A Quickie from the Griffbag

Here's the question, sent in by a fan

: "The attitude in this clubhouse is to be happy with any win and to bemoan the injuries as the reason for failure."

Richard, my friend, you are MONEY! I'm relieved that this opinion was finally published by someone covering the team. In many ways the talent is there, but the attitude and intangibles are severely lacking – have been for some time. If I were Ricciardi, I'd try to resolve THAT issue ahead of most others, because as long as this group remains mentally impotent, they will continue to struggle and underachieve as they have this year – and last. Quite frankly, I'm sick of the excuses. Maybe they could use a Hillenbrand-type to stir the drink a little bit, get each other on edge. As individuals, these guys seem to like each other – but maybe that's the problem. Maybe they need someone to light a fire, because the fire just ain't there right now. Pro sports is not a fraternity or book club. Assembling a group of friends is not always conducive to success, as we've seen with our beloved Jays.

Lets review, briefly, some points this fan made.

1) The Blue Jays have talent, but are underachieving due to attitude and intangibles (which, I'm assuming, could have won them 10 extra games to tie them with Boston).
2) J.P. Ricciardi should be trying to solve that issue, as opposed to "other" issues, which I take to mean the actual scoring and preventing of runs.
3) They could use someone like Shea Hillenbrand, so that they would have someone remiding them that "the ship is sinking" whenever they looked at the clubhouse dry-erase board.
4) The problem with the Blue Jays is that they like each other.

OK Richard, tell this fan why he's wrong.

A: There are some keen observations in your question.

Not a good start.

Clearly, it seems every player that is brought into the Jays organization via trade or free agency is thrilled with the clubhouse atmosphere and claims to feel immediately comfortable.

Explain why this is bad. This is not bad.

The hotheads who want to win more than they want to breathe, guys like Shea Hillenbrand and Gregg Zaun find themselves being looked at like two-headed freaks by the comfy denizens of the Dead Wildcard Society.

.....What?

(this is also the first time I've EVER heard of Gregg Zaun being talked about in this way)

Instead of creeping around the clubhouse firing foam darts out of high-powered toy guns and pie-ing each other at the drop of a W and racing in mascot races, these guys should get nasty with the losing, or complacent attitudes and be better than a .500 team – which they definitely have more than enough talent to be.

In this league and division, the Blue Jays have exactly enough talent to be an approximately .500 team.

Personally I blame Aaron Hill.....that guy's having waaaaay too much fun.

I don't buy into the viewpoint that good team chemistry wins games, but this is quite possibly the first time it was argued that having teammates pissed off at each other will help a team win.