Jbox and Drama both freaked out a little bit at the news that Dusty Baker is right in there for the running. I'm not exactly sure why this should be a really big surprise. Did anybody really think that the only people we were looking at were unproven pitching coaches and radio hosts?
Dusty's a fiery type who's had success. He's used to dealing with with veteran personalities and young players. He shouldn't have been a surprise.
As for me... I'd be fine with Dusty Baker. The differences that the Padres had with Bruce Bochy weren't over money. Anybody who attended last year's Pizza Feed with Kevin Towers should have seen the signs. Towers was trying to put together one type of team while Bochy was trying to manage as if he had another. Towers was willing to give up on certain players in favor of others, but just because a player's on the roster doesn't mean he'll get played. As close as the media tried to make Towers and Bochy while Bochy was here... Good buddies disagree all the time and I think that's what we saw.
So nobody should be surprised if we end up with Dusty Baker and Dusty ends up with a contract that's similar to if not richer than Bochy's in San Francisco. This isn't about the money and as Padres fans, we should be glad that we're not making money decisions when it comes to our competitiveness.
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