’t go on a 9 out of 10 run this season to match last year’s pace at this time. When I went to leave work yesterday I forgot my glasses in my office, so when leaving around the 5:00 hour here in Ohio; Hunter Pence was at the plate and I had the game on the radio. When I returned to my car minutes later, the game was on commercial break. The mind of a baseball fan works quickly in those situations. So I knew that Mike Leake and the Reds either got out of the inning quickly, or the game was over. Considering that when I ran back up to my office Hunter Pence was at the plate with a man on base, and Mike Leake was on the bump rather than Francisco Cordero, I think I knew exactly what had happened before Marty Brenneman returned to the air to give the grim news to me. When he actually said it I grit my teeth for a minute, and it made rush hour that much more hard to bear. I immediately wanted to choke Mike Leake, that little worthless rat bastard.

My original hatred for the Astros stemmed long ago when they had guys on their team that could really hurt you. Guys like Biggio, Bagwell, Berkman, Oswalt, Pettite, Clemens, and so forth. I hated them more than I hate any other team in baseball. That hate still remains, and I hope they’re an after-thought forever. That said, it’s not as easy to hate them anymore because they really only have two guys that can hurt you on a regular basis now: Wandy Rodriguez, and Hunter Pence. Brett Wallace and Billy Hall don’t count. Both Wandy and Pence did their damage yesterday against the Reds.

Yesterday’s loss was an infliction from bad moves by the Reds manager, Dusty Baker. He did three things I didn’t like, that really set the Reds up for a loss on getaway day like he so often does.

I was surprised to see Jay Bruce get the start against Wandy Rodriguez. Bruce went out and did what I expected him to do yesterday, nothing. He went 1 for the series vs. the Astros with the one hit being a bomb. But I really thought that Dusty Baker sent a message in the wrong way when he decided to roll with Jay Bruce yesterday–but hit him 7th in the lineup. If you’re going to run Bruce out there against a guy who you know he doesn’t have good numbers against, display confidence in him. Protect him with someone in the lineup who might get him an extra fastball or two. In fact, do something out of the ordinary to get ordinary results against Wandy. Hit him 2nd. Hell, get really wild and hit him fourth. What does it matter? You’re just trying something anyways. But don’t hit him 7th, because that basically says without actually saying anything that you expect him to go out and go 0 for 4, which is exactly what happened. Bad lineups on getaway day often damn the Reds.

The second thing I had a problem with is seeing Johnny Gomes once again in left field. If you read this blog or my tweets enough, you know that I’ve seen enough of Johnny Gomes.

Here’s some stats for thought on Gomes via Lance Mcalister: Jonny Gomes hit 2 HR’s and drove in 6 runs in June 12 of last season to help the Reds beat the Kansas City Royals. After that game Gomes was hitting .307 with 9 HR and his 47 RBI tied him for the NL lead. Since that game: 125 games for Gomes, 495 plate appearances, 101 for 436 (.232), 15 HR, 46 RBI, 45 BB, 110 K, .295 OBP, .378 SLG, .673 OPS.

Chris Heisey was on the bench again, and later in the game he came off the bench to homer and cut the deficit to 3-2. I ask the question, why does Dusty get an annual hard-on for guys that help the Reds lose ballgames? Because he’s a player’s manager? Oh, it’s great for the players. But it’s rough on fans like me and you. In 2008, Corey Patterson was that guy. In 2009, Wily Taveras was that guy. Last year, I’m shocked that Gary Matthews Jr. wasn’t that guy. Now, it’s Johnny Gomes. Gomes starting over Heisey is a load of shit as far as I’m concerned, and I don’t care how great of a guy Johnny Gomes is or how much fun he is in the clubhouse. He’s killing the Reds, every at-bat and every night. A slow, painful death. And we’re going on a year now.

The third problem that I had was going with Mike Leake yesterday in the bottom of the 9th instead of Francisco Cordero. Why are the Reds forcing Mike Leake down our throat? Why can’t this guy spend some time attempting to develop in AAA Louisville? I don’t care that he was a first round pick. I don’t care if the organization likes his potential. What I see is a guy who lacks stuff. Especially stuff that allows you to survive in the 9th inning of a tie game on the road. That’s a situation where for as long as I’ve been watching baseball, you go to your closer. Dusty at least thought about it because Cordero was warming up before the inning. I’m sure he had some reason after the game that he went to Leake instead, and I don’t really care what it was. It was a bad reason. I have a feeling if Cordero was out there in the 9th, the Reds get one more chance to hit for the sweep.

I’ll be at the game tomorrow night, and of course today is an off day. I need the day to cool off I think.

Potpourri:

Found this post on FanGraphs as to why Aroldis Chapman is struggling:

It looks like [Chapman] is releasing his fastballs about six inches higher and closer to the center of the mound: so more over-the-top and less 3/4 delivery. Again this conclusion is hard to make without the actual release point, and because the Pitch F/x system is more noisy at the release-point end of the trajectory than the plate-location end. So I wanted to see if I could back it up with photographic support. It was hard to find pictures from the head-on angle, but it does look like he has a slightly more over-the-top delivery in 2011 than in 2010 and definitely more than in 2009 during the World Baseball Classic.

This suggests, though definitely not conclusively, that Chapman may have “lost” his release point. And it is possible that this “lost” release point plays a role in his huge walk rate.

Ugh.

Filed Under: bad ideas, bad lineups, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, walk off wins Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

An exclusive player interview with Drew Sutton

February 27, 2011 By 2 Comments

Over at the NLB, Dave is cranking out some great material thus far. Today, a post dropped that is a sign of things to come.

Dave sat down with Drew Sutton; former Cincinnati Red and current Boston Red Sox player. I still remember the night that Sutton hit the grand slam home run he speaks of in the interview. Here are some highlights:

What’s one thing that most people don’t know about Drew Sutton?

I have insecurities just as much as a high school or college player does which people wouldn’t think cause I’ve made it to the big leagues.  All guys have insecurities, we just hide it well.  There are days when I go into the cage before the game and feel horrible and think to myself “Oh man, it’s gonna be a long day.” You just have to go into the game with whatever swing you have and make the most of it.

The trick is to not have your confidence be based on how you’re playing, but based on knowing how you can play.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on hitting a curveball?
Dusty Baker was my manager with the Reds and he said that when he was coming up to the big leagues he couldn’t figure out how to hit a curveball.  One day he was watching ESPN and Rod Carew talking about hitting a curveball. Carew said that when you hit a curveball, you have to hit it with an imagination. You can’t hit a curveball where you see it, you have to hit it where it’s going. After Dusty heard that, he started hitting breaking balls a lot better.

Way to bring it strong, Dave. I love the answer Sutton gives about Dusty Baker describing how he learned to hit a curveball. I’ve never heard it described that way (then again, I’ve never had Major League instruction either) but if you think about it, that’s what it’s like.

Dave is down in Florida for Spring Training as we speak. Check out Next Level Ballplayer for more of the same in-depth stuff. Or give him a follow on twitter.

Filed Under: blogs, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,