{"id":28180,"date":"2020-01-28T13:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T18:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=28180"},"modified":"2020-01-28T14:24:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T19:24:18","slug":"dusty-baker-named-astros-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/01\/28\/dusty-baker-named-astros-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Dusty Baker Reportedly Next Houston Astros Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The next <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/houston-astros\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Houston Astros<\/a> manager will reportedly be <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=bakerdu01,baker-000dus&amp;search=Dusty+Baker&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dusty Baker<\/a><\/strong>, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The potential hire comes after team owner Jim Crane <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2020\/01\/13\/houston-astros-fire-jeff-luhnow-and-aj-hinch\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dismissed<\/a><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hincha.01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AJ Hinch<\/a><\/strong> and Jeff Lunhow for their failures to act and stop the <a href=\"https:\/\/img.mlbstatic.com\/mlb-images\/image\/upload\/mlb\/cglrhmlrwwbkacty27l7.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">electronic-sign-stealing scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Nightengale has reported that the team has not yet finalized a contract with Baker although he is their choice for the job.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Astros?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Astros<\/a> have decided on Dusty Baker to be their next manager, a perfect choice.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UlDHjACFD0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/UlDHjACFD0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BNightengale\/status\/1222183251466321920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 28, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Qualifications<\/h2>\n<p>Baker played outfield for 19 MLB seasons from 1968-1986. He spent time with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/atlanta-braves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-dodgers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/san-francisco-giants\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco Giants<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/oakland-athletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland A&#8217;s<\/a>, and he compiled a .278\/.347\/.432 slash line.\u00a0He played in two All-Star games, won two Silver Sluggers, and had two top-ten MVP finishes.<\/p>\n<p>As a manager, Baker brings an impressive resume to the table for the Astros. In 22 seasons managing the Giants, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/chicago-cubs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago Cubs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/cincinnati-reds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Reds<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/washington-nationals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Nationals<\/a>, he has compiled a .532 winning percentage. He has compiled 1,863 wins and managed teams to 14 winning seasons, including ten 90-win seasons. Additionally, he is a three-time Manager of the Year award winner<\/p>\n<p>Baker brings a great deal of postseason experience, and his teams have made nine postseason trips with him. He won the 2002 NL pennant with the Giants, making it to Game 7 of the World Series.<\/p>\n<h2>Moving On<\/h2>\n<p>Crane&#8217;s decision to relieve Hinch and Lunhow of their duties came with the intent to clean up his organization. It is evident now that a change was necessary, and Crane hopes Dusty Baker<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>is the man to turn his organization around. The report released by MLB on Januray 13th states that the scandal was player-driven. Therefore, the newly named Astros manager will need to bring stern leadership to the clubhouse in order change this narrative, and Baker provides just that.<\/p>\n<p>In spite of their now confirmed cheating scandal, the Astros are still a very talented team. With Baker now in the dugout, they look poised to continue to contend in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: <a id=\"_3dM6ROFRpNusk8WTV39eA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/860727892\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'_3dM6ROFRpNusk8WTV39eA',sig:'bhn7QRcuRFDy1_ZcHSRU_Wp8hILpAy8Qn_xJ18hGa84=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'860727892',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The next Houston Astros manager will reportedly be Dusty Baker, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The potential hire comes after team owner Jim Crane dismissed AJ Hinch and Jeff Lunhow for their failures to act and stop the electronic-sign-stealing scandal. Nightengale has reported that the team has not yet finalized a contract with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2758,"featured_media":28472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2,1071,35],"tags":[3298,297,246,3289,3300],"class_list":["post-28180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-featured","category-mlb","category-news","tag-aj-hinch","tag-dusty-baker","tag-houston-astros","tag-jeff-luhnow","tag-jim-crane"],"modified_by":"DJ Kleinbard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}