Front Page of ESPN: Dusty the Scapegoat

[Outshined_One]

Oh ESPN, you hilarious jokers! What a terrific goat pun you managed to work into that pithy headline!

 

It looks like the Dusty Baker Saga has reached ESPN's front page, complete with this gem from Gene Wojejejejchichowbowski.

 

Basically, he really doesn't have much of a point. He says Dusty should stay, but he doesn't lay out any positives Dusty brings to the table...just excuses. He also implies Hendry and MacPhail should get canned before Baker. I'm just as confused as most of you likely are at this moment.

 

Surprisingly, Game 6 was only alluded to in passing with no references to Steve Bartman.

[ConstableRabbit]

Phillips was on ESPN's the Hot Seat the other night and I woke up my mom by yelling at the tv when he said something along the lines of

 

"Dusty should at least get until the end of the season. The team hasn't played well, but they just got some players back and should see if he can right the ship."

 

Do these commentators even watch the games, or do they just casually follow each team and make nearly baseless judgements?

 

EDIT: In case I wasn't clear initially - yeah, really stupid article. The best part was the photo! :lol:

Edited July 7, 2006 by ConstableRabbit

[Balsa]

Are you sure they didn't have a link to the Steve Bartman video? Or maybe like a little flipbook to be released with the magazine?

[soccer10k]

Yeah, Wojo didn't really make a good argument there. It will sound good to the casual fan but to the people that actually watch the games, we know he's wrong.

[soccer10k]

Surprisingly, Game 6 was only alluded to in passing with no references to Steve Bartman.

 

Oh, but ESPN managed to get me with that anyway a couple days ago.

 

I'm driving home to my parents house on Tuesday night and tune in to sports talk radio. I turn on the SF Giants station - they were on a rain delay at the time - and there was one of their guys talking. That got boring so I turned on ESPN radio. Apparently they were doing the Braves-Cards game (which I found out later) but that was rain delayed as well.

 

So the first words I hear are 'Mark Prior' and I think they are doing a recap of Tuesday's Cubs game because Prior started that day. Then I hear 'Castillo' and I instantly know it's Game 6. ESPN was replaying Game 6 - just the eighth inning mind you - on the radio during the rain delay. The worst part was I couldn't turn it off. I kept hoping that Alou makes the catch or Gonzalez doesn't make the error. I almost cried.

[Big Fergie J]

Funny thing is when I first saw the headline on ESPN.com I thought it meant Dusty had been fired last night.

 

Nothing new from Wojoalphabet.

[Banedon]

So we should replace Dusty because there are other people in the organization that are worse. That's some fiiiiiine logic.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Three and a half seasons ago the Cubs were five outs away from their first World Series appearance since 1945. Now they're three losses away from having the worst record in the majors.

 

I would have thought that living this nightmare every day for a couple of months would make a statement like that not hurt so much.

[Mizzou]

There's no way that Dusty is still around in two weeks. This is getting national attention, he'll be gone soon. Thank God.

[BigbadB]

The Milwaukee announcers were driving me nuts defending Dusty last night. It was non-stop. Each time a player did something wrong, they would say something like "so how exactly is a play like that Dusty's fault". Well, Dusty allows such plays to go unpunished, that's how, you idiots. If they saw more than just the games they play against their own team, maybe they wouldn't be so critical of the thought of Dusty being removed.

 

When the next manager comes in and does more than Dusty does, it will be proof alone that Dusty wasn't worthy of a 4m paycheck or to wear the Cub logo on his uniform.

[Big Fergie J]

There's no way that Dusty is still around in two weeks. This is getting national attention, he'll be gone soon. Thank God.

 

Agree. Hendry's hand is being forced and the point-of-no-return has been reached.

[louisvillecub]

There's no way that Dusty is still around in two weeks. This is getting national attention, he'll be gone soon. Thank God.

 

Agree. Hendry's hand is being forced and the point-of-no-return has been reached.

 

I'm not so optimistic....Hendry appears to stubbornly and deliberately do the opposite of what he should, as if he can prove everyone wrong.

[goonys evil twin]

The Milwaukee announcers were driving me nuts defending Dusty last night. It was non-stop. Each time a player did something wrong, they would say something like "so how exactly is a play like that Dusty's fault". Well, Dusty allows such plays to go unpunished, that's how, you idiots. If they saw more than just the games they play against their own team, maybe they wouldn't be so critical of the thought of Dusty being removed.

 

When the next manager comes in and does more than Dusty does, it will be proof alone that Dusty wasn't worthy of a 4m paycheck or to wear the Cub logo on his uniform.

 

That drove me insane.

 

Dusty has talked for years about the fundamentals of the team. He talks every spring about improving the fundamentals, and he constantly reminds us that his teams don't make baserunning mistakes or other fundamental errors. But then you have guys like Alou constantly screwing up with no repercussion, Jones doing the same, Ramirez taking part, it's an epidemic. It's not the manager's fault when one guy does something stupid. It's not his fault when two guys do something stupid. But it's his gosh darn responsibility to make sure that those mistakes don't continue in the way the Cubs mistakes have continued. If every announcer can watch a game and talk about things that can't be Dusty's fault, then sooner or later they add up to being Dusty's fault.

 

Otherwise, the manager has no responsibility for anything, and doesn't even deserve a job.

[goonys evil twin]

There's no way that Dusty is still around in two weeks. This is getting national attention, he'll be gone soon. Thank God.

 

Agree. Hendry's hand is being forced and the point-of-no-return has been reached.

 

I'm not so optimistic....Hendry appears to stubbornly and deliberately do the opposite of what he should, as if he can prove everyone wrong.

 

Ain't that the truth. It's just like their stubborn insistence on winning with their old school style. They are beligerently anti-sabr (or moneyball, or whatever you want to call it), to the point that they seem to want to do everything out of spite against that way of baseball. They have to have been made aware of the walk/patience issue, and I have to assume that they just refuse to admit it is a problem.

[BigbadB]

They have to have been made aware of the walk/patience issue, and I have to assume that they just refuse to admit it is a problem.

 

It only flashes up on the tv screen every time someone comes to the plate. It would be quite difficult to NOT be aware of it.

[NewUserName]

Wojos two main points on why Dusty shouldnt be fired is the players and upper management. Did Dusty write this article for him?

 

This reminds me of the Dave Wandstatt years with the Bears. All the National media talked about how great of a job he was doing and how good of a coach he was. Sitting here in Illinois you wondered what the heck they were basing this on.

 

I agree that the upper management is every bit to blame for this train wreak. I agree that overall the players are not performing up to the levels that they should be. I just have KNOWN since April of 2003 that Dusty is a bad manager. I wondered why the Giants fans werent more upset about him getting booted out after taking his team to the WS. Its because they made the WS in spite of him. The 2003 Cubs Horses got them to where they went not Dusty. If this Wojo guy or Steve Phillips watched the Cubs everyday and were FANS they would understand how bad Dusty is.

 

Lastly what I wanted to comment on in the article is the players hustle and team stats. I understand that players play and managers manage. What exactly has Dusty done to improve this situation. We are last in the league in obp and dont hustle, Yet he benches the one kid that does draw some walks and hustles more than any Cub in recent memory. Wojo you are just plain Stupid to write such an article that you obviously Know so little about. Did you go Fishing with Dusty in the morning?

[jjgman21]

doesn't failure to make the adjustment to stop the same soft tossing lefty from throwing 26 straight scoreless innings against you signal to everyone on earth that something is seriously wrong with the way this team is being coached and managed?

[goonys evil twin]

doesn't failure to make the adjustment to stop the same soft tossing lefty from throwing 26 straight scoreless innings against you signal to everyone on earth that something is seriously wrong with the way this team is being coached and managed?

 

Apparantly not everybody. To hear some of these guys talk, there simply is no justification to ever fire a manager, which should mean there is no difference between a good and bad manager, which means there's no reason to even hire a manager in the first place. If what is happening to the Cubs is not reason enough for major changes in the leadership positions, then there never has been and never will be justification for firing anybody in baseball.

 

 

 

It's not a surprise though, a large percentage of people in the game give an inordinate amount of credit to anybody else who has been in the game for a while. An inexperienced coach is firable after one bad season, a young kid should be sent down if he doesn't succeed right away, a rookie mistake by a rookie is a sign of the arrogance and ignorance of today's youth, buy any manager, player or personel man with time served in the game deserve every possible benefit of the doubt you can thrown their way.

[Andy]

He uses the tried-and-tested line about how "Dusty didn't get thrown out at third last night".

 

At some point, you have to see a pattern, though, RIGHT, Wojo?

[MikeyLikesCubbies]

All I agreed with is that it's a shared failure...why that would mean he deserves to finish out the season is beyond me. Hendry and MacPhail should be fired too, but if they want to save their jobs, they better start cleaning house soon.

[CubinNY]

Calling Gene Wojokowski a sportswriter is an insult to sportswriters.

[BigbadB]

He uses the tried-and-tested line about how "Dusty didn't get thrown out at third last night".

 

At some point, you have to see a pattern, though, RIGHT, Wojo?

 

And it sounds like he stole that material directly from the Milwaukee announcers, who basically said the same thing.

[Hacking Out Machine]

Gene Wojo should note the following:

 

1. His insistence on batting his lowest OBP players at the top of the order has sabotaged his offense's chances of scoring runs for 1 1/2 years now.

 

2. He has given Neifi Perez more than 80 at bats against right handed pitching, a good portion of those at bats coming in the 2 spot in the order.

 

3. He continually trotted Jacque Jones out against lefty pitchers, despite the fact that every goofball in baseball can recognize that Jones can't/has never been able to hit lefties. This is despite having capable lefty mashers at his disposal(Murton/Restovich)

 

4. His players are not held accountable for their play publicly.

 

5. His teams have been laughably bad fundamentally for going on 3 seasons.

 

6. His approach on hitting is directly responsible for the offense being the worst offense in baseball by a wide margin.

 

7. His approach on hitting and the pushing of an aggressive demeanor at the plate has caused several young players to not only not improve, but get worse on his watch.

 

8. He has thrown his young players under the bus to deflect any blame whatsoever from himself.

 

It's obvious that Hendry has done a feeble job of putting a decent product on the field for the $95 million he's spending, but clearly Baker has done enough to prove that he has mismanaged this team into oblivion.

[Banedon]

Wojo is having a chat on ESPN right now.

 

Gene Wojciechowski: (11:00 AM ET ) Remember, all proceeds from today's chat will go toward teaching Aramis Ramirez how to sprint from the batter's box after towering drives to right. Let's begin. . .

 

Jason, Tucson AZ: Gene, I agree with you that Dusty shouldn't shoulder the entire blame but unfortunately being the scapegoat comes with being a MLB manager. Wouldn't you agree that the Cubs need a manager that enforces fundamentals, strong managing of a pitching staff, and can handle playing youngsters with veterans? This seems to be something that Dusty has not done since day one in Chicago.

 

Gene Wojciechowski: (11:06 AM ET ) I preface all of this by saying Baker deserves his share of criticism. . . buuuut (as Hall of Famer Peter Gammons would say) the Cubs staff does stress fundamentals. So maybe that means some early, early pre-game drills, etc. As for the pitching staff, they have one of the best in Larry Rothschild. As for blending veterans and young players, well, that's a fair criticism. It hasn't been Baker's strength.

[mbennum]

Wojo is having a chat on ESPN right now.

 

I sent in this... We'll see if he replies or not.

 

"Rothschild may be one of the best, but even he can't do anything with Glendon Rusch. Any explanation as to why Dusty keeps running him and his 8+ ERA out there instead of one of the kids they have on the bench or in AAA?"