Dusty is a cool guy, but I can’t help but wonder if his beef with Click about getting certain players playing time affected the chemistry of the team.
Agreed. Brantley apparently dislikes playing DH. I would guess guys that are used to playing the field would feel the same way. Yordan’s improved numbers when he plays the field could be a “thing” or could be an aberration/statistical anomaly that evens out over a full season’s worth of games of both LF/DH… but Yordan physically should not be playing the field every game.
So if the Astros win a WS or even just get there then across baseball Baker would get as much praise as any manager has ever received. Of course they are not looking at all of the in the game details. The narrative would be he took took a below .500 playoff team in 2020 to game 7 of the ALCS after being down 3 games to none. Then with fans back in the stands in 2021 he navigates the team through the most vitriol that a team has ever faced in American sports history...and the Astros highest paid player in 2021 never played a game.
If they win a WS it might be complicated, but even than I don't think he comes back. Anything less and it's an easy axe. The front office played MLB's little game when they had to, now they shouldn't (and won't) care what anybody outside our tent has to say.
If Ole "I didn't have time to warm up Graveman" manages to win it all this year, hopefully he'll ride off into the sunset.
"Retire on top" is the ideal situation. This team has enough talent to win no matter the managerial decisions made.
I don't really care if they say nice things about him. I just want him replaced with someone competent.
If the Astros win a WS with Baker at the helm, it isn't complicated. You throw a parade. If he wants to come back, you let him. For all the frustration he causes in the regular season, he would need a second year in a row of mostly making good decisions in the postseason (2020 Game 3 ALDS not included) for the Astros to win a World Series.
If he manages this postseason the way he managed last postseason, then yeah you bring him back, but the Dusty we've seen this season is not the same cooperative Dusty we saw last season. In baseball it is possible to win despite poor managing, and if he keeps bumbling his way through the playoffs I don't feel you necessarily "have' to bring him back. I still don't think Myers would have been playing with any regularity if Tucker and Brantley hadn't both gotten hurt.
I don't have much in terms of facts/data to prove this but IMO it's not a fluke - I think especially for a young player like Yordan who is used to playing the field his entire career it's tough for them to have that level of engagement necessary to be successful at an elite level DHing. Additionally, coming from someone who played the game at a relatively high level for 14 years, I think it would be tough having to sit around in the dugout until your next AB after having a bad one (e.g. striking out with the bases loaded and one out or something like that)...personally it would be a lot tougher to let that bad AB go and move on to the next one with a clear mind if I didn't get the opportunity to play the field, which "forces" you in a way to move on as you have to be in mentally ready to field while being in the correct position with the shift on every batter. At 26 games playing the OF I think it's starting to get to a point where it can't be ruled out as a small sample size - especially given how drastic the difference between him hitting while playing OF (.358/.431/.758/1.189) vs. DH (.264/.322/.472/.794). I did get curious as to whether Dusty may be choosing his spots to play Yordan in the OF by playing him in games where we are playing a bad pitcher/team/etc. so I went through the game logs and listed all the pitchers he's faced while playing in the OF below... And as you can see from the below list, Dusty definitely hasn't been playing him in the field against weaker pitchers/teams. I've bolded those with ERAs under 4 (FYI Pineda, Taillon and Anderson are right there both under 4.20 too) and italicized those under 3.6 for this season. That's exactly half under 4 and 42% under 3.6 of the pitchers he's faced in total while playing in the field. My guess is he hasn't seen anywhere near that quality of pitching on a % basis while DHing... BOS N. Pivetta ** TOR S. Matz **** BOS N. Eovaldi **** MIN M. Pineda *** TEX J. Lyles ** CWS L. Lynn ***** BAL K. Akin * BAL T. Eshelman * DET C. Mize ***** BAL T. Lakins * CLE J.C. Mejia * OAK C. Bassitt ***** OAK F. Montas **** NYY J. Taillon ** CWS C. Rodon ***** TEX K. Gibson ***** SEA C. Flexen ***** SFG K. Gausman ***** SFG L. Webb ***** LAD M. Scherzer ***** LAD W. Buehler ***** COL A. Senzatela * MIN K. Maeda *** MIN B. Ober * MIN G. Jax * SEA T. Anderson **
IMO I think there is a good chance that he is going to retire after this season regardless and there's 0% chance he comes back if we win the WS...I think that elusive ring is the only thing keeping him wanting to manage at this point.
Odds are that if the Astros win, it will be because the Astros are great and Dusty primarily uses starters, Pressly, Graveman, and Javier to pitch in situations that matter. Managing to survive a 162-game season is very different than managing in the playoffs. If Dusty is planning to use the crap out of Pressly and Graveman in the postseason, it would seem like he would want to spread out the reliever innings in August and September to keep those two fresh. While I am not sure how Dusty will manage in the postseason this year, I do not expect it will be like he has managed in the regular season.
If there really is a sizeable rift between Click and Dusty then I worry how that could effect the team's strategy for how they utilize their pitching staff in the playoffs. Given the shortened series, more off days, I think you can get more creative and specific in your game panning for each particular game but that could be tough to do if Dusty is ignoring instructions from Click. This could be especially important for a team like the Astros which has a surfeit of talented starters and, even post-deadline, a dearth of high-end relievers.
