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 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.
Missing almost the second half of the season last year really slowed his progress some. Skill-wise, he has the skill. We know that. It's just a matter of him playing and doing the little things. He works hard.
They're playing hard. Corey circled the ball and missed and, like I said, we just played bad defense today.
We're going to miss him big time but we know we're going to get him back, too.
He struggled some last season. He made some mistakes he doesn't usually make, and they didn't miss them. He's in great shape.
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.
Other than the second home run by Dunn, the rest were legitimate. He missed location all day. That's the first time I have seen four solo home runs in each of the first four innings.
He needs to pitch. Even though he has the skill and ability, he needs the innings. He needs to be in certain situations. He's missed more than a couple years here on and off. He needs the endurance. He needs to be in there with bases loaded with no outs and be in all kinds of situations and adverse situations. The main thing is we want him healthy, too.
Guzman has missed a lot of time. He's very close. You don't know if he's quite ready. Certain guys need to pitch. He has missed parts of the last three years (with injuries).
Guys tell me they sleep on the road a lot easier and better than they do at home, ... At home, you end up waking at 7:00 in the morning because you're used to getting up early. On the road, you're not worried about sleeping in and missing batting practice. You're always conscious here of oversleeping. You don't want to wake up in a panic, especially if it's cloudy or dark outside. If it gets sunny early, you're jumping out of bed and it could be 6 o'clock.
I never asked him. I asked other guys and they all said, 'No.' I didn't ask Barry. If you've ever been around Barry, Barry's his own man.
I'm sure there is no miracle drug that's going to make it go away right away.
I'm sure he'd like to end the year pitching, knowing Woody. If we can get him in there, we'll try to do that.