Comments on: Baseball Is Ninety Percent Mental

By: L.J. Phipps

L.J. Phipps — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 09:01:43 +0000

Well the Mets make me 100% exhausted!

By: Joey D.

Joey D. — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 03:33:55 +0000

Steve Blass comes to my mind. A very good and sometimes overpowering pitcher for seven seasons he literally fell apart all at once and was out of baseball after his eighth.

There have been theories but to my knowledge no substantive answer as to what causes this sudden and complete lack of confidence in an athlete so successful but its occurrence, however, has since been coined “Steve Blass Disease”.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/blassst01.shtml

By: hotstreak

hotstreak — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 02:14:13 +0000

A yogism modified fort this ownership:

“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is fiscal.”

By: SaltyGary

SaltyGary — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:18:52 +0000

Yea it’s called HIV

By: Metsie

Metsie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:01:22 +0000

I saw that episode and they did sort of miss some of the aspects of advantage that the corked bat provides which are Three fold…

1 – By making the bat lighter it increases bat speed. The bat itself doesn’t add anything by itself but it adds to the player wielding it. If I remember correctly they completely ignored that aspect of it in thier busting….

2 – By corking a bat you can use a bigger bat with bigger barrel and gain more bat to make contact with yet swing it like a much lighter bat and maintain that Bat speed which is so important.

3 – By decreasing the Mass you make the bat easier to control and manipulate during a swing making adjusting to a pitch much easier to do.

None of those aspects were tested in thier experiments.

Which is why the MLB results reflect differently from theirs.

And there may also be an added mental component to all of this where the fact you THINK you have an edge that may or may not really exist is an edge unto itself!

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:53:02 +0000

When I was younger around 14-15 I worked in a local Hallmark card store and we had several gifts and keepsakes too including books. I will never forget the day my manager came up to me and asked me to price this small display of books to put on the counter by the register. Anyway it was a small yellow book with all these “Yogi-isms”. Now I must admit, I loved baseball and the Mets back then but I knew hardly anything about Yogi yet. I went through that book and I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the night. I’ll never forget that. I didnt even learn until later that night when I told my dad, that he even managed the Mets. LMAO I love Yogi now.

By: Jesus Guzman

Jesus Guzman — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:52:48 +0000

I agree completely with this, reminds me of the corked bat theory. Mythbusters proved that a corked bat will actually hinder your performance but players would sometimes hit better with them (I’d love if someone could check on this. I’m having trouble finding the stats of players while they used corked bats) due to the fact they believed they would. They felt more positive about being able to drive the ball and in fact did so.

In regards to Bay, this article written before the season started shows that Bay is too hard on himself. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/big-apple-struggles-ny-mets-slugger-jason-bay-sees-brighter-days-article-1.1020983

He thought too much, put too much pressure on himself and makes himself feel like complete crap. He overthinks, but when he isn’t he produces. This article gave me hope for Bay going into the season along with the walls being brought in but now, I don’t know what to say. He’s lost, and probably shaming himself right now. I think he really needs to sit down with someone and clear his head and tell him “Fuck it, don’t think, just do”.

By: Mr North Jersey

Mr North Jersey — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:33:13 +0000

Baerga, Wow! Now there is a name I haven’t heard in quite some time. Used to love watching him beat up on Yankee pitching. I remember one game where the Indians batted around in one inning and he hit homers from both sides of the plate.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:21:00 +0000

LOL Are you suggesting there is a Jeff Kent Curse?

By: Metsie

Metsie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:19:53 +0000

Yes but then again Alomar was also a sure HOFer by then and that was never in the cards for Bay even if he had maintained his past performance another 4 years….

By: Mitch Petanick

Mitch Petanick — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:15:57 +0000

Maybe the Mets are jinxed at second base?

By: hotstreak

hotstreak — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:13:41 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re2AF3OReOY

By: Joe D

Joe D — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:06:50 +0000

Carlos Baerga fell off the map when he joined Mets at ripe old age of 28.

By: Mitch Petanick

Mitch Petanick — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:03:08 +0000

That’s a good one…but he was 34 by the time he got to the Mets…Jason Bay is 34 right now

By: Metsie

Metsie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:56:51 +0000

How about Roberto Alomar in 2002-2004?

Another guy who once he got here was never the same player he was before we got him.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:54:07 +0000

I agree 100% here Mitch….

And I believe those Fences got in his head and he tried so hard to compensate and completly lost the swing that got him that contract.

And I know you have disagreed with me on this in the past but the Batter/Pitcher Matchup also has a very high mental strategy component as well.

Each tries to get inside the head of the other and get them to do what they want.

Which also goes to why I don’t like this “APPROACH” we keep hearing about because it seems to want to apply a one size fits all to pitchers it won’t really work all that well with.

If you tell guys to go up to the plate and WAIT for something they will WAIT by default…

That is also a product of the mental state.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:46:56 +0000

Not an attempt to say Bay didn’t decline here at all…
But in regard to those counting stats you listed, It should be noted he missed a lot of time on the DL during those years.

By: Mitch Petanick

Mitch Petanick — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:36:51 +0000

Not off the top of my head

By: Mr North Jersey

Mr North Jersey — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:34:39 +0000

Hey Mitch, can you think of any other player over the last 25 years to have such a drastic drop in performance not due to injury (which based on this post I don’t believe you do) or steroids?

Jason Bay 3 Yr Avg 2007-2009: .267/BA, .362/OBP, .493/SLG, 32/HR, 110/RBI, 105/R

Jason Bay 3 Yr Avg 2010-2012: .234/BA, .318/OBP, .369/SLG, 15/HR, 70/RBI, 73/R