Then what happens? You’re still grooving a fastball. Face it, man. You didn’t make the pitches you needed to make, end of story. Suck it up and move on.

It’s disappointing to hear Bobby make excuses like that, I hope you’re right, Sean that it’s out of frustration.

“The 1-0 pitch changed the whole at-bat,” the Tigers’ reliever said. “When you go back and look at the replay, he definitely swung at the ball on the second pitch.

“So the difference between 2-0 and 1-1 is a big difference. In a game like that, it’s kind of unfair because we played that long. Coming in the bases loaded is a tough situation.”

Seems odd, considering the “no excuses” culture that I have to believe Jim Leyland fosters. Maybe just frustration talking. The Detroit press may well have more extensive comments from Seay that would provide more context and balance. But yeah, this part sounded pretty weak.

Those are good examples… but maybe you’re proving the point a little bit by siting those teams? Maybe a volitale clubhouse is just as effective in terms of each player having a chip-on-his-shoulder sort of thing and driven by another kind of intangible to preform… The general sense I get from the 08 Tigers is more of a sense of apathy. Sure, they care about doing a good job individually in terms of the sabermetrics their preformances will produce, and sure they all want to win, and I certainly don’t think they hate each other like the Bronx-is-Burning team of the 70s, or the As team you mentioned, but nor do I think they have a sense of comraderie like, say the USA Hockey team vs. USSR of the 80s Olympics. I simply think they don’t care that much one way or another.

Anway, I do agree with you that these are all ethereal points that one will never prove or disprove.

So far, it’s a little concerning.

Must have been nice to see Kenny Rogers have a game like this. Were the Angels helping him out, or was he really that good?

I looked it up, Barry Bonds had a ridiculous 268 OPS+ in 2002, which is statistically the best season ever. He beat his own mark of 259 set the year before, and he came back with a 263 OPS+ in 2004. He owns the top 3 spots.

‘Roids or not, the man could rake.

And yes, I have too much free time.

Floyd, Contreras, and the bullpen will all come back to earth, and John Danks will have his struggles too. Beuhrle has been very inconsistent and gets absolutely shelled if he’s not hitting his spots. With that offense, it’s just a .500 team, I agree with you.

The Twinkies always seem to be there, but their offense is just terrible, outside of the big two. The starting pitching is decent but very young and the bullpen is solid. They just can’t score any runs, so I don’t see them being there either.

All of this is moot, of course, unless we win some games, especially in our division. That’s the frustrating part, the Central absolutely OWNS us.

Result: World Series Champs.

I do not believe that chemistry will aid or hinder results until proven otherwise. And anything in support of it seems to be hearsay to me (no offense, I’m not trying to sound like a sabermetric loving, stats snob here, I mean this in the most cordial way possible). If there are teams with terrible clubhouses and many players who don’t get along with each other, their managers or their owners that are winning championships and succeeding in baseball (2002 Giants getting to the world series with perhaps the most hated teammate of this era — easily of this decade — Barry Bonds) then I am not convinced that clubhouse chemistry is important enough to even consider an integral part of the squads.

You know, so long as people are going all Zambrano-Michael Barrett on each other in the dugout during the game.

Bobby Seay walked in the winning run.