S.I. Donovan: Should Dusty Baker bat Brandon Phillips cleanup?

pä-p?-?käk: Dutch dialect pappekak, literally, soft dung, from Dutch pap pap + kak dung.

Baker wouldn’t mind if Phillips walked a little more, especially considering he isn’t a “base clogger”; he stole 32 bases last season. But getting on base—especially getting on base by a walk—is clearly secondary to Baker. He wants Phillips to be aggressive. Baker wants him to swing the bat.

“If you’re supposed to be up there driving in runs ... a run producer, he ain’t up there to get his on-base percentage up. He’s in there to drive in runs,” says Baker. “If you’re passing it on to the next hitter, a lot of times, he’s not as good of a hitter as you. Otherwise ... he’d be hitting ahead of you.”

...Analysts can give you some great arguments that hitting order, as a whole, is vastly overrated anyway, an argument that might let Baker off the hook in his latest run-in with the stats guys. But don’t tell that to Baker, though.

“I heard this thing today, man: The lineup really doesn’t matter. That’s [poppycock],” Baker says. “I love stat guys, but statheads have gotten way, way out there.”*

*Editor’s Note…I hard dunged that.