Suntimes Article

[ryno-mvp23]

on baker from the sun-times....

 

http://www.suntimes.com/output/deluca/cst-spt-deluca27.html

[CuseCubFan69]

Pretty interesting article. I really can't believe it's taken the major papers this long to write this but it's a start.

[soapy]

I'm glad to see people are starting to take it to Dusty. It's taken too long.

[Soul]

But it's ridiculous to blame the Cubs' collapse on the loss of one position player -- albeit the reigning National League batting champ -- and two pitchers who have a history of injury problems. Even the Florida Marlins, with 15 rookies and a payroll less than $15 million, have a better record than Baker's Cubs.

 

 

Done. End. Finito.

 

 

Even the Marlins, with far less payroll and a cavalcade of youngsters, outperform the Cubs pretty much every day of the week. That's on BAKER. Nobody else. BAKER.

 

He needs to be fired. Go back to Cali. Have a breather, sip a few drinks. But manage the Cubs? No mo'

[CuseCubFan69]

What I liked was the "if I had the horses" line. No crap Dusty if any manager had the best players he'd win....we except for you of course. How many World Series wins has this proven winner Baker have to his credit?

[goonys evil twin]

How many World Series wins has this proven winner Baker have to his credit?

 

 

:wave:

 

Oooh, ooh, call on me, I know.

 

The answer is zero. Plus, he's only made the playoffs in 4 of 13 seasons, despite claiming his teams always play deep in October. And he's just 3-4 in postseason series.

[CubinNY]

This says it all:

 

Big-money managers earn their paychecks by guiding teams through troubled times. Baker has spent the last two months quietly complaining about the loss of Lee and pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, bemoaning on a regular basis, ''I just want my team back.''

 

I'd love to see ZZThorn back for a day to defend Baker.

[KaiserCesar]

Finally, people are writing what we're all thinking and know.

[BigbadB]

What blows me away is the fact he is still employed after all these gaffs. He should have been gone after 2005.

 

And I do agree with Dusty, in part. This was a horrible, horrible team as it was assembled.

 

If you had tons of minor leaguers, 40m+ to spend, a healthy free agent class and lots of trade commodity, and the best you could do with it is a horrible, horrible team, people above Baker need to go with him.

[frostwyrm]

What blows me away is the fact he is still employed after all these gaffs. He should have been gone after 2005.

He would have been gone in 2003 if he were white because of his "hot weather" comments.

[goonys evil twin]

And I do agree with Dusty, in part. This was a horrible, horrible team as it was assembled.

 

If you had tons of minor leaguers, 40m+ to spend, a healthy free agent class and lots of trade commodity, and the best you could do with it is a horrible, horrible team, people above Baker need to go with him.

 

It was poorly constructed. But it should not be a .370 W% team. Dusty has gotten the worst possible results out of this group. They were never going to be a 90+ win team, but they should have been above the .500 mark, and even after all the injuries, should be able to flirt with the .500 mark. It was a horrible attempt to build a championship team, but this should not be approaching 20 games under .500.

[BigbadB]

And I do agree with Dusty, in part. This was a horrible, horrible team as it was assembled.

 

If you had tons of minor leaguers, 40m+ to spend, a healthy free agent class and lots of trade commodity, and the best you could do with it is a horrible, horrible team, people above Baker need to go with him.

 

It was poorly constructed. But it should not be a .370 W% team. Dusty has gotten the worst possible results out of this group. They were never going to be a 90+ win team, but they should have been above the .500 mark, and even after all the injuries, should be able to flirt with the .500 mark. It was a horrible attempt to build a championship team, but this should not be approaching 20 games under .500.

 

I don't disagree with you. However, they were in a position to build a championship caliber team. Maybe needing to make as many moves as the Cubs needed to make, asking them to be championship caliber might have been a tough sell, but they should at least be one of the better teams in baseball this year. Instead, they used a very poor approach on what areas they believed needed fixing and ignored the things that definitely needed fixing.

 

I want Baker gone. But, MacPhail and Hendry need to go too, extension or not.

[Peoriaman]

Dusty is bad and should be replaced, but we pick apart everything he says way too much. You try being asked these same questions every night and see how you would answer them so as to satisfy everyone on NSBB. These questions are impossible to answer--all he can say is I am trying as hard as I can, we have injuries, we are giving it our all, etc. He will be fired, and he deserves it, but what else can the SOB say? How much blood do we want from him?

[goonys evil twin]

Dusty is bad and should be replaced, but we pick apart everything he says way too much. You try being asked these same questions every night and see how you would answer them so as to satisfy everyone on NSBB. These questions are impossible to answer--all he can say is I am trying as hard as I can, we have injuries, we are giving it our all, etc. He will be fired, and he deserves it, but what else can the SOB say? How much blood do we want from him?

 

It actually would be pretty easy. The questions are being asked because writers know Dusty doesn't have the balls to accept any blame.

[YearofDaCubs]

What blows me away is the fact he is still employed after all these gaffs. He should have been gone after 2005.

 

And I do agree with Dusty, in part. This was a horrible, horrible team as it was assembled.

 

If you had tons of minor leaguers, 40m+ to spend, a healthy free agent class and lots of trade commodity, and the best you could do with it is a horrible, horrible team, people above Baker need to go with him.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[USSoccer]

And I do agree with Dusty, in part. This was a horrible, horrible team as it was assembled.

 

If you had tons of minor leaguers, 40m+ to spend, a healthy free agent class and lots of trade commodity, and the best you could do with it is a horrible, horrible team, people above Baker need to go with him.

 

It was poorly constructed. But it should not be a .370 W% team. Dusty has gotten the worst possible results out of this group. They were never going to be a 90+ win team, but they should have been above the .500 mark, and even after all the injuries, should be able to flirt with the .500 mark. It was a horrible attempt to build a championship team, but this should not be approaching 20 games under .500.

 

I don't disagree with you. However, they were in a position to build a championship caliber team. Maybe needing to make as many moves as the Cubs needed to make, asking them to be championship caliber might have been a tough sell, but they should at least be one of the better teams in baseball this year. Instead, they used a very poor approach on what areas they believed needed fixing and ignored the things that definitely needed fixing.

 

I want Baker gone. But, MacPhail and Hendry need to go too, extension or not.

 

The winter of 2004 was the tipping point. We had opportunities to sign impact OF's, good starting pitchers, and had prospects who still had value with which to work. Hendry did less than nothing that winter, feeling content to demolish Sosa's trade value and then trade him, and settle for a terrible LF situation and a bad RF'r.

 

If I had my druthers, Hendry, Hughes, Rothschild, Clines, Pole and Matthews, and half the scouts would all be fired. But I know better, and I'd be shocked if Baker were not extended.

[NewUserName]

I think Baker is a lousy manager. I thought he was a lousy manager in 2003 so its is going to be hard to defend Baker. Have you really compared the teamthat Hendry has assembled to the one that was there in 2003. They are only better at 2 positions than they were in 2003 and probably the bullpen is better. They are a lot worse at starting pitching, lf, cf, rf. Both teams had lousy benches though the 2006 Cubs may have the worse bench ever. They are about equal at ss, 3b and 2b(though if neifi is going to get half the starts I would ? that also).

 

So really Hendry has done an awful job. He gets by on the fact that he has improved 3 positions. He has not replaced either Alou or Sosa. Has not even come close to finding a legitimate lead off man. His attempts at that have PREDICTABLY failed. Though Dusty probably is asmuch to blame for Prior and Woods health, Hendry hasnt come up with viable other options. He has invested a lot of money into the Starting pitching that isnt paying off, He gave up a lot of talent for Pierre who sucks, he forced the coaches to try to make a lead off man out of Patterson which had predictable results. He relied to much on rookies (Dubois, Murton, Cedeno) without having enough talent around them to compensate for their weaknessess and allow them to grow. He has no clue on what a good bench would have on it, actually I dont either because as a Cub fan I rarely have seen one. He obviously doesnt value obp as a stat. Lastly he will not change the course of this sinking ship. It has been sinking since the end of 2003 and he just keeps driving it the same direction. At what point do you realize what you are doing isnt working and go a different direction. Than on top of all that our Minor League system has gone from being rated in the top 5 to below 20th. ALL OF THIS WITH A TOP TEN PAYROLL.

 

So like I said Dusty is lousy, In this case I do feel for him though

[abuck1220]

Baker told reporters Sunday in Minneapolis, before the debacle that completed a three-game sweep: ''Give me the horses -- and my horses stay healthy -- and I'll win.''

 

In other words, for the $4 million the Cubs are paying Baker this season, he can succeed under the perfect set of circumstances.

 

Who couldn't?

 

exactly.

 

''We're not playing well, for whatever reasons, but no alibis, no excuses,'' Baker said.

 

are you freaking kidding me?