As I’ve discussed with several friends on multiple occasions everyone that reaches the ML has supreme talent and I’ll never diminish what it takes to get there. There are numerous reasons (excuses) as to why some guys achieve greater success than others. What often separates players is their mental toughness and their ability to adjust, readjust and outfox their opponents. There are just some guys that can’t handle failure as well as others and baseball is about failure. The better hitters are only successful 30% of the time.

It’s really painful to watch a favorite team play lousy baseball. What’s uglier is watching your team play lifeless baseball. Fans and the media debate whose job it is to get teams out of prolonged funks. What is the manager’s role? Are team leaders held responsible? Are player-only meetings good or bad? Should a manger “correct” players in the media? Can teams afford to send slumping players to the minors? Can certain teams afford to not send bad actors to the minors?

I’d argue that a team’s psyche is broken when it receives a spark from a guy who was hitting .188 in AAA, has a career batting average of .239 and previously hit .220 for that team. Legitimate sparks are guys coming off serious injury or ailment like cancer, have saved kids from a burning building or tsunami. Lacking the aforementioned offensive threat shouldn’t be an impediment to winning.

Not every clubhouse/roster is created equally, but professionals shouldn’t wallow in excuses. Fans and critical media won’t stand for it.