What Dusty has done

[srbin84]

 

It really irks me to have to defend Baker, but he doesn't preach swinging at ball four. His aggressive philosophy is swing at any pitch in the strike zone -- that's a big difference than just swinging at everything.

 

Sorry, but you're wrong for defending Baker here. He doesn't teach swing at ball 4. But he does loudly downplay the value of the walk, bench players whose best quality is patience, try to get patient hitters to be more aggressive and teach overly aggressive approaches at the plate. Just because he doesn't say swing at ball 4 that doesn't mean his instructions don't lead to people swinging at ball 4. It's part of the package when you preach what he preaches. You can't deny responsibility for the negative ramifications of your bad philosophies.

 

I don't get how what you stated is much different that what I stated. He doesn't say swing at ball four and by being overly aggressive means our hitters rarely get to ball three counts, anyway. But in the rare instances our guys do get to ball three, Baker's philosophy and our hitters' lack of pitch recognition makes it difficult for ball four.

 

Hey, when is someone going to ask him why he downplays walks on the offensive side, but hates them when we give them up?

 

Cuse said, "Dusty preaches aggresive hitting and with that comes swinging at ball 4" and you tried to defend Baker by saying he doesn't preach swinging at ball 4. It doesn't matter if he doesn't preach that, he preaches something that leads to ball 4. There is no defense for Baker on that charge, and there's no reason for you to try and defend him.

 

So, swinging at a helmet high pitch or a breaking pitch eight inches outside comes from preaching "be aggressive" yet they were able to take three other pitches during the at-bat? As I said, I hate Baker's philosophy, but to give players a free pass on consistently swinging at obvious balls is ridiculous.

 

I'm on your side. I don't like Baker and want him gone, but I'm not going to blame him for everything and give players a free pass for being stupid just because Dusty is the manager.