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There is an intangible that Omar Minaya has to take into consideration this offseason: Team chemistry.
The 2008 Rays had it. The Red Sox of recent years had it. In fact, any great dynasty, such as the Yankees, Chicago Bulls, or Dallas Cowboys had it. Good team chemistry is the difference between being a great team on paper, and being a great team on the field.
In 1986, there was in-fighting between Keith and Darryl, but they shared a common vision…to win. Every player knew their role, and performed it to the best of their ability in order to win despite any differences they may have had.
When they were on the field, they were one cohesive unit and it showed. They didn’t need to be friends; they just needed an equal desire to win a championship.
A team’s ability to stick together, have each others’ backs, and fight to win during pressure-filled situations and losing streaks is what makes a championship team. They aren’t affected by the media or the fans as they strive unwaveringly towards their common goal.
The Mets need to acquire players with a ‘winner’s mentality’ to supplement David Wright. Lenny Dykstra was an example of a win-at-all-costs type of player that they need. Cliff Floyd also had a ‘winner’s mentality,’ and was a positive clubhouse presence that contributed to team solidarity. It’s about more than talent alone.
The Mets showed heart in many of their games this year, such as on September 25 when Ryan Church’s nifty slide and Carlos Beltran’s walkoff hit won them a game against the Cubs. But there were just as many games where they seemed distracted, as if they weren’t playing together with any true sense of purpose.
Obviously pitching is the team’s greatest need, but as Minaya considers new additions this winter, he needs to be conscious of chemistry so the team can finally get to where it needs to be.
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too bad players don’t come with ingredient labels, so you can know empirically who’ll work best with whom. One of the reasons I love sports is that mystery ingredient, and how you never really know what you’re cooking up until it either rises or falls…and when you get it right, it’s sort of a miracle.
Here’s to hoping omar finds the right ingredients…
“too bad players don’t come with ingredient labels, so you can know empirically who’ll work best with whom.”
Which is why you should chase stats and not chemistry. when chemistry happens, great, but there’s no way to know.
totally agree
I think Cliff Floyd should come back and play the same roll he played with Tamps Bay. … Pinch Hitter/PT Outfielder. Basically another Endy Chavez. I love Uncle Cliff and think his leadership is missed badly in that clubhouse! Id rather have him then Marlon Anderson, Damion Easley or a third Catcher
I think chemistry is what the Phillies had - that fighting spirit and belief that no deficit was too great. I was in Philadelphia when the Mets had a 10-0 lead. At Shea, there would have been deafening quiet. In Phillie they screamed with every 3-1 count. They came back and made it 10-9. All of us Mets fans covered our eyes. Later on, that game allowed them to overcome the 7-0 deficit in late August. The fact is they believed abd backed up each other - led by that Victorino fellow. Remeber the ‘86 Mets had fight. This team, when faced with a blusteirng Marlins team that basically said they would ruin the Mets’ season (twice), allowed them to do so instead of shoving those comments up their (bleep). That’s the mark of a team that doesn’t have chemistry. So I think chemistry - translated to will to win - and coming through for each other - is very important.
They also had this: REALLY good players. And not many bad players. Or hell, even more than moderately below average players.
More importantly, how do you KNOW when chemistry happens? Its easy to say the Rays had “chemistry” because they went to the World Series. Name a team with Great Chemistry that finished below .500. Or a team with no Chemistry that won it all. Its a self-serving label that really makes no sense.
Very true. Winning makes people happy. Happy people looks like good chemistry.
The other thing is, the same group of people can have “good chemistry” at one moment and not so good at another. Ever go out with a group of friends and have such a great time that it just felt like it was the perfect mix of people, and then try to replicate that and have an evening fall flat? That’s chemistry too. It’s there once and nobody can tell why, then it’s gone and nobody can tell why.
Or maybe the team could grow some balls, stick up for each other, and get into a fight when its deserving.
hmm…sounds like the 86 mets, the 2008 rays, the cowboys of the 90’s, the red sox of 2004…hmm interesting.
Good point.
It’s really quite sad when people who make over half a million a year to play baseball can’t find a way to get that “winning” mentality.
This mentality is the reason why David Eckstein is still someone’s shortstop.
You’re trying to say that players in the major leagues do not want to perform well and help their teams win? What are you saying?
The phrase “winning mentality” means nothing. David Eckstein was a member of 2 World Series winning clubs. This doesn’t not mean he has some unquantifiable trait which makes teams win just because of his presence.
This is all nonsensical.
James, you should have checked your English-to-Sarcasm dictionary.
Ahh OK, my bad. I’m usually pretty good at picking up sarcasm. I thought your comment was plausibly serious, given most of the comments I see on this blog…
Very well written; I concur with the thrust of your arguement, 100%
My goodness this is such irresponsible baloney.
Met fans will read this and think there’s something to it. The 2007 Rays were essentially the same exact roster as the 2008 Rays… where was the success from chemistry???
Reading this makes me angry.
agreed
THEY DIDN”T HAVE EVAN LONGORIA SO HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU’RE WRONG!!!!
Wait, it doesn’t matter the roster. You’re still right.
Ummm
they added chad bradford….troy percival…which helped out their pen as it was one of the worst in 07
they added Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria at 3B….they added jason barlett at SS …got rid of jorge cantu…moved Iwamura to 2B…
thats 3/4 of your infield changed…
they got rid of elijah dukes and delmon young who were both head cases…they add Cliff Floyd who was said to be a great influence in the clubhouse
I think you can make the case that the 2007 Rays and 2008 Rays were just “slightly” different
lol
I hear LoDuca knew some stuff about chemestry
“Chemistry” is a lot like “grittiness”, “clutchiness”, and “being a winner”. No such thing. Teams that win have great chemistry, like the 72-74 A’s (hated each other), the 1976-81 Yankees (mostly hated each other) and the 86 Mets (largely hated each other). Teams that lose have “no chemistry”, a la the BoSox of the early ’90’s (”25 men, 25 cabs”.) Teams have won loving each other (1979 Pirates) and lost that way, and vice-versa. It’s all done on the field, not in the clubhouse. Unlike football or basketball, baseball is largely a game of individual confontations–pitcher vs. batter. Other than being ready to play when the game starts, and a few skills such as the DP combination, the rest is all a myth.
did you ever play?
you sound confused to me.
i played at a high level, and i agree with him. chemistry is BS in baseball.
Amen.
But apparently you need to have played baseball to understand that people can achieve things while hating each others guts.
chemistry is just a word trying to quantify the unquantifiable…it’s not necessarily “like” or “hate”. I’d absolutely argue that certain ineffable factors exist in the daily dynamic, and these factors affect the performance of players individually and as a group. Of course I can’t prove it, but I’ve certainly worked in groups that performed differently based on intagibles. Maybe this guy drives that guy nuts, but also brings out an extra gear that makes him go just a bit harder.
Like Tidewater says above, it’s folly to chase guys based on that stuff vs. identifiable and measurable skill, but that doesn’t mean those other things don’t exist. We just don’t know how to measure and knw them.
Chemistry is way overrated, especially in baseball which is more of an individual sport. It’s simple, the Mets need to take the fact that they are hated around the league, and turn it into an “Us Against the World” mentality. This will take care of the chemistry issue. We also need to supplement our core with good role players. Oh yeah, we should probably fix that bullpen too.
i rather have pitching.. PITCHING WINS!!!!!!!!
you are correct on the teams needs, but not correct on how they need to supplement Wright, the only guy who was CLUTCH on this team this year was Santana (and Delgado for a month, too bad not the last 3 weeks of Sept.)
Winning=Chemistry That simple
David Wright is too Hollywood, he’s part of the problem.
David couldnt get a hit after the 3rd inning all year, Why is he the one with the “winners mentality”…when you talk about “winners mentatility” what you mean is CLUTCH, and Wright didnt have a clutch hit the 2nd half, in fact he had most of the un-clutch at bats for this team as I’m sure you can all recall the exact dates and games even, they were that highlighted.
you are correct on the teams needs, but not correct on how they need to supplement Wright, the only guy who was CLUTCH on this team this year was Santana (and Delgado for a month, too bad not the last 3 weeks of Sept.)
by the way I could not get that post to come up 11 times and had to take out 2 words to get it on there on of those words was FREE
what was the other?!?
part of the spam protection. FR EE cia lis, etc..
the other word was P A-ss
what is offensive about those 2 words put together?!?!?!?! explanation is needed. or just the latter, is it that a bad word are the last 3 letters of a normal word????
Sorry to disagree with you Regis, but David Wright does not have a winning attitude. I don;t know why fans , the media , and ownership is ready to ordain him captain of this team. Stop forcing the issue. He is NOT captain material. He is not a leader in the clubhouse, or on the field. When ever the media speaks to him, he always says the politically correct things. Sometimes I wished he showed more emotion calling out publicly whats wrong with this team. They already have leadership in the 2 Carlos’s. Good or bad that’s the fact. David Wright is not nor will he ever be the leader of this Mets team. He is a superstar, and a great player, but he will always be a role player. Sorry
I agree he has not shown that leadership at all and I am sick of pleyers and media making out like he is when he is not.
So you’ve visited the clubhouse, and can confirm this? Oh wait, you’re just “speculating” or “talking out of your….”
Oh, and chemistry is completely overrated.
Sylar im not speculating anything David Wirght is not a leader at all. It is far from his team. Delgado, Beltran, Santana just to name a few have a much bigger influence over the players on this team then Wright. If you don’t see that then well there is something wrong with you.
I agree that chemistry is completely overrated. If a team is winning and playing good it’s oh they have good chemistry and if a team is losing people say they don’t have good chemistry. It means nothing.
But at the same time leaders get other players on there team pointing in the right direction and there play inspires others around them like Delgado’s play inspired the Mets for 2 months. David Wright does not do that.
This is truly unbelievable.
David Wright has one moderately bad clutch year–and is still responsible for 5 wins despite his lessened degree of production in the clutch–and a good portion of his fan base is idiotically claiming that he is “not a winning player”; and some are so disconnected from reality that they are saying that one of the 10 most valuable players in the game–and the rightful MVP of 2007–is a “role player”.
He’s not even 26 yet, and he does all he can to win, and people turn on him this way and buy into these ridiculous slanders and pin him with these bogus reputations.
(Hey, here’s some clutch players: Evan Longoria, who got what, one or two hits in the world series? As did “MVP” Jimmy Rollins? I wonder if the Ray’s fans contingent of idiots is as large as the Mets fans. If the Rays fans continue to be supportive of Longoria and realize that he had a poorly timed slump, and that he carried them in the early rounds, I might drop the Mets and follow the Rays, whose fans deserve them.
The sad part is that if the Mets get rid of Wright and Reyes and lose for a generation, I would not even have the pleasure of seeing these fools–among whom I count Regis Courtemanche–have to eat their words. They will learn nothing, and will continue to do their best to drive their best players out of town and ensure a continuing legacy of futility from their team.
I would think players and media know more about leadership and who displays it and who doesn’t than fans.
I don’t see how a fan can label either of the Carloses leaders and say Wright isn’t one.
matt, take care of this how can this word not be allowed on this site:
P-A-S-S
How is Cliff Floyd on that list? Just because he was close with Wright? Don’t get it at all. What has Floyd shown in his career to be a win at all cost player?
I liked Cliff but come on why is he always brought up on this site as a player who was this great win at all cost, gritty type guy?
I know he was well liked but lots of players are well liked does not make them win at all costs players
So in the games the mets won, they had chemistry? And in the games they lost, they didn’t have chemistry?
Just because Wright was squeezing the bat a little too hard late in games this year doesn’t make him a bad leader, or a bad chemistry guy, or a bad anything.
I just don’t get what has Wright done to show he is a leader? He talks to the media more maybe then some of the other players that is it. Just because he is the face of the franchise meaning the Mets market around him and what not does not mean he is a leader. He has not shown he is a leader.
I don’t see how he’s shown himself not to be a leader. I don’t play for the mets. I don’t know who people look up to on the team for leadership. I don’t know if that person even exists. I’m just saying I don’t think it matters.
Who was the Rays leader? They had a pretty nice little year because their pitching was nasty. end of story
Who gives a flying F if Wright shows leadership or not? As long as he hits .300/.400/.500 with 30+ homers and plays great defense ON THE FIELD, he can do whatever he wants.
This is so annoying.
guys would you trade murphy for Bobby Jenks? he is available….