Sportsfrog.com

Jaw-dropping in the breadth of its stupidity. On every level. Well done, Bob Castellini. Well done. You’ve managed to make me miss the evil and penurious Carl Lindner as well as the simply purely evil Marge Schott. At least they didn’t make hires that ran counter to everything the organization needs.

Let’s count the ways that Dusty Baker is not a good fit for the Reds based on his past two jobs:

1. He abhors walks and thinks “hitters should hit“. Be afraid, owners of Adam Dunn in 2008. Be very afraid. I cannot imagine what the bitching will be like between Baker and uber-grump Marty Brennamen on the pre-game shows on days after Dunn has a few of his usual Ks. You can’t get odds in Vegas on Baker and his desire to “fix” Dunn this spring. Nevermind that Dunn remains one of the top 10 productive hitters in baseball.

2. The abuse of pitchers thing. Maybe a club that wipes its ass with twenties like the Cubs do can overcome the murder of young talent like Mark Prior and Kerry Wood. Having money for free agent fixes helps. But the Reds are not the Cubs when it comes to finances. They desperately need young talent that is on the doorstep like Homer Bailey and Johnny Cueto to develop and be good. Let’s just say I am less than sanguine about their prospects to do so under Dusty Baker. Not to mention that the abuse of Aaron Harang in 2008 may be the stuff of legends. His chances of seeing his next contract just went way down.

3. Baker loves him some vets. Over young guys who have not “proven themselves”. Guess that means the Reds will not only be back in the Juan Castro business in 2008 (after elbow surgery no less), but that he will play a bunch. Watch and see. And good luck, Joey Votto, breaking past Scott Hatteberg and Jorge Cantu at 1b, you simply ain’t vet enough, I would guess.

Look, Baker has strengths, obviously. His teams have been pretty damn successful. He will be able to keep Jr. from being pouty. His teams play hard. But his very real negatives make him a dangerous and border-line criminally negligent hire for the Reds. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense on the surface. And, I must say, if Bob Castellini thought hiring a “name” would appease the masses, he miscalculated I think. The zealots at redszone.com, particularly on the Sons of Sam Hornish part of the board, are on meltdown. Me with them. A “name” wasn’t what the Reds needed. A manager with a sense of how to develop and preserve pitching and who appreciates the need for patience at the plate and OBP was. The team doesn’t appear to have gotten that. At all.

I will always be a Reds fan. Nothing will ever break that. But, damn. Why do they have to make it so hard? At any rate, as usual, here’s to hoping I am dead wrong, and I chronicle the ways I was wrong in these parts for the next three years. But I sure am not counting on it. Dusty “arm-killer” Baker is managing the Reds.

Good lord.