Good bye and thank you. Congrats on an amazing career as a player and a manager. See you in 5 years when you're inducted into Cooperstown.
Dusty helped the Astros recover and prosper after the biggest crisis the franchise has ever faced. We can never thank him enough for that. It was time to move on, but that doesn't erase his contribution. I will always think fondly of Dusty Baker.
what? there's dozens of people who could do what he did, and there's ONE team that could've gotten him that ring
Good bye Dusty! You took a championship caliber team, almost missed the playoffs, and then lost to a team that was inferior to the Astros. You killed the vibe all year long with your managerial decisions and stubbornness. Your personal vendetta against Chas and your willful blindness towards Maldy's incompetence cost us many games. An average manager would have had us in our third straight WS and we would have been prohibitive favorites over the D-Backs... to repeat and win our third title. This team is player-led -- Altuve, Bregman, Verlander. We will be back stronger next season and removing Dusty will eliminate the negative vibes that clouded 2023.
The pitching fell off significantly across the board. That's the begining and end of it. Playing Yanier Diaz more wouldn't have mattered.
Yainer would have added runs AND prevented the opponent from advancing runners on passed balls and stealing bases PLUS frame pitches better... which would improve the pitching.
I think I'm in this camp, as well. He guided us through some dark years where no one really wanted to touch the franchise with a 10 ft pole. He also in my mind did not do a great job of managing in 2023. The playoffs, ok he did reasonably well there. But 2023 as a whole, even with the injuries, was not great for Dusty as a manager. So I'm fine with him being gone and riding into the sunset. Thanks Dusty for the memories, now go enjoy being retired. I'm looking forward to a manager that isn't so damn set in his ways and stubborn, too.
You should stick to politics (even though you are clueless there too) because no one on this board thought this team was a WS winner. Injuries, in consistent hitting and pitching. You want to blame someone, blame Crane. He did not have a GM in the offseason to address holes and improve the team. Bagwell should have not been the defacto GM.
Crane and Bagwell could have been much better, yes, but Dusty ruined the edge that we've had over this 7-year run -- our team spirit and confidence. He created a distraction and soured the mood, which caused us to play tight at home. The Astros' chemistry was negatively impacted by Dusty's stubbornness and desire to prove a point -- which is the exact opposite of what a good manager does.
Did Dusty ruin the edge in 2022? Guys just didn’t get it done this year. There were injuries to the pitching staff and we needed those guys in the playoffs. Players that performed last year, did not this year. If Tucker performs it may be a different story. If Pena is half of what he was in 2022 it may be a different story. The Astros get good Framber and it’s a different story. To me it’s pretty cut and dry. It’s time to move on from Dusty, but the Astros losing this year is not on him imo.
