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Originally Posted by cephasjames
I wonder about the spark thing. How much of that is on the manager and coaches motivating the players? How much of that is on the players needing to motivate themselves?
As for the pitching, look at who is currently pitching for this staff right now and then look at how good they're actually doing. The staff as a whole is, I believe, is in the top 1/3 in the AL. And the bullpen, for the most part, has performed very well. What's killing the Tiger right now is their batting and run scoring, not their pitching. That says a ton about Chris Fetter and his coaches.
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It is a bit of the chicken and the egg argument. Do professional athletes need to motivated by coaches or are they supposed to motivate themselves? My personal take on it is that coaches do play a key role in motivating. Baseball is a game and entertainment to me but for the players it is their livelihood. It is a career path under a microscope. There is a lot of anxiety to perform well and repeat that performance against other players that are also 1%'ers. I know a common thought is that these players are all getting "paid" well for this. Are they? Of course your stars are getting more money than I can fathom but minor league guys get paid squat and the living conditions and their treatment at a basic human level is criminal. A MLB minimum salary last year was just over 570k. I'm not pretending that isn't a wonderful salary. It is, however an average major league career lasts 2.7 years. A short mlb career doesn't guarantee the player a life of luxury or anything for the rest of their lives. I think there is a general misconception there. How this relates to my overall point is this. I think under the hood, there is a lot of anxiety for the professional athlete and it is really easy to lose motivation when things aren't going well. So yes, motivation from managers and coaches is very important piece. I could be totally off base here but I have been lucky enough to know a few guys that have made it and this was the impression I was left with when I listen to them talk about their careers. I think as human beings we all need motivation at our jobs on occasion. I don't think athletes are that different in that regard.
As for the team. I agree. This team is held together with duct tape and a can of WD-40 right now and the pitching has held up. I really like Fetter, I have written before how I loved that hire. I will say though that his pitchers are still underperforming. The Tigers rank near the bottom of the league in first pitch strikes. Continually falling behind hitters will work against you at some point. The hitting. Well that has been a complete train wreck. Too many hitters hit above expectations last season and now they are hitting below expectations. It is tough to watch. Baez is doing exactly what many thought. Plays well with the glove and has zero plate discipline. He walks next to never and chases and strikes out a ton. You add that bat to a lineup that already struck out to much and you have a manager scratching his head everyday trying to cobble together something resembling a major league batting order. Tough task right now.