Dusty Comment Worth While

Cub's Manager Dusty Baker has been very good at getting on and then jumping off the hot seat. The Cubs went on a 7 game skid that put them 8 games out of the wild card, then Swept the Marlins. During the 7 game skid they also fell behind the Astros. Before the break the Cubs were one game under .500 with a 43-44 record. After the break the Cubs had a decent little homestand taking 3 out of 4 from the Pirates. Woody, Prior and Zambrano took the wins, while Maddux took the single lose. After the win on Friday, Dusty Baker had this little tid bit about Woody:

"You don't have to strike people out to dominate hitters," Baker said. "Everybody likes to see the strikeouts but the strikeouts take more out of you than if they're putting it in play. The only guy who stung the ball off him all day was the same guy.

That is a very good point.

Moneyball baseball would disagree with this statement. Billy Beane of the A's, Paul D. of the Dodgers, and Bill James, Author of the complete Baseball Abstract, would arguee frivously that the strike out is just as important as a base hit. If the ball is put into play enough times, somebody is going to capitalize. People need to be a little more cautious, this era of baseball is marked with the high home runs, high strikeouts and high walks. With the emphaise on pitch counts strike out "power" pitchers can easily tally some high pitch counts which quickly pill up. The count pills up because only a few of them have control, Clemens, Hudson, Prior and Zito are the only "power" pitchers who have shown much control over the past couple of years.