In my head, whenever I write about Dusty Baker, I imagine him to be a character called, "Dusty Baker, Baseball Alchemist." This has a lot to do with his wildly-reasoned argument from the early spring that a whole bunch of players in Cincinnati would play well because they were once high draft picks. I just have the general feeling that Baker feels like there's some secret recipe to winning that if he follows it, eventually success will find him and the Reds. One of those ingredients must be getting his starting pitcher through five innings at any and all costs. Yesterday afternoon/evening, he sent Aaron Harang back out to the mound to finish the fifth inning after a rain delay that lasted more than two hours. Harang only pitched to one batter after the delay and recorded a strikeout of Humberto Quintero to qualify for the win.
The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Fay posted Baker's reasoning on his blog last night:
"I'm just glad the delay wasn't any longer," Baker said. "He wanted it badly. He wanted very badly."I get that Baker wanted to show faith in one of his veterans, but Harang threw 83 pitches before the delay, then kept throwing through the delay to stay loose, then had to warm up again when the game re-started, and finally, he needed eight pitches to strike out Quintero, at which point he was shelved for the night.
Baker felt the risk was minimal.
"As long as kept throwing," Baker said. "There's a risk every time a guy goes out there. We were concerned. He wanted the game and he deserved a chance to go get that."
Baker might have felt the risk was minimal, but I'm not sure anyone in their right mind would agree with him. He put a ton of extra and unnecessary stress on the arm of one of his best pitchers, just so that pitcher could pick up a cosmetic counting stat that he "wanted badly." Of course, the Reds are only 2 1/2 games out of first place, so hey, here's to baseball alchemy.
Somewhere, Mark Prior is screaming.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
What about the psychological effects of going out and getting a much needed win for a guy that rarely gets run-support. I think getting the win will do a lot for his confidence. I know I would be upset thinking about all the games I gave up only 1 or 2 runs and got a no-decision, and then finally get some support and miss the opportunity to get the win. That would suck.
I have no problem with it, and think too much into this bs, Aaron is a young man not like me at 56 lol at that age I could of gone out a few days in row, now arm would fall off after one batter lol
Normally I'd agree, but Harang had a rough go of it last year (6-17) despite not pitching all that badly so I think it was good for him
Dusty Baker is a moron. He left his best starting pitcher out there on a bad day to endure a 10 run first inning. That is ALMOST as bad as when he "awarded" his starting pitcher the game ball in game six of the 2002 World Series. Reminder...the Angels came back in that game and went on to win game 7. Baker is a moron.