SportsDystopia

Summing up a season by calling it strange is a time-honored tradition in baseball as much as the Pirates losing or Joe Morgan talking about himself, but this year, with the Cubs going to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 100 years and the Rays going for the first time ever, the label actually fits.  It also saw two utterly baffling decisions regarding management in the NL Central.  The first was the hiring of Dusty Baker by the Cincinnati Reds.

Somehow Cincy failed to notice Dusty had spent 4 of the previous 5 years doing his best to utterly destroy another franchise IN THEIR DIVISION.  What the hell were they thinking?  They got to see him 18 times a year for 4 years in a row and somehow never seemed to realize that what he did best was destroy the arms of his pitchers and sit on his hands and chew his toothpick while games blew up in the Cubs’ face. 

And what’s happened this year?  He sent staff ace Aaron Harang out to pitch 4 innings of relief in an extra-inning game on 2 days rest, then started him following that relief outing on just 3 days rest.  8 starts later, Harang hit the DL with a strained forearm, his ERA having risen from 3.32 to 4.76.  His two talented rookie pitchers, Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto have now combined to toss 360 innings, with Volquez averaging 105 pitches per start.  He has also managed to place all 4 of his full-time starters- Harang, Bronson Arroyo, Cueto and Volquez- in Baseball Prospectus’ top 30 list for pitcher abuse, which could possibly be forgivable if the Reds had been anywhere near the playoff chase at any point in the last 4 months. 

Baseball Prospectus’ pitcher abuse points statistic gained credibility in the first place after the 2003 season, when Kerry Wood and Mark Prior were numbers 2 and 4 on the list, and both were visibly out of gas in the playoffs, with well-documented histories of injury since then.  I’m sure I don’t have to remind you who their manager was in ‘03.  In any case, it’s obvious that what Dusty’s doing is exactly what Dusty’s always done, and the Reds’ decision to hire him is absolutely inexcusable.

And of course, the other bookend is Ned Yost’s firing by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the Brew-Crew letting go of a man who’d probably be overmatched if he was managing in the Jaleco League.  But how on earth do you make that decision with just 2 weeks to play in the season?  Instead of firing Yost after the disaster that was 2007, Doug Melvin decided to wait until game 150 of this year, by which time Milwaukee had blown a 5 and a half game lead in the wild card race.  Why would GM Doug Melvin stand by him after last season’s debacle only to throw the team into turmoil when they’re still in the thick of the playoff chase?  Predictably, the firing has only worsened the state of affairs on the field, and the Brewers are just 2-4 since.  They’re only still breathing in the Wild Card race because of how awful the Mets’ bullpen is, but the Mets’ bullpen being awful doesn’t fix any problems for Milwaukee, who would have to actually win games this week to get in.  It ain’t gonna happen.

-Harrison Anderson

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