Cardinals: lack of focus and/or desire?

[obucard]

Dan, are you asking if it's getting stale in the clubhouse?

[StL Dan]

Dan, are you asking if it's getting stale in the clubhouse?

No.

But, that's a legitimate question, I suppose. (separate thread topic)

Don't know that I have an opinion about it, though.

[stretch]

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin for light in the darkness of insanity.

I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
Theres one thing I wanna know:
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

[zambonifan]

The bottom line for me is, sure, everyone is entitled to an opinion, and every poster has the right to say what they want, etc etc etc --

but some "opinions" are nothing more than guesses.

and some of those guesses are directly about peoples' character, personality, effort, intensity, and motivation.

We're guessing things -- making them up, essentially, using nothing but what we THINK we see, about people in situations most of us have never experienced, using what we THINK it MIGHT be like, about the personal attributes of people we've never met -- and then we're taking it personally when people call us on making ADMITTEDLY uninformed guesses -- "gut hunches" about people's character!

This is seventh grade home room behavior that has nothing to do with sports. It's the equivalent of creating a rumor -- whether out of ill will or not, the dynamic is the same.

Free speech does not extend to making things up that we do not and cannot know about people we've never met.

I don't consider an opinion as factual, merely just ones personal description of a situation. If everyones posts are to be fact based, this forum would get pretty lonely. I always considered a forum place to share ones opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it.......thats just MY opinion.

[dangerous]

If some people lack intuition or insight and prefer to rely on objective measurements, that is their choice, but that doesn't deny the utility of intuition or insight for those who have it. Why was StLD answered so vehemently on the subject?

[haltz]

We're talking about Major League hitters hitting Major League pitching. If you aren't focusing, you aren't trying.

Is it possible there are different levels of "focus" from player to player?

Nope, for the most part they are all trying/focusing to the best of their abilities. It's in their own rational self-interest to do so.

If some people lack intuition or insight and prefer to rely on objective measurements, that is their choice, but that doesn't deny the utility of intuition or insight for those who have it. Why was StLD answered so vehemently on the subject?

I don't know about vehement, but Dan's insinuation was character-driven, from his couch (or loge reserved, or radio, or however he watches the game) and he would have to have supernatural powers to know something like that. I'm all for saying Aaron Miles isn't a very good Major League baseball player, but I don't like the idea of saying so and so lacks intestinal fortitude, or even more ambiguous, that he does sometimes and not other times. From thread #1:

I'm going to predict that we get a bunch of these "no fire" threads over the course of the season. It's been ten years since we've seen a Cardinal offense as bad as this one likely will be.

[dangerous]

I don't know about vehement, but Dan's insinuation was character-driven, from his couch (or loge reserved, or radio, or however he watches the game) and he would have to have supernatural powers to know something like that. I'm all for saying Aaron Miles isn't a very good Major League baseball player, but I don't like the idea of saying so and so lacks intestinal fortitude, or even more ambiguous, that he does sometimes and not other times.

Questions:
1) Why do people who say it is impossible to judge character, emotion, values of players, judge the character, emotion or values of other posters?
2) If a player appears not very skilled, is it because of lack of talent (eg Miles), lack of work-ethic (eg Juan E), psychologic self-sabotage (the Tigers in the WS) and to what extent could the player improve by working on his weaknesses?

[haltz]

1) Why do people who say it is impossible to judge character, emotion, values of players, judge the character, emotion or values of other posters?

I could go back and read the thread, but I don't know who's judging Dan. Just discussing an opinion which he started a thread to discuss.

2) If a player appears not very skilled, is it because of lack of talent (eg Miles), lack of work-ethic (eg Juan E), psychologic self-sabotage (the Tigers in the WS) and to what extent could the player improve by working on his weaknesses?

It's hard to get, and especially keep, a Major League job without work-ethic or with psychological problems that limit play. We've strayed from the original topic though which was desire/focus.

[I_Bleed_Red]

Even more reason for everyone to lay off Jim. As Mcgee pointed out and Dan and Al talked about was TLR sayed his players weren't ready to play. I think that follows as not focused. Being not prepared to play...

So apparently Danny Sixpack can observe nicely from his couch.

[skmsw]

I saw a remark elsewhere on this thread that perhaps some have an intuition or perceptiveness that they choose to use, and that should not be an issue among those who lack that perceptiveness or choose not to use it.

But that position assumes the premise to be true that those who believe themselves to have this perceptiveness actually have it, and in fact that that kind of perceptiveness can be had at all. Believing you can know the work ethic and psychological profile of someone you've never had any contact with is one step above believing you have ESP.

Lots of people feel like they know celebrities, feel like they can relate to various positive and negative aspects of what we think their experience is. That belief does not make it so.