Saturday, October 13, 2007

Dusty In Cincy / Leo Out In Baltimore

Always beware of managers who take dead-end jobs, especially when those managers are accustomed to leading veterans on contending teams. Dusty Baker looks desperate to get back into the game and was willing to take a job that seems like a very bad fit. I honestly can’t see how this was the best the Reds could do, which is why I assume that Ken Griffey Jr. made the call here. Why else would the Reds hire a guy that had so few options after being run out of Chicago?

If I were Cincy’s GM, I’d have hired a promising young manager, not a bitter old race-baiter with something to prove but very little to prove it with. This represents the most uninspired choice and is emblematic of the color-by-numbers approach that plagues so many baseball teams.

Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, and Homer Bailey should schedule their shoulder reconstruction surgeries for November 2009; it’ll only take two years of Dusty’s three year contract before he’s ruined them for life.

* * * * * *

Well, that was a short and not-so-sweet stay in Baltimore. It’s not surprising that he wasn’t retained since, ultimately, every manager – in this case Dave Trembley – should have the chance to build his own staff and Mazzone was a holdover from Sam Perlozzo’s staff.

I have to imagine that Leo Mazzone won’t be unemployed for long. No matter what happens in New York with Joe Torre, I’d love to see the Yanks hire Mazzone as their pitching coach. His philosophy on pitching is absolutely the right one and not enough GM’s, managers, pitching coaches or scouts understand that it’s not about how hard you throw, it’s about location and changing speeds. Pitching is about disrupting a hitter’s timing, not about maxing out velocity and challenging hitters on every pitch. As Mazzone always says, “throw with 80% effort and 100% location.”

Someone better hire this guy, otherwise his brain is going to waste.

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