Procedural question: what represents “trying” anyway? When guys swing at a peetch so far out of the strike zone that it looks like it’s on its way to visit its sick mother across the road in the hospital district, is they “trying” to hit the ball or are they not trying to get their undisciplined asses on base? Some of this, you see, is semantic. When a guy tries to score from second on a single to short left and gets thrown out at the plate like a sheet of wallboard by a nailgun, is he really trying to score or is he not bothering to pay attention to his coach or the seetuation on the field? Teams that play as deficient a brand of fundamental baseball as the Feesh don’t look like they’re “trying” to win simply because they don’t look like they’re “trying” to keep their heads in the game. How they behave during any one play matters less than the impression they create that they’re not “trying” to play well by doing so many little things badly.

What an unabashed idiot.