Monday, September 29, 2008

Birds of a feather?

What is it with thirdbasemen playing for the two NY teams (from Buster Olney's blog)? You could do an old edit/replace with "ARod" and "Wright" and have no difference in the message. (emphasis mine)

So there might be one tangible thing the Mets need to fix: They need to get David Wright … well, right. They need to help him work through his apparent anxiety in high-pressure situations. Big-picture: The Mets didn't make the playoffs because of their bullpen failures, as Jack Curry writes, but over the weekend, they mustered a total of five runs, and Wright had a whole lot to do with that. He cares so deeply that he puts enormous pressure on himself, and this trait seems to wreck him in big spots. He seems to leap at the ball when he's trying to hit with the game on the line. They need to address this.

I don't know how they do it. Maybe they get Wright to start talking to a sports psychologist, someone who might get the kind of help that has aided John Smoltz and Matt Garza and others. Wright is a cornerstone player who will be an MVP candidate in most years of his career, so the notion of trading him is silly. But they have to help him find a way to
relax -- and if the team's best player relaxes, this will, in turn, take pressure off the rest of the team.
Sounds familar, Yanks fans, doesn't it?

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