The really dismaying thing about this team - lack of heart

[DavidGee24]

Not that they're 20-23, no matter how they got there I think a lot of us probably looked at this team and figured 20-23 after 43 games would be just about right.

It's about how they play when they fall behind early. Pretty much every single time it happens they just roll over and quit. Have you guys noticed that? Even if it's in the early innings, once the other team is ahead by a few runs the game is over. They just completely stop hitting, and it's a series of 1-2-3 innings. At best they'll get the courtesy solo home run late in the game. Earlier this season they erased a couple three-run deficits but since the 13-2 start, every single time they've fallen behind early they haven't been able to mount so much as a scoring threat, even when they eventually fall behind by ten or more runs and the other team has the mop-up guy in the game. Granted, our bullpen is continuing to give up runs by the bushel and that doesn't help, but you'd think that the offense could at least turn a 14-1 loss into, say, a 14-3 loss. But they can't.

I know the team we see a couple years from now is going to be a lot different than the team presently on the field, but still, the players we have only get to have one baseball career and you'd like to see them out there fighting. Watching a sub-.500 team is one thing, but watching a heartless team going through the motions is another.

Sorry to rev up the Trollercoaster like that, fellas. Just felt like saying it.

[Double Mocha Man]

Teams that grind, everyone included, often come back from deficits.

[seattlefan-daBronx]

I was just thinking the same thing brother. Amen.
There isn't one guy on this squad that I am excited to watch play.
THAT is sad. Haniger I thought would be that guy and he still might.
But either teams have figured him out or he has quit trying to make adjustments.
The rest are what they are....AAAA journeyman.
Springer went 5-5 the other day. That's the kind of guy we need.
And they have like 3 of those dudes.
Our pitching I blame solely on Dipoto...bad offseason in my humble opinion.
We got younger but where is the fight.
It starts at the top. SS has got to go!
That guy has as much spark as a slug swimming in beer.
It trickles down to his players and his stupidity with pitching we have is down right depressing for those actually trying to win.

[D-train]

I was just thinking the same thing brother. Amen.
There isn't one guy on this squad that I am excited to watch play.
THAT is sad. Haniger I thought would be that guy and he still might.
But either teams have figured him out or he has quit trying to make adjustments.
The rest are what they are....AAAA journeyman.
Springer went 5-5 the other day. That's the kind of guy we need.
And they have like 3 of those dudes.
Our pitching I blame solely on Dipoto...bad offseason in my humble opinion.
We got younger but where is the fight.
It starts at the top. SS has got to go!
That guy has as much spark as a slug swimming in beer.
It trickles down to his players and his stupidity with pitching we have is down right depressing for those actually trying to win.

[Double Mocha Man]

Speaking of grinding, when I played college golf I was always grinding. I was not always the best player in a two person match but through grinding I won about 90% of my matches. I did allow myself to quit, to give up, and I would look forward to it... after the ball rattled into the hole on the 18th green.

[Ziskmagic]

I don't mind losing this season. I think an absolute collapse is the only hope for those of us who feel that SS is not the man for this job.

That being said, this team is playing some god awful baseball that is painful to watch. Heart (or lack thereof) is difficult to quantify. Some players (Dee, Edwin) seem frustrated, others don't seem to care. The real cause might be a lack of leadership and cohesion - we look like a bunch of guys fighting individual battles, playing crappy due either to the fact that we are crappy, or because it's not a work environment concerned with success. Probably a lot of both...

We knew going into this season knowing we didnt have a great roster. But we haven't been getting the best out of any of them for a few weeks now. The trade deadline looms over all of them...and I'm not sure who, if any, among the 25 man roster really wants to be here.

[Double Mocha Man]

A month or so ago I was okay with the older players in the lineup... while we were winning, not in spite of them but because of them. Time to put them on the trading block (Encarnacion, Bruce, Leake, maybe Seager, maybe Healy) and let the youngsters play... and give their all. Let 'em grow into it, let 'em become a winning team together. Granted, a lot of the guys I just mentioned don't have a lot of trade value. Could we do a fantasy trade where we trade all 5 for one great AAA, almost major-league-ready prospect? Hope I didn't go all Somebody's Son here.

[DavidGee24]

It's one thing to have a bad team when you're building for the future, but your young players need to be out there learning how to play winning baseball.

That's why tanking to me is such a fallacy. You think you're building for the future, but the young players on the team are losing the vast majority of the time and eventually they start playing selfishly. Now, they could turn out like the Astros, but really, how often does that actually happen? Here's a perfect example: The Philadelphia 76ers. For those of you who said fudge the NBA, the 76ers just spent several years as one of the worst franchises in the league, and they stockpiled a lot of high draft picks. Unfortunately, in losing so many games players just started playing for stats, and it's taken them about ten years just to get to the point where they can make the second round of the playoffs, and that might well be where they peak.

[Freespeech]

My hero Scott Servais mentioned that the Bosox are so tough because they wait out pitchers, and that the M's did that early this year. I remember that being the case. What happened? Did they forget? Did my hero SS not remind them? He acts like he not only has no control but absolutely no effect on what happens in the field. He's wearing me out.

[Happy as hell]

I really think it is lack of talent, not heart.