Let’s All Take A Minute To Point And Laugh
A lot going on around these parts. More than 25% of the Cubs roster will prepare to head to Gotham for the All-Star Game, the team is about a week away from being fully healthy, and they survived the most treacherous stretch of the season while battling alluded-to injuries without once relinquishing their position atop first place on which they have had a grip since May 12th. And, to top things off, they made a big pickup yesterday, without even hardly making any concessions.
Yep. Things are looking up for the Cubs. So let’s say we take a minute and all goof on Dusty, shall we?
Early during the radio broadcast of last night’s workmanlike ass-whuppin’, Cubs’ play-by-play man (and thankless sherpa to bufoonish clown Ron Santo) Pat Hughes began to discuss Reds’ starter Aaron Harang’s recent struggles. As Cub fans know, prior to last September, Harang had been a mouthbreathing thorn in the Cubs’ side his whole career. More recently, of course, Harang had gone from garden-variety Cub Killer to an actual elite pitcher in the National League, posting three straight seasons of sub-4 ERA while pitching in that bandbox in Cincinnati and ranking among NL leaders in Wins and Strikeouts. In fact, Harang actually finished 4th in Cy Young Award voting last year.
Last night Harang walked seven Cubs, gave up six earned runs, and lost for the eleventh time on the year. His ERA is now at 4.76, a full run over his average from the last three years.
One wonders what may have happened to Harang for his fortunes to have reversed so suddenly.
In his typical polite, non-controversial manner, Hughes began discussing this game from May 25th. The Reds were pushed into extra innings against San Diego and our favorite contrarian dumbass, having depleted his bullpen, called on Harang in the 13th inning.
Okay. No big deal. Managers have long been known to get an inning or two out of a starter in that situation, particulary if said starter hadn’t pitched for a few days.
Only Baker left Harang in for four innings. For SIXTY THREE PITCHES. This, after Harang had started three days earlier (and thrown 103 pitches).
Prior to having Dusty enter him in the MLB equivalent of the Ironman contest, Harang’s ERA was 3.50. He had given up 73 hits in 74 2/3 innings. Since that outing in San Diego? Harang has given up 63 hits in 44 1/3 innings and his ERA is 7.31. For the season, his ERA has jumped over a run and a quarter (from 3.50 to 4.76), and we’re talking only just a little over a six week period. That’s not easy to do.
It looks like the same guy who routinely let Mark Prior and Kerry Wood exceed 120 pitches has really learned his lesson, huh? My only hope is that Baker is able to continue to keep that team tethered to his idoitic worldview before the organization actually catches on.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to Hire Jim Essian to get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Graham Classic Dusty. It’s funny now he’s not punchin’ holes in the Cubs flotilla.
“They’ll just pitch their way out of it.” - it’s not just a motto, it’s a way of life.
Dusty Baker - Single-handedly destroying young arms across the nation.
F_ckin’ Brilliant.
Rusty Baker I didnt know this, from the link posted about the May 25th Reds game:
“Perhaps the roughest day of all was had by scuffling center fielder Corey Patterson, who became the first Red since Eddie Milner in 1983 to go 0-for-8. ”
hah
JayBandit It’s a real shame, because I have a ton of respect for Harangutan. He is the starting pitcher on my “All Ugly Team”. But seriously, I had always hoped there was some way the Cubs could pick him up since he seems to always pitch 7+ innings and is never hurt.
Clearly, Dusty has shattered this dream, as well as countless others.
Chuck Gee. Dusty may be the problem and not Larry Rothschild. What a novel idea. Wish someone had suggested that a long time ago.
Mike D. Oh. Rothschild is still a problem, dumbass. Had he not been on board with Dusty, then ole’ Larry obviously would have taken the fresh offer he had gotten from Dombrowski in Detroit following ‘05. But he came back, didn’t he? Sounds awfully compliant to me.
Andy You missed the worst part. It was bad for Dusty to use Harang on three days’ rest after he’d thrown 103 pitches, by having him pitch four innings of 63 pitch relief, but wouldn’t you think they’d have pushed back his next start? You know, brought up a AAA guy to take one for the team? Nope. Three days after his relief effort, Harang made his next start and threw 73 more pitches (he got rocked giving up six runs and 10 hits in four innings). In the span of seven days, Dusty let Aaron Harang throw 239 pitches.
Holy shit.
JackB You know, Dusty’s a major boob, but what really confuses me is why the Reds gave him the job to begin with. Okay, okay, he’s still got the rep as a player’s manager, whatever the fuck that means. I knew there would be SOME team crazy and/or stupid enough to give this mook a chance, but I really didn’t expect a team within our division to be that team. NL Central teams should have had the most looks at the guy and his modus operandi to know better. And any GM and owner should have been able to read reports of high pitch counts and been troubled. Holy Christ, I’m still amazed that Carlos Zambrano managed to come through the Dusty years with his arm still attached to his shoulder. And I ragged on Larry hardcore, but the past year and a half really have caused me to rethink my opinion, although the towel drill is still pretty asinine. Larry did win a World Series with the Marlins in 97 and that had a great deal to do with the pitching of Brown and Hernandez, among others. I’m not gonna cry for Cincinnati, since they had Dusty’s track record and still hired him, but you gotta feel for guys like Harang, Volquez, Cueto, et al. I don’t want those guys beating us, but I also hate to see good ballplayers go to waste and possibly end up injured because some jackass doesn’t know how to do his job.
djwoody It is what it is dude. Walks just clog the bases. Dusty thank you for your precious baseball words of wisdom!
Andy I think Dusty was the perfect hire for Cincinnati. A good manager would have made them a threat down the road with Cueto, Harang and Volquez. He’s already ruined two of the three, which will just cause him to ride Volquez even harder.
Weebs That game was just beyond incredible. I remember reading about Harang and being really impressed. I mean the guy pitched 4 innings of relief on three day’s rest and struck out 9 batters. But not only has that ruined Harang’s season, it looks like it might be starting to take it’s toll on Edinson Volquez. That game was on a Sunday, and Volquez had just pitched on Friday. Then he comes in and throws two innings of relief. Then he makes his next start. He still had quite a few Pedro-like starts after that, but now he’s come back down to earth (thank god, I was never going to live down that fantasy trade) and I’d expect a Prior-like decline into mediocrity. I really feel bad for the Reds fans. They have one of the best pitchers in baseball in Harang, and three of the most promising young pitchers in the game in Volquez, Cueto and Bailey. Dusty will see to it that none of them ever succeed again!
Pat Counterpoint: I would have stuck around to help Dusty ruin 100 pitchers if it meant not moving to Detroit.
Charles Exactly how I feel about Cincy pitchers… My family houses Reds minor leaguers each year in Dayton and every time we get a pitcher or two at my house i can’t help but think how long they’ll be around if they have the stuff to get to the major leagues… I never hope they beat my Cubs but i sure don’t want to see their careers ruined by any means
genrebuster Dusty Baker is a PATHETIC excuse of a manager…a fucking loser. Plain and simple.
The fact that he lasted 4 years with the Cubs shows how “out of it” the owners and Hendry were/are. I wonder how many players have been damaged–physically, mentally or both–playing “under him”?
…Thank God Dusty is no longer a Cub. I feel bad for Red’s fans, too. Obviously their owners/management are dumbasses, too!
Alison My best team of MLB is The Cincinnati Reds . This why I always fallow their games especially whenever I have some time. I’m always trying not o miss any of their game and hear about the team’s news. But The Cincinnati Reds tickets get more pricy especially when there are some hot games. But, if we’re really good fans we should try not to be mean when we’re talking about a favourite teams. It’s not only the Reds tickets that got pricy, but there are other major teams too, so the team needs our support and we should provide as much as we can.
CT
bocaj
BigFlax
StPatrick
TDubbs
I read about that game at the time. If I remember correctly Edinson Volquez also pitched on 2 days rest. What a joke