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Baker would also need the bench coach to tell him it is ok to pull a pitcher with a large lead, despite the pitcher pitching well. Baker currently has a bench coach he is not threatened by.

Agreed, and like Baker and every other manager, some of it is justified and some isn't.

Dierker's name was passively mentioned with the M's this past off-season, the previous year with the Red Sox. Depends on the moves Dierker would do that would warrant criticism. Of course, there would be some who disagree with his moves as there as those who also agree with Baker's moves. I tend to lean towards Dierker's thought process on managing moreso than Baker.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bb/3143615 Talks about elite pitching and compares the elite pitchers from 30 years ago to now.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article_perspectives.jsp?ymd=20050418&content_id=1019761&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp An article based on slumps in MLB, speaks of his own personal experience in 2000', the only year the Astros did not finish 1st in his tenure. It mentions the adjustments he made to cure the slump and how it may have had a negative ffect.

I think he's the best manager avail. at this time and likely two years from now, when I think the Cubs will be looking for a new manager. He is a player's manager, who is above avg. as far as strategy; one example would be his thought process as far as BB'ing the 8th hitter to get to the pitcher, he knows that most #8 hitters are weaker and it is more important to leadoff the next inning with the pitcher than BB the 8th hitter to face the pitcher. I think that comes from having been a pitcher, a direction I'd like to see the Cubs take, either a pitcher or a catcher as the next coach. Also, there is no bias towards veterans from him, he'll play the best player avail., if Dusty can make a reference how was stuck behind Don Buford, Dierker has the fact he was playing the majors at age 18. The main reason why I want him is he was productive, Houston finished 1st 4 out of the 5 years he was Houston and hasn't finished 1st since. I don't think this current Cubs roster is less talented than what he won with in Houston, I think the Cubs 04' squad had more talent than any of Dierker's teams. He was fired b/c Houston lost to ATL repeated times in the playoffs, losing to a team with a manager like Cox with the talent that ATL has had is nothing to get fired for. I like his approach to managing, as far as his ability to relate to players and of course, his in-game strategy.

Here is the direct quote from his writings.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bb/3132007 Latest Dierker article on the Stros. Spoke on how little can be determined in April, the various question marks on their roster, likes various members of their youth on the squad. Dierker also mentioned mentioned how he enjoyed watching Wood's 20 K performance (although, I thought it ended 1-0 not 2-0). Not mentioned in the article, Dierker loves Wrigley and would have interviewed for the Cubs managerial opening had it been offered after the 02' season.

I am only a co-pilot on the horny wagon, the Dierker for manager campaign is two years from gaining momentum.

Would Baker in a Astros hat ease your pain ETA? :D

I feel obligated by powers greater than mine to post Dierker's take on the Astros. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bb/3108722 (3/29) http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bb/3120550 (4/5)

But you weren't managing, Dusty was. Blame him for calling the sac bunt, don't blame Neifi for laying it down. I can say what I would've done, nothing wrong with that, some would do it differently. I don't blame Dusty for bunting with Perez, I would have as well w/Perez. I don't blame Perez for not missing the sign, I blame Dusty for starting an inferior player and keeping him out there in a critical situation.

Well, I would have used Patterson on a straight steal, so I would more than likely have bunted the runner to 3rd (assuming Patterson was safe)with Perez or Hairston, Walker I probably would have let swing away (LH, pull hitter, good bat control). If Patterson was thrown out, I lost being aggressive. Now, bunting a runner to 2B, I would have let Hairston and Walker swing away. The out is more important than moving the runner to 2B, which I can't say the same thing for moving him to 3B.

How can Hairston be tired, did he ride his bike from Naperville? oh man this comment is one of the funniest things i've read on here. Even I had a chuckle after I wrote it.

I'm closed to opinions that offer nothing and do nothing but attack.

Getting a hit is much harder to do than a sac. out as well. Using Perez in that situation makes it even more difficult to get a hit, since he has more trouble doing that than the majority. I don't blame Dusty for bunting w/Perez, I would have done the same and for me to bunt w/a non-pitcher, speaks volumes on what I think of that player's offensive abilities.

How can Hairston be tired, did he ride his bike from Naperville?

Your points are rife with exaggerations and impossible situations. Neifi has been able to hit in his life. So toss your first paragraph out as over-emotional mumbo-jumbo. I bet we can go the whole year and never be in this ARam/Perez situation. Why don't you give me something I can use? In the very plausible choice of Neifi/Perez/Dubois to PH - I would look at many factors. I can't say flat out who I would always choose cuz they're all, at this point, at the same ability level. When has Perez been able to hit? Someone with a career OPS of .681 while playing a substantial part of their career in Colorado has shown the inability to hit throughout their career. Why not use the hypothetical? I would have thought the Bartman incident could never happen, it did. Players come up to hit all the time with the winning run on 3B with less than 2 outs, it happened Sunday. You think Macias, Perez, and Dubois are on the same ability level? Please explain...

He was 1 for 3 with a sacrifice. It's hard to rail on him for making an out when he was ordered to sacrifice. I too would expect Hairston to outdo a 333 OBP throughout the year, but Eaton was on today, I'm ecstatic that Neifi managed a hit. There's no excuse for Macias over Dubois. I don't considered the sacrifice out as a way to escape the 1 for 4. He was asked to sacrifice, b/c he is and has been a terrible hitter, hitting 2nd. I'm ecstatic Perez got a hit, more surprised than ecstatic, doesn't mean he should've been out there over a superior hitter like Hairston or even an unknown product like Fontenot. The sacrifice was an important play. It got a runner over to second. That was a key play that could have led to us tying it up. Sacrifices are important parts of winning baseball - sorry everyone can't hit a 3 run home run in every at bat. This isn't video game baseball. I don't see that it's that big a deal to applaud Neifi for making a good play. But whatever.... How is the ability to bunt a player over a good thing in the grand scheme of things? I view it as he bunted him over b/c he would not have been able to do it via a hit. If your #2 hitter can't hit a runner over to 2B or single to get him to 3rd, he doesn't belong out there.

Well, then I'm glad you're not their bosses. Is there any doubt to this - Macias was guaranteed a spot from Day 1 in ST, Dubois was the last guy to make the squad. They definitely view Macias with more favor, as of this moment and for the immediate future, than Dubois. Dusty and Hendry are going with the proven commodity - proven in the sense that Macias has big league experience. I like Dubois more, but I'm jsut trying to say that's their thinking, from what I can gather. I don't think they should be fired. Baker would have never been hired if I was the boss, those who know me, no I've been against the hire from day 1, I look at Baker thru non-biased eyes though, I think he makes more poor decisions than good ones. I blame Hendry for bringing Macias back, no point in having dead weight again. Macias proved he was a failure in 04'. I don't blame Baker for Macias being back, but I blame Baker for using him way more than he should. If Baker is viewing Macias as a more productive player than Dubois, which is what he is doing, he's dead wrong, no question about it. L/R matchup and terrible production in the majors doesn't negate the fact that Dubois even w/out ML experience is a much better player than Macias could ever be, even in one PH AB. The only thing playing Macias accomplishes over Dubois is decreasing the chances of winning and stunting the development of Dubois, one heck of a lose-lose situation.

He was 1 for 3 with a sacrifice. It's hard to rail on him for making an out when he was ordered to sacrifice. I too would expect Hairston to outdo a 333 OBP throughout the year, but Eaton was on today, I'm ecstatic that Neifi managed a hit. There's no excuse for Macias over Dubois. But why extrapolate one game into 162? There's so many more variables to consider in 1 real game as opposed to 161 imaginary ones, and Dusty pulled the right string with Perez over Hairston. Despite the nearly 2 pages of anti-Perez posts Perez was one of our more successful hitters today. That's just the facts...Those who hated on Perez for this game got shown up. Oh yeah, I forgot cuz Dusty didn't do it, I bet Hairston would have gone 4 for 4 with 4 grand slams. Jesus Christ. Playing Neifi was the wrong thing to do, regardless of whether or not he got one measly hit. Yippee. It seems that with this logic if Neifi had gone 4 for 4 with 4 grand slams you would still make the same statement. That, my friend, makes you a Buster on this occasion. Try being logical for a change rather than emotional. You stat freaks just don't seem to get it...there are variables to take into account that you have no idea of. You think in every situation you go with a .275 hitter over the .270 hitter - nobody who coaches in baseball agrees with that. What's funny is that you take a huge generalization, a .275 average, and you apply to every single individual case and assume that you know with 100% authority when you will be right and when you will be wrong, which of course you do not. Yet in real life, when dealing with people and ideas, I bet you try to avoid making generalizations to allow for these individual cases which you so arrogantly ignore in baseball. I would suggest learning how to apply the scientific method, logic, and the process of generalizations in all phases of your life. It will improve it. Sorry, but, take those 2 pages of this thread out, playing Perez was the right move today. Na-nanny-boo boo stick your head in poo-poo. It is logical to expect a hitter who has never been able to hit in his life, to not be able to hit in a future situation. If you had one final AB, with a runner on 3B w/1 out in a tie game with a playoff berth on the line, you would leave it up to chance than have a preference of Ramirez over Perez? That is a single case.

He was 1 for 3 with a sacrifice. It's hard to rail on him for making an out when he was ordered to sacrifice. I too would expect Hairston to outdo a 333 OBP throughout the year, but Eaton was on today, I'm ecstatic that Neifi managed a hit. There's no excuse for Macias over Dubois. I don't considered the sacrifice out as a way to escape the 1 for 4. He was asked to sacrifice, b/c he is and has been a terrible hitter, hitting 2nd. I'm ecstatic Perez got a hit, more surprised than ecstatic, doesn't mean he should've been out there over a superior hitter like Hairston or even an unknown product like Fontenot.

I can't explain it, but I can try to understand it. Dusty doesn't think the rook is able to handle the pressure situations yet. Since, despite what some posters think, Dubois mere presence in the batter's box doesn't guarantee a hit Dusty, must've thought Macias the lefty had a better chance. Knowing Dusty doesn't like rooks and trusts veterans more, I'm not that surprised. I think Dusty views Dubois as the 25th man, as does Hendry, and not Macias. I hope as the season progresses Dubois has success and can move up the ladder. As terrible as Perez was today, he was WAY more effective than Holla, Burnitz, Lee and Barrett combined. He did his job. Looks to me like Dusty pulled the right string there. How is Macias able to handle pressure? Creating outs for a terrible team in Montreal, didn't teach him to handle pressure. I think Dubois would be better to handle the situation, well b/c he is a much better hitters. RHs or LHsw/or w/out pressure. If Dusty and Hendry view Dubois as a the 25th man, even right now, they should both be fired. I think Dusty views Dubois further down than what he should, but that's been part of Dusty's problem and will cont. to be. He has been able to escape line-up weaknesses, b/c of the talent in SF, he hasn't been able to do that in Chicago. Part of the Cubs problem on offense is Baker's inability to use a line-up effectively.

If going 1 for 4 with a sacrifice out is considered a success for Perez, how terrible of a hitter is he? I would expect Hairston to outproduce those numbers on a daily basis as well as over the duration of the season. Care to explain Macias over Dubois (again)?

I'm proud of the persistence of me and Raw for Lewis.