Wondering ..

[SF11704]

I've been very quiet this season. Not much to root for nor any thing in particular that gets my full attention. I've read through most of the board just to keep up to date with what's going on and what everyone thinks of 2019 so far. I can clearly see that Tzill isn't too thrilled with the SP. He may be a little over the top ... but when all the dust clears ... he's pretty much 'on spot'. This SP is very difficult to watch/follow/enjoy ... they have been quite horrible of late. Seems we are 4 down before I can even blink!

With that in mind I have a question .... In my younger days (very long ago I might add) I played quite a bit of baseball. Everything from local 'township' ball to low level college ball. I was never great at anything in particular but I could play almost anywhere on the field and wasn't that bad with a bat. The only positions I never played were catcher and pitcher. That brings me to my question ... thought ... whatever ...

Whenever I played on a team that was in some sort of contention for something ... a playoff or a title it always felt as though you were playing for something greater than yourself. There was always some sort of a feeling of 'team'. While you we chasing a playoff position ... a loss was .... never taken easy ... by anyone .... but ... that brings me to the other side of the coin .... if we were a bad team (and you know when you are) ... you tended to play for personal satisfaction and to your own personal goals. As an overall player (played everywhere) ... it was about how I hit and how I fielded that day. It was how I did against my personal goals. Winning was nice but in most cases we knew it wasn't probable. As long as I hit and fielded rather well I would/could be satisfied with the outcome .... but ... as I said before .... I never pitched in a game ...

What the hell does a pitcher go through when they are on a team that doesn't score runs, fields Ok and they have a pretty good chance of losing the game if they give up 3 runs? If I was a pitcher and was using my own personal goals ... there would have to be some rather large goals placed on wins (as a SP) ... not sure how a reliever fares in games that really have no meaning (losing 5-0, 7-3 when called in). I guess holding the other team is the goal ... just not sure to what end though ....what does a closer set for themselves when 'closing' is not something that is needed very often.

I'm really not sure what incentives the SF pitching staff has at this moment in time ...

Then there is Bum .... I love Bum and as a fan appreciate everything he had done for us in the 2012-2014 timeline .... but the Bum today is 5 years removed from what we saw in the 2014 WS .... not really expecting to see that Bum again (maybe flashes every once in a while) ...... Bum is not or future .... but as a fan ..... I'm not sure who is ....

 

[LHG]

Having not played anywhere never collegiate level, my theory about people in general is that everyone has different factors that motivate them. For some, they can get so wrapped up in the horrible outcome that they are sure will happen any given game and not have their head ready to really compete. Could it be possible that some of our starters are thinking that way? Or maybe a key leader in the clubhouse has that mentality and it quickly spreads to all those who he has influence. I don't know. What I do know is that a lot of factors go into whether a player is successful and physical ability is just a part of it.

To your last question, that is why some of us have adamantly said that a full re-build needs to happen. From my perspective, the team is old and just about all of its players have already completed their best seasons. The farm is bare and those who came into 2019 looking promising have mostly either faltered, gotten injured or traded. And that last part is very frustrating. When you've got a light farm, an old team and are just beginning a new FO, why trade off pieces to make a bad team just marginally (if at all) better? Sports' fandom, when you think about it, is a weird thing. We feel an affinity for a sport, then for a region, and affix our loyalty to that region's sports' team. Most of us have done that with the Giants, win or lose. Winning made it easy for other to suddenly hitch their wagons to the same region, whether or not they had any previous affinity for it, but losing makes it hard for those of us who, for whatever strange reason, feel the need to be loyal to something that we really have no relational connection to, outside of other people who also feel that same strange sense of loyalty. So what do we look to for a sense of better days? Well, what did we do in the mid 90s? Or the mid 00s? What did those who were fans in the mid 80s do? I guess the last two would have been, the group of prospects that showed so much talent, but those mid 90s didn't really predict a successful run was imminent. We may not know who will lead the next set of successful teams but it will happen eventually.