i know this is something you can't measure but it makes sense. you had 2 starters injured and replaced by pitchers who didn't really pan out and who seemed to clash heads with management at times. you had the second worst player in baseball play nearly every game while others rested and younger players with potential sat on the bench for weeks at a time. i imagine some players resented both washington and young for this. you also had that diva bullshit with hamilton concerning his wife, his movie deal, contract talks, and other weird stuff.

although 93 wins isn't a bad season, they just didn't look like the same team for much of the season.

you had the second worst player in baseball play nearly every game while others rested and younger players with potential sat on the bench for weeks at a time. i imagine some players resented both washington and young for this.

I love this! So this is how it is, huh?!

Before this collapse: you can't bench Michael Young! Michael is a leader, and Wash will lose the clubhouse! We need him in the lineup for CHEMISTRY!!!!!

After the Collapse: You should have benched Michael Young! The players resented Wash for it, and it ruined the CHEMISTRY!!!

Of course, I don't know what wingsofjoy was saying before this, but I absolutely loved this post. Yes, wingsofjoy is right. You can't measure it. You can't identify it. But so many freaking people ASSUME that you need it to win. And that would be an okay hypothesis, if you could identify good team chemistry, and then see if the teams that have it win or not. But people don't do that. They take the teams that win, and they just deduct that they have good chemistry because, you know, YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT TO WIN!!! And its just a giant shit filled circle of "logic."

Young should have been benched. Not because of chemistry. But because he was not the best player Wash had to work with for over 100 games this year. Plain as that.

There might have been something to this, as the last guys to leave the dugout were Gentry and Profar, two guys who were significantly underused in their respective roles this season. I won't touch on Chemistry overall, but I know those are probably two of the most frustrated guys on the team... I have been in their shoes in similar situations, and you get pissed for knowing you could have contributed a whole lot more than other guys that were given the chance and blew it over and over again.

To simply blame Wash and his refusal to bench MY for the collapse is ludicrous. Take the blinders off.

Profra was only around for the September callup. I don't think anyone in the organization planned on him being a full time player.

Playing Gentry full time and having one of Cruz, Hamilton, or Murphy DH instead of Young may or may not have resulted in the same season outcome. There is no way to know that. While Gentry played well in his brief playing time, running him out there full time would over-expose him, allowing the oppsoing teams to learn how to pitch him.

And please don't say Olt should have played more. It seems obvious that he in not quite ready. He struck out in nearly half of his AB's, and ended up with a -.2 WAR. You really think he would have turned the corner and produced more than Young had he been given the playing time? You may, and that is your opinion. But my opinion is that he would have only gotten worse. There is no way to know.

AlanElmore
"While Gentry played well in his brief playing time, running him out there full time would over-expose him, allowing the oppsoing teams to learn how to pitch him."
SERIOUSLY?!?! and they didn't do that to MY? Or maybe they didn't have to because all he was going to do is roll over to SS or second anyway.

"He struck out in nearly half of his AB's, and ended up with a -.2 WAR. You really think he would have turned the corner and produced more than Young had he been given the playing time?"
Well MY had a -1.4 WAR so yes he probably would have been a better option given more playing time.

@Joe C. - We can just agree to disagree. I don't think playing Gentry over Young would have been the right call. And I think had Olt been given the full-time DH/UI role, his WAR would have continued to grow negatively.

The problem Alan is we never found out the answer to that question because MY had to play 156 games this season. The managers job is to put the 9 best players on the field Wash didn't do that. and MY wasn't the only player who should have sat more Cruz for one was really bad for long periods time durring the season but hey lets play him 159 games (I know he played more than MY not sure how many more) when he has never played that much in the 4 yrs since he's been here. How about Hamilton and his 2 month long slump and his addiction to tabacco. Or Kins durring the pop up fest we like to call the summer of 2012. At any point durring this painfully long season Wash could have shook it up sat a guy or 2 down but no these are Vet's who know how to go about their business and we are still in first place by 4,5,6 games lets just give these guys a chance to work thru it
My personal Favorite was when Gentery was hitting 300+ and Murphy got hot so Wash sat Gentry for a month and put Josh back in CF. THAT my firend was GENIUS!! Or how about when MY went on Maternaty leave and got Wally Pipped and the offense went APESHIT and was scoring 8/9 runs a night and MY comes back and they go right back to scoring 2/3. I could go on and on but yea your right lets just agree to disagree.

Sorry Alan, Gentry would have provided more WAR than young with his D alone, even if he regressed at the plate, which we don't know he would have and never will