Why no heart? THIS is why... Continuation Discussion
Twins Video
Everyone has their own opinions, and I LOVE debating each side.
In discussion one commenter (Seth Stohs) Who I love reading his stuff and so should you!!! look up his posts they are great!!! basically asked "what does "no heart" look like on TV"?
Well, win or lose against teh Angels tonight we are being shown the answer. Yes people can make errors. That is not playign without heart, but allowing errors to compoun dis a part of that.
I luned in late, and literally turned on the game right as the #9 hitter made contact in teh top of the 4th. It is now the top of the 5th. so one inning. This is what I have seen.
I will again preface this with I hadnt seen teh first 4 innings, so we could have done soem great things!!
#9 hitter pops up to short right-center. High, lazy pop-up. Palacios (2B) Celestino (CF) Wallner (RF) all slowly jog toward teh ball and each watch it drop untouched in the middle of them. Now they are all young, and have not played a ton at the major league level, let alone with each other. But you HAVE to have a major league standard, and comin off teh heels of losing 17 of 23 and riding a 6 game losing streak, including 4 straight against even WORSE teams, you cannot allow this. SOMEONE of that group of three had to be removed from the game, if for no other reason than to say "This is not acceptable". I dont care who it is. I would pick whoever you think can handle that "tough love" I would choose either Celestino or Wallner. This ultimately did not result in runs scoring, but that is not the point.
THEN
to start the next inning, we decide to pull Joe Ryan after 4 innings and 69 pitches. Here is where my "I didnt watch the earlier parts" comes in, maybe he was injuerd, maybe he was struggling, but thisis where you build heart!! While we want to win, what is the consequence of a loss now? Now is when creating a culture, settign teh standard is more important than any single win. This is when you let Ryan stay out there exactly BECAUSE he may not have his best stuff. NOW is the time you let him work through struggles, in a meaningless game, so that when there is a game that DOES mean something he knows he has been through games without his "A stuff" and can still get innings and win. This is an opportunity to let your coaching staff see what the kid has when he has 80-90-God forbid 100 pitches with subpar stuff.
THEN...
Same inning, lazy fly to left field, Cave comes in to make the catch and it pops out of his glove into the stands for a double. Again mistakes can happen, (and to be fair to Cave he did bust his ass on a triple)
But in the span of 1 inning you see poor play in the field, perceived lack of hustle, or communication, poor (in my mind) managing decisions, and THIS is why it looks liek we have a team playing without passion or without heart, no pride, or just no understanding of what is acceptable, ro no consequences for not meeting expectations. Just plain ol' bad baseball to watch.
And of course this could just be one bad inning in a season long battle and even the best team have innings like these, This just seems to be the exception rather than the norm. And it makes me sad.
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