Running 2015-2016 Hot Stove League Thread

Dusty gets blamed for Wood and Prior with the Cubs, but the fact is Wood's arm was abused by his high school coach (he threw something like 220 pitches during a high school playoff doubleheader) and Prior's mechanics would have likely led to arm issues. But he did work the two of them hard in 2003, there's no doubt about that.

Wood threw 122 or more pitches 13 times that season. Prior's pitch counts in his last nine games including the playoffs were 131, 129, 109, 124, 131, 133, 132, 115, 119.

However, it seems he backed off on pitcher workloads during his time with the Reds:

Baseball Prospectus | Painting the Black: The Evolution of Dusty Baker

 

The funny thing is that while Prior was actually coming up, all you heard about were his perfect mechanics, and how they would prevent him from being injured. The opposite of Chris Sale, who has always been deemed an injury waiting to happen with his arms and legs flying everywhere, but keeps posting 180-200 inning seasons.

2003 was a lifetime ago, in baseball years. There's no way that the organization that won't let Stephen Strasburg climb the stairs by himself is going to let Dusty Baker run him into the ground.

The biggest problem with Baker on the Cubs was that he let the clubhouse run amok.

I wonder if he still thinks that base runners are bad.

 

Baker will probably do well for the Nats, but I'm still surprised there never seemed to be more mutual interest between Washington and Mattingly.

 

It seemed as if Mattingly to the Marlins was a done deal even before he left the Dodgers.

 

Speaking of done deals:

Nationals hire Dusty Baker as manager

Loria has always liked to surround himself with former Yankees, even going back to his days when he owned the Expos.

 

This is interesting:

The Nationals decided on Black last Wednesday. Negotiations commenced. The first offer the Nationals made Black, a manager fresh off an eight-year stint with the San Diego Padres, would have guaranteed him $1.6 million for one season. It left Black “deeply offended,” according to one person familiar with the situation. In the end, the Lerners would not exceed an offer of two years with multiple team options. By Saturday, talks had crumbled. They didn’t get their man, because they insulted him.

After Bud Black negotiations leave the Nationals shifting to Dusty Baker, the Lerner family has a fiasco on its hands

 

Wow. What were they thinking offering someone who is presumably a top managerial candidate one year?

 

The ESPN.com lede is ... um ... noteworthy:

Dusty Baker is the new manager of the Washington Nationals, meaning Major League Baseball avoids what would have been its first season since 1988 with zero black skippers.

Nationals turn to veteran Baker for manager job

They might as well have gone with, "After first trying to hire a white guy ..."

 

The Dusty Baker hiring proves that racism had nothing to do with the lack of black managers. It was strictly that baseball executives are unimaginative, slow witted, dull and are willing to hire the idiot good ole boys they know rather than branch out and look for something new.
And Baker is nothing if not unimaginative, slow witted and dull.

The Nats are better off letting Werth manage.

 

MLB: You need to hire a black manager
Nats: Does Bud Black count?
MLB: No
Nats: Hey Dusty

 

I'd like to see Dave Roberts get a chance. He might be too nice a guy.