I know certain players (like D-Lee) pretty much can swing whenever they want to and no manager is going to tell them not to.  But when it comes to someone like say Neifi is Baker not telling him to take a pitch, or is he telling him and Neifi is choosing not to listen.  If its the former then I have a few choice words for the manager, but if its the latter why isn't anything ever done about it.  If I constantly disregard what my boss tells me I know I would here about it.  So the "they are professionals and adults" line doesn't fly with me.

Is he dumb or just ineffectual?

I think the article could go much farther in criticizing Baker and Hendry for their ignorant view of offense.  Both apparently share the view that getting on base is not important to consistent run production.  This comes out more clearly when you hear them lament the lack of hitting with RISP.  Please not that relying on batting average with RISP is foolish, it's nothing but pure luck.  You don't have to be a "Moneyball" person to see this.  If a player can objectively raise his production just because there are RISP then he should also be able to do so at other times and more importantly it should be measureable, and it is not measureable over years and years of data.  The chance of scoring runs increases when guys are on base, definitely, and that is why getting on base is so important.  Situational hitting may exist for a few of the most skilled players, BP even did a weonderful review of this topic and concluded that our very own Mark Grace was perhaps the best hitter of this type during his playing days.  I don't want to make the argument complicated here, but the problem is not whether you get a hit with RISP, but that you put lots of guys in the RISP so that when you get hits you score runs.  There is a limit to what can be "done" to get into RISP, but one thing that helps is getting on base.  It does not mean going up to walk, but making the pitcher get you out and not getting yourself out on balls that you should take.  We simply need more hitters like this.  Roisenthal is way too easy on hendry and Baker here because the problem has persisted from day one of this regime.  We hated all those solo homers and Ks and so we tried to get rid of Ks, have a wimpy lineup, and still can't get on base.  The Cubs played well with Lee in April because Walker, Barrett and Cedeno were stroking it, and Walker and Cedeno at rates they could not possibly keep up...

Pitching, he was way to easy on Dusty and wqas factualkly incorrect, i.e., Dusty has a reputation for destroying arms.  he was the worst possible choice of available managers if you wanted him to shepherd a young staff.  His abuse of Prior and Wood brought us to the brink of the WS in 2003 and also left us with this mess.  If everyone is fine with that, okay, then jusat accept the fact that Baker works much better with veteran arms who have shown they can take the abuse and unload the farm system for such.

I agree that it is not all Dusty's fault and definitely not the awful May, but the overall problems or long term are very much his fault, or at least much more than implied in the article.  

I do not apologize for thinking that Dusty is an awful manager.  I base the rating of a manager on how he handles the pitching staff primarily, but also the switches and the use of the bench.  Lineup is usually not even in the equation because nearly everyone knows that the best guys  in OBP and slugging should hit 1-4.  Dusty, for some reason prefers to bat prolific out makers 1 & 2.  Sometimes he is just giving the guy a chance to get going, but he stays way too long with dead horses...

Finally, the article missed completely on the Cubs having the worst bench in their division, one of the worst in baseball, under Hendry and Baker.  The bench is important, and when you have high injury risk players, as the Cubs have had and still do, the bench is even more important.  Our bench is full of fricking jackasses, no talent ass clowns.  We can do better by mining AAA rosters and paying for bums on other AAA rosters than this nightmare that we put together, but the problem is that we VALUE no talent ass-clowns like Perez, Macias, Goodwin, Bynum,, etc...Our view of what constitutes a talented baseball player is seriously flawed.  hendry deserves more of the blame here, but all I see is Baker running out the worst of the bums so he obviously shares in this delusion...

I'd fire Hendry, McPhail and Baker this second if it were up to me, then I'd video tape each as they were driving out of the parking lot and send the tape to Sosa's agent so at lkeast the Old Gladiator could enjoy something these days...