So here are a few reason as to how Dusty Baker pick his lineup.
“Some guys don’t hit fastballs as well as they do breaking balls. Some guys are high-ball hitters. You’re not going to throw a high-ball hitter against a sinkerball-slider pitcher. Or a low-ball hitter, you’re going to play him more against a slider guy, a guy who keeps the ball down.”
“Some guys, you try to play them in smaller ballparks instead of bigger ballparks where you need more speed. You go to Atlanta or even here (Cincinnati), our ballpark plays small but it has big gaps in it. You go to Chicago, it has smaller gaps but you’ve got to deal with the wind and the sun on certain days. There are other ballparks where you really need outfield defense. You go to New York, San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, you’d better play your rabbits out there or else you’re going to give up a whole bunch of runs that you shouldn’t.”
"when Bronson (Arroyo) is pitching, I need my best outfield defense because he throws some fly balls. When (Mike) Leake is pitching, I try to match up best defensive infield because there are going to be more ground balls."
Honestly after reading all his reasons, I'm starting to think Dusty is making his job harder than it needs to be. It's baseball, one of the easiest sport in the world. You bat guys that are good at hitting the balls and you stick guy in the outfield that can play some defense. I know I'm not an expert, but what the hell Dusty? This is ain't calculus. You are jut making this whole thing more complicated than it needs to be.
These are professional athletes we are talking about. I don't care if a player like to hit low vs high balls. If he is a good player he will adjust and if he can't hit, send him to the minor to learn how to hit.
More than anything, I think Dusty is keeping his own team off balance with all this shenanigans. Simply put it like this, like any other sport, you play your best players day in day out.
