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 think he can become a very good player. He can hit, he can run, I think his power is coming, especially when you're strong in the lower half -- that's where the power comes from. You have to learn how to do it, how to use it without abusing it and losing what got you here which is base hits.
Juan has a pretty good idea of when to run. There were quite a few guys who had green lights last year. It's just a matter of them running. I gave guys the green light a lot, but sometimes I was a bit upset when they didn't run. A real base stealer can run better when he feels he can run versus when you tell him to run.
The Angels are a team that doesn't quit. They have a fundamentally sound team defensively, offensively, good team speed, good young bullpen that nobody knows that much about, ... And young pitchers, which is to their advantage, and most people don't know that much about them.
Marshall has shown control and poise. He has a very good delivery, and it looks like he has three pitches he can control pretty good. He doesn't seem in awe of being here. I'm very impressed.
I was very pleased to see Woody. He looked like he was doing pretty good. He didn't look like a guy who was operated on. It shows you what modern medicine can do. They told us when Woody went in, there was a good chance he wouldn't have much swelling because he didn't have much swelling on his shoulder.
When we hit it hard, it was right at somebody. He (Lowe) got strike one low and away. He had good stuff today.
We've been doing whatever we can to shore ourselves up. Matt's had some pretty good years and we hope he can come over here and rejuvenate our offense.
We've been doing whatever we can to shore ourselves up, ... Matt's had some pretty good years and we hope he can come over here and rejuvenate our offense.
You know he's better than he's pitching. The good thing is his arm feels good and he's in great shape.
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.
Yeah, I have a pretty good idea. I'm just not going to say right now. We still have time to see. It depends how the rest of the club shapes up and what we need offensively, defensively and speed-wise.
He's got the legs (to be a power hitter). We know he can hit the ball to right field, he's got a good eye for the strike zone and he can run and he's making fine progress for a young man who came out of Double-A.
He's got some skills, definitely. He's got great range, quickness. His bat has really improved over the last year and a half. Fundamental stuff? There's still a few things he needs to work on. He'll probably get a pretty good shot of that here.
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.