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 need his offense and we need his defense, too. We don't usually play as well with him out of the lineup.
You know it's there, but you don't really see it. Guys don't discuss it or talk about it much. It's something you have little control over. I'm sure some guys are conscious of it and aware of it, but until it happens, you can't do anything about it.
We are going to try to take him at a natural progression to have him ready when the season starts. We are going to watch him closely.
Usually you come right in and face 'live,' but you get into bad habits because you're trying to protect your hands and protect your bats. Basically, this is more for the pitchers the first couple days than the hitters. The main thing is, you hope they can throw strikes.
We have to wait until we see what the weather is going to do. Everybody is anticipating the worst because of what happened in New Orleans.
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'll figure it out. I don't have a set thing. We'll do what we think is best that day.
We'll mix and match and do what we can. We owe it to ourselves and our paying fans to put the best team we can on the field. People want to see us win. September is right around the corner. There are probably some guys who will get called up. We'll do the best we can every day.
You'd hope so and think so. Usually when it comes down to the last couple roster spots, you go on what you have seen here as well as the past.
We don't have a whole bunch of kids, ... Really, we have two kids as (position) players. Most of our kids are pitchers. We're going to play them. They're going to get ... I can't say the majority of playing time ... (but) they're going to play.
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.
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.
We're not going to call up a lot of players. We'll try to call up guys who deserve it and guys who have had good years and merit being called up. We're not in the giveaway business -- we're in the earning business.