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
I was spoiled by some of the guys I had in the past, like Robby Thompson and Jeff Kent. I know the importance of that infield defense. There's more balls on the ground than in the air. Consequently, you have to play 'D' on the field.
A couple of balls caught too much of the plate early, ... but we were still in the ballgame. We ended up giving away 4 runs on defense. You can't give away runs in the big leagues, and we didn't play very good defense today.
A couple balls caught too much of the plate early. We were still in the ballgame, and we ended up giving away like four runs on defense. You can't give away runs in the big leagues. We didn't play very good defense today.
A couple balls caught too much of the plate early, ... We were still in the ballgame, and we ended up giving away like four runs on defense. You can't give away runs in the big leagues. We didn't play very good defense today.
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.
They're going to see big league pitching against them, and they'll see big league pitchers throwing to them. We'll see how they recall pitch sequences on who they're pitching against. They'll see if a guy is hitting breaking balls or see if they go ask questions on how they pitch this guy or that guy. Does a guy hit this -- what are his strengths or weaknesses. They have to pay attention because they're big in this equation.
He had his control today and was changing speed. He didn't throw a lot of balls in the same location and used various speeds.
He got beat up pretty good today. They hit some balls hard. He was around the plate, throwing strikes. I just hope he's all right.
They hit some balls on the nose. The elements were with us tonight. This is sort of strange. You think spring is here, then winter shows back up again, I guess that is Chicago; you've just got to deal with it.
I like his approach. Anybody who can hit the ball up the middle and to the opposite field is going to hit. He'll learn how to hit with power. If he can hit balls to right field, he has power.
The guy can pitch, but we had an opportunity to beat him today, just like we had an opportunity to beat him in St. Louis and he gets off the hook. He wasn't sharp early, he hung some breaking balls we hit hard, but we didn't find any holes.
We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much. He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.
We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much, ... He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.
We certainly don't need to start having this now.