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're not taking anything away from the young guys, but early spring is for the young. I said the other day, the young hit fastballs now, but they hit two breaking balls out. Those weren't quality breaking balls, but you've got to hit those if you are going to hit. I've got to give them some props for not missing them.
We're lucky to have him now. We have to find a way to keep him in the lineup.
When you're not scoring runs, you're always trying to find a way. Jacque knows he messed up, though it doesn't matter now.
We didn't have our team, No. 1. A lot of times you get new guys and they have a hard time adjusting to Chicago initially.
They're still going to follow us here. We just kind of messed that game up tonight.
They've done a great job of not only him pitching well there but getting ready for us, too, which they promised us they would do.
They say you come to the ballpark and you'll see something you haven't seen, and I haven't seen that before when you hit the guy on the helmet with a double-play ball. They get a run out of that and another run on the two-out base hit.
They say come to the ballpark and you'll see something you haven't seen before. I haven't seen that before, you hit a guy in the helmet on the double-play ball.
A lot of it depends on the strength of your starting pitching. If your starting pitching is good, you won't need 12 too much. Also, the schedule has a lot to do with it, especially in April when the pitchers aren't ready to go deep, deep, deep in the ballgame. You don't even know at that time if you'll need five starters. You might only need four. You hate to lose that guy's endurance by not pitching. It'll work itself out by the time we get ready to leave.
A lot of times, guys get older and they're so financially secure and they have records and stuff, you could easily lose a little competitive desire. But he hasn't lost any.
A lot of these things you shouldn't have to stress at the big-league level. That's what big leagues mean.
A lot of these guys come from other organizations where certain things are stressed differently,
The young man has done a great job as far as not being affected by outside influences.
They're a lock, but we have to get Prior to that point first. He's on schedule to do that but until he actually gets out there, we don't know. You don't know if somebody is going to come up sore, or somebody is going to pull something or whatever.