Dusty Baker
Dusty Baker
Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker, Jr.is an American Major League Baseball manager and former player. He is currently the manager for the Washington Nationals. He enjoyed a 19-year career as a hard-hitting outfielder, primarily with the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. He helped the Dodgers to pennants in 1977 and 1978 and to the championship in 1981. He then enjoyed a 20-year career as a manager with the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and now Washington Nationals. He...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth15 June 1949
CityRiverside, CA
CountryUnited States of America
We'll stick with him. At this point, we are a little thin. It'd be different if we didn't know what he could do.
It hurts us not to play Friday night games. We got home late Thursday from Puerto Rico and had to play a day game the next day on the 12th. We can get home at 1 o'clock not fall asleep until two and have to be back up at eight while the other team has been here. They are in bed before we even get home.
It is a little strange to be watching baseball that counts at this time of year. I know our guys are really excited.
I think the main problem was he couldn't feel the ball in his fingers. I guess it's cold, and the ball is a little slicker when it's cold, and he really couldn't feel it. Consequently, he starts trying to drop down, different things to try to command the strike zone, and he had trouble commanding the strike zone.
We are going to try to take him at a natural progression to have him ready when the season starts. We are going to watch him closely.
We're not going to call up a lot of players. We'll try to call up guys who deserve it and guys who have had good years and merit being called up. We're not in the giveaway business -- we're in the earning business.
We sent him out to see if he can find more consistency. One time he's real good, the next time bad.
Yeah, I have a pretty good idea. I'm just not going to say right now. We still have time to see. It depends how the rest of the club shapes up and what we need offensively, defensively and speed-wise.
Yeah, and I wasn't around, either. Know what I mean?
Water seeks its own level. He has to forget about spring training and call upon his past. His past has been very good, so why wouldn't his present and future be so?
We'll figure it out. I don't have a set thing. We'll do what we think is best that day.
We'll mix and match and do what we can. We owe it to ourselves and our paying fans to put the best team we can on the field. People want to see us win. September is right around the corner. There are probably some guys who will get called up. We'll do the best we can every day.
You'd hope so and think so. Usually when it comes down to the last couple roster spots, you go on what you have seen here as well as the past.
We don't have a whole bunch of kids, ... Really, we have two kids as (position) players. Most of our kids are pitchers. We're going to play them. They're going to get ... I can't say the majority of playing time ... (but) they're going to play.