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Baker Dust Up

February 22nd, 2008 · 1 Comment

must {shake} contact head of {shake} Latin American scouting {shake}Over at the always acerbic BTF, they’re having a discussion about why Dusty Baker suddenly wants to play a prospect. It appears to have morphed into an argument over Dusty’s merits as a manager.

Now far be it from me to suggest that such a discussion is similar to discussing the merits of a team’s grounds crew or peanut vendors, but it isn’t tons different either. The job of the modern MLB manager is to take cues from the front office and execute their plan as best as he’s able so that he can continue to be employed. There are guys who are much better at this job than others, but it’s fair to say the impact these guys have on the outcomes of baseball seasons is probably not exactly huge.

The idea of manager as all important team general probably should have died off when Cito Gaston left the Blue Jays. My guess is that most ex-players probably don’t want the work hours that come with being heavily involved in the ins and outs of baseball operations. Most seem to want their own little corner of the baseball universe to play in and are more than willing to let the front office folks work themselves to death covering the ever expanding amount of expertise required to run a successful baseball franchise. To paraphrase a current member of a baseball front office:

“We are under a lot of pressure here and have to put in a ton of hours this off season.”

This was the offseason after the team won its first World Series in well over 80 years. You’d think they’d be allowed to mail it in for a year. No such luck.

The only thing worse than working in baseball ops is no longer working in baseball ops. It’s like heroin that way.

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1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Tom Stanley // Feb 22, 2008 at 10:28 am

    I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

    Tom Stanley

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