Having indirectly kept up w/Dusty Baker when he was out here managing the Giants, I can say that there is no manager in MLB who players want to play for more. Even players on other teams worship the guy and will admit it openly. Having players who love you and want to play for you is a vitally important thing for a manager to have, and no one has it like him.

But that's where Baker's managerial skills end. He's a clueless in-game X-O manager and has proved that in numerous post-seasons. After the 2000 p/s when SF was beaten by the Mets, he was justifably lambasted in the normally tissue-soft Bay Area media for leaving relief pitcher Mark Gardner in the game to hit for himself late in the last game with the Giants losing- one of the stupidest things anyone had ever seen. His whiny, thin-skinned reaction to deserved criticism, combined w/other weirdness like his comments about black people being able to withstand heat better(?) has solidified him as an idiot in my mind. And oh yeah, having Prior and Wood throw 120-130 pitches game after game is going to bite him in the ass and deprive fans of being able to watch 2 special pitchers pitch for the long term.