Bleed Cubbie Blue :: Bring Me The Head Of Dusty Baker
I love this blog. This guy is actually at the (home) games, and keeps up with the day to day developments, whereas other blogs are kind of spotty on the coverage.

In today's (yesterday's) episode, he says exactly what all frustrated Cub fans are thinking- it's time to take a long, close look at Dusty.

That makes me sad. I was ecstatic when they got Dusty- and consequently ignored the warnings about him. Now I see what Giants fans were complaining about.

That's it, I'm off the bandwagon.

Or maybe I should say, I'm ON the bandwagon -- the one ready to ride Dusty Baker out of town.

You can give a million reasons why a manager is well-loved by his players, because he supports them, gives them confidence, retains that confidence -- but when a manager pigheadedly, stubbornly, refuses-to-listen-to-reasonly continues to do something that costs his team games, it's time for someone, whether it be a player, coach, Jim Hendry, Andy MacPhail, or me, to say to Dusty Baker:

"Dusty, LaTroy Hawkins is not a closer. He's a very good relief pitcher who can get outs in the seventh or eighth inning, but somehow, when that scoreboard reads "INN 9", he just can't finish it. So, try someone else there."

It really is that simple, and you know the depressing end result today, another one-run, 4-3 loss to a really bad Pirates team. That's Hawkins' second blown save, to go along with three saves, a really bad ratio.

What I absolutely could not fathom was seeing Jose Macias pinch-hit for Jason Dubois.

Excuse me? After Dubois was 2-for-3? And so what if Salomon Torres, a righthander, was still in the game. Of course, the minute Macias was announced, in comes John Grabow, the lefthander, turning Macias around.

And the next time I see the name "Macias" in print or online, I want to see the words "waived for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release" next to it.

It's pretty sad when Lloyd McClendon outmanages Dusty Baker. Naturally, Macias grounded out, though Derrek Lee, who had doubled, advanced to third, where he stood and watched Burnitz strike out. Burnitz had a really bad day, hitting into a double play and striking out three times.

We know what must be done. Send LaTroy, who IS a good pitcher -- just not in the 9th inning -- back to the 8th, and let Mike Wuertz close. Or Jon Leicester. Or Glendon Rusch. Or Mike Remlinger. Or Rod Blagojevich. Or Oprah. Or ANYONE else.

I hope Dusty proves us all wrong. I really do. But when I hear stuff like this...- from the comments-

He had this to say after the game:

"LaTroy has the stuff. I can't figure it out. I don't want to think about it tonight."

Well get over it and think about it tonight, damn it. Think about the fact that Hawkins blew 9 of 12 one run games last year and has blown 2 of 3 one run games this year. Then think about your overall managerial stratagies, your unwillingness to deal with reasonable statistical analysis and your tendency to make bad moves.

...it tells me that nothing is going to change. The Cubs will sink further into the middle of the pack in the division, try to play catch-up with St. Louis all year, and in the end will fall short again, thanks to too many games such as this that should have been won.

Prove me wrong, Dusty. Please. I'm begging you.