Dusty on whether or not Hermida was a good choice against Javier Vazquez:
"I get tired of having to justify every move I make every time I make a lineup change," Baker replied. "I know you [in the media] have a job to do. ... I understand. Sometimes it's the matchup, sometimes a guy needs to play, sometimes another guy needs to work. This is a work day for Jonny [Gomes] trying to find his stroke. Plus, he hasn't had very much success against Vazquez."
From the article: "With Gomes struggling at a 3-for-29 clip of late and batting .200 overall, it's not very surprising the manager sat him. The question many fans have asked lately is why reserve outfielder Chris Heisey isn't playing more. It appears Baker has heard some of those rumblings..."
Dusty's response:
"As I recall, I'm the one that really pushed for Heisey to come up here from Triple-A [last season] when he was hitting .250," Baker said. "Heisey is doing fine. What do you do, just shelve Jonny? On what Jonny did last year? Here it is April 20-something. If it's June 20-something and he's doing nothing, now we've got a different story. You just don't shelve somebody that quickly. Jonny deserves an extended period of time, [based] on [his] track record.... Heisey is going to play. But sometimes a player has to wait his turn. What they don't understand is I try to play Heisey against certain kind of pitchers. I have a pretty good idea which guy's stroke matches this guy that's on the mound. At this point in time, Heisey's stroke doesn't match everybody, every day."
Love Dusty, but this is definitely an area where he leaves a little to be desired. He's too loyal to veterans. He talks of Gomes track record, and I am not entirely sure what that track record is? I mean he's okay, but at the end of the day, I'd have a hard time saying a guy who will hit .250-.260 with 15 HRs has any kind of track record.
Here's the link:
http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110429&content_id=18397316¬ebook_id=18397860&vkey=notebook_cin&c_id=cin
