ST: Red Sox @ Blue Jays - Sept 9-11

[Raps_Swingman]

No matter how you word it, calling Martin afraid (fear = afraid) remains hilarious.

Do some reading on Sports Psychology instead of spending your days on TMZ.

Please explain the sport psychology of Russell Martin (who's been to the playoffs EIGHT times) being afraid...

Russ is a classic example of someone who is a perfectionist. This means he has high expectations on himself and when he's not meeting those then the focus is not on the positive but the negative. Leading to mistakes not typical of that player. He's not "afraid" of a spider or something, he's struggling with expectations in my opinion.

Going to the playoffs 8 times in a team sport means nothing, if this was tennis or golf then you've got a point.

[The_Hater]

Goins not making the cut-off throw to Martin which would have prevented the first run from scoring. Bautista not knowing where to throw the ball when he finally reached it at the end of his jog. Biagini throwing the ball away on a pick-off attempt.

Defense has picked a bad time to totally lose it.

The Red Sox defense was terrible too.

I'm not buying this lack of confidence angle. Maybe Goins, who chocked in the Royals series and rarely plays. He was likely a little nervous. Starting him was a terrible move by Gibby. Maybe a couple of the young pitchers. But the rest of those guys have all played big games before. Josh is probably playing as bad as anyone this month and I'm pretty sure he doesn't lack confidence.

Confidence wavers during a season. Elite players maintain confidence based on past results or an ability to adjust. I'm watching a team do things they typically don't do and they're doing it routinely during this stretch. I'm not usually one to be on the confidence angle, but everything I've seen is leading me to this conclusion(whether rightly or wrongly).

Or, it's just a team all slumping at the same time both offensively & defensively....

But the offense isn't slumping, we've scored above our average runs per game over the past 3 weeks. The Jays have scored less than 3 runs in a single game exactly once during that period. This despite our best hitter having his worst stretch in 2 years.

Although it may seem like everything is going sideways 90% of this team's problems have been that the starting pitching staff has been atrocious the past 3 weeks including the 2 guys that pitched in the Allstar game.

[Raps_Swingman]

The Red Sox defense was terrible too.

I'm not buying this lack of confidence angle. Maybe Goins, who chocked in the Royals series and rarely plays. He was likely a little nervous. Starting him was a terrible move by Gibby. Maybe a couple of the young pitchers. But the rest of those guys have all played big games before. Josh is probably playing as bad as anyone this month and I'm pretty sure he doesn't lack confidence.

Confidence wavers during a season. Elite players maintain confidence based on past results or an ability to adjust. I'm watching a team do things they typically don't do and they're doing it routinely during this stretch. I'm not usually one to be on the confidence angle, but everything I've seen is leading me to this conclusion(whether rightly or wrongly).

Or, it's just a team all slumping at the same time both offensively & defensively....

But the offense isn't slumping, we've scored above our average runs per game over the past 3 weeks. The Jays have scored less than 3 runs in a single game exactly once during that period. This despite our best hitter having his worst stretch in 2 years.

Although it may seem like everything is going sideways 90% of this team's problems have been that the starting pitching staff has been atrocious the past 3 weeks including the 2 guys that pitched in the Allstar game.

Offence has been average agreed. My point was more along the lines of offence & defence being poor in unison. Not sure I'm super confident in pitching turning the corner at this point, especially with Liriano going tonight.

[Rapcity_11]

Do some reading on Sports Psychology instead of spending your days on TMZ.

Please explain the sport psychology of Russell Martin (who's been to the playoffs EIGHT times) being afraid...

Russ is a classic example of someone who is a perfectionist. This means he has high expectations on himself and when he's not meeting those then the focus is not on the positive but the negative. Leading to mistakes not typical of that player. He's not "afraid" of a spider or something, he's struggling with expectations in my opinion.

Going to the playoffs 8 times in a team sport means nothing, if this was tennis or golf then you've got a point.

Of course it means something. Martin is used to far more pressure than this.

[The_Hater]

Confidence wavers during a season. Elite players maintain confidence based on past results or an ability to adjust. I'm watching a team do things they typically don't do and they're doing it routinely during this stretch. I'm not usually one to be on the confidence angle, but everything I've seen is leading me to this conclusion(whether rightly or wrongly).

Or, it's just a team all slumping at the same time both offensively & defensively....

But the offense isn't slumping, we've scored above our average runs per game over the past 3 weeks. The Jays have scored less than 3 runs in a single game exactly once during that period. This despite our best hitter having his worst stretch in 2 years.

Although it may seem like everything is going sideways 90% of this team's problems have been that the starting pitching staff has been atrocious the past 3 weeks including the 2 guys that pitched in the Allstar game.

Offence has been average agreed. My point was more along the lines of offence & defence being poor in unison. Not sure I'm super confident in pitching turning the corner at this point, especially with Liriano going tonight.

The offense has been above average compared to the rest of the season actually. And we have the 2nd best offense in the league on the season. People only think the offense is struggling because it's not as productive as last season which was one of the best offenses in the history of MLB.

The starting pitching has been better than expected for 5 months now so there's good reason to be worried.

[The_Hater]

Do some reading on Sports Psychology instead of spending your days on TMZ.

Please explain the sport psychology of Russell Martin (who's been to the playoffs EIGHT times) being afraid...

Russ is a classic example of someone who is a perfectionist. This means he has high expectations on himself and when he's not meeting those then the focus is not on the positive but the negative. Leading to mistakes not typical of that player. He's not "afraid" of a spider or something, he's struggling with expectations in my opinion.

Going to the playoffs 8 times in a team sport means nothing, if this was tennis or golf then you've got a point.

Can't say I agree with you at all here. Experience is something that fans and especially media love to overrate but it still means something positive.

And throwing 'I read sports psychology therefore I know more than everyone else' just makes you look like a douche. Just so you know.

[Rapcity_11]

Please explain the sport psychology of Russell Martin (who's been to the playoffs EIGHT times) being afraid...

Russ is a classic example of someone who is a perfectionist. This means he has high expectations on himself and when he's not meeting those then the focus is not on the positive but the negative. Leading to mistakes not typical of that player. He's not "afraid" of a spider or something, he's struggling with expectations in my opinion.

Going to the playoffs 8 times in a team sport means nothing, if this was tennis or golf then you've got a point.

Can't say I agree with you at all here. Experience is something that fans and especially media love to overrate but it still means something positive.

And throwing 'I read sports psychology therefore I know more than everyone else' just makes you look like a douche. Just so you know.

You can go back to TMZ too I guess...

[Raps_Swingman]

Russ is a classic example of someone who is a perfectionist. This means he has high expectations on himself and when he's not meeting those then the focus is not on the positive but the negative. Leading to mistakes not typical of that player. He's not "afraid" of a spider or something, he's struggling with expectations in my opinion.

Going to the playoffs 8 times in a team sport means nothing, if this was tennis or golf then you've got a point.

Can't say I agree with you at all here. Experience is something that fans and especially media love to overrate but it still means something positive.

And throwing 'I read sports psychology therefore I know more than everyone else' just makes you look like a douche. Just so you know.

You can go back to TMZ too I guess...

I just said go do some reading on it. Everyone loves to quote numbers here and pretend these guys are robots. I was merely saying that's not the case. And when others cherry pick statements to make themselves look cool, whose really looking like the douche?

If you have no interest in the subject that's great, but it does exist or teams wouldn't pay millions to hire Sports Psychologists....

[Rapcity_11]

Can't say I agree with you at all here. Experience is something that fans and especially media love to overrate but it still means something positive.

And throwing 'I read sports psychology therefore I know more than everyone else' just makes you look like a douche. Just so you know.

You can go back to TMZ too I guess...

I just said go do some reading on it. Everyone loves to quote numbers here and pretend these guys are robots. I was merely saying that's not the case. And when others cherry pick statements to make themselves look cool, whose really looking like the douche?

If you have no interest in the subject that's great, but it does exist or teams wouldn't pay millions to hire Sports Psychologists....

No, you didn't just say to do some reading on it. You got on your soapbox.

[Raps_Swingman]

You can go back to TMZ too I guess...

I just said go do some reading on it. Everyone loves to quote numbers here and pretend these guys are robots. I was merely saying that's not the case. And when others cherry pick statements to make themselves look cool, whose really looking like the douche?

If you have no interest in the subject that's great, but it does exist or teams wouldn't pay millions to hire Sports Psychologists....

No, you didn't just say to do some reading on it. You got on your soapbox.

Ya I did