The Cubs Chronicle

There’s nothing to be surprised about, but here’s Dusty Baker ruminating about why the Cubs haven’t taken many bases on balls yet this spring, as quoted by MLB.com:

“No. 1, I’ve let most guys hit 3-0 (in the count). That’s one reason. . . . I think walks are overrated unless you can run. If you get a walk and put the pitcher in a stretch, that helps, but the guy who walks and can’t run, most of the time he’s clogging up the bases for somebody who can run.”

Are singles then overrated unless you can run?

More Baker:

“Who have been the champions the last seven, eight years? Have you ever heard the Yankees talk about on-base percentage and walks? . . . Walks help. They do help. But you aren’t going to walk across the plate, you’re going to hit across the plate. That’s the school I come from.”

Mr. Baker, meet Google, which turns up this AP article from 2002, which quotes Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman as saying: “It’s just practical. If you want to score runs, you need to get guys on base. The best way to measure that is on-base percentage, because batting average can be very deceiving.”

There’s also this small fact: Over the last eight years, the Yankees have finished 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 1st, and 2nd in OBP% in the American League.

It’s one thing to say that’s not the school you came from. It’s another to say that’s not the school anyone else came from either.

And finally:

“Everybody can’t hit with two strikes, everybody can’t walk,” Baker said. “You’re taking away some of the aggressiveness of a kid if you’re telling him to go up there and try to work for a walk. . . . It’s like when I see kids in Little League and they make the small kids go up there and try to get a walk. That’s not any fun. . . . Do you ever see the top 10 walking (rankings)? You see top 10 batting average. A lot of those top 10 do walk, but the name of the game is to hit.”

The Cubs have a manager who doesn’t understand the correlation between strike zone judgement and batting average. It’s as if he never coached Barry Bonds.

Reading this, it’s amazing Mark Bellhorn lasted even as long as he did.

In the Cubs roundtable I said Dusty Baker both inspired confidence and inspired dread. I forgot to mention that there are times when “dread” is too insufficient a word.

UPDATE (11:00pm): ball talk and Rooftop Report have more.

UPDATE II (3/11/2004 7:40pm): Dennis at Northside Lounge has more, noting that Jim Hendry is doing a good job of dealing with Baker’s weaknesses.

UPDATE III (3/11/2004 7:55pm): The Cub Reporter and Baseball Musings also contribute.