Now Shi Davidi has a story on this and I am sure others will follow.
On this night there was also Rajai Davis getting picked off second base by Mariano Rivera with Edwin Encarnacion at the plate representing the tying run in the ninth inning. Whether he was on second or third didn’t matter, which is why, unprompted, Gibbons referred to the play as “boneheaded.”
Deja vu of the Blue Jays from last summer.
“You don’t want anyone to get overly frustrated with themselves or the game, (it’s) more just directing the right way to be professional,” said Janssen. “Not only carrying themselves on the field, but also their preparation and the responsibility of being a major-leaguer.”
To that end, Farrell’s comments at a charity seminar over the weekend in Boston and published by masslive.com Wednesday are particularly intriguing, given the train-wreck he oversaw with the Blue Jays a year ago.
Asked to discuss the differences between how pitchers are developed by his former and current clubs, he insinuated the Blue Jays don’t focus enough on the mental side of the game.
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GM Alex Anthopoulos declined to discuss the matter when reached via email, but Farrell’s comments struck a nerve, in large part because of who they came from, but also because they spoke to some of the lapses that have kept the 2013 Blue Jays from leveraging their talent into more wins.
Whether a more sustained focus on the mental side of competing would have changed the results in some of the many, many games that got away on a play not made, a pitch not executed, a hit not delivered is open for debate.
Maybe it’s as simple as the Blue Jays just not being good enough. But what if they’re not breeding the mental tenacity needed to get to the next level? What if that’s partly why they don’t have that season where everything falls into place, like so many other teams do?
Is this just another chemistry discussion? Losing teams have poor chemistry, winning teams have good chemistry. Do losing teams not do the mental things well? Is there a problem with the manager, or should I say managers? John Farrell was basically escorted out of town and now his team is in first place. Is Alex Anthopoulos too inexperienced? Are there too many voices in the front office?
This discussion could go in fifty directions, there is not one easy fix for what ails this team.
