Soriano joins 40/40 club

[crockpot]

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crockpot,

Do you realize how many people play baseball? More than you actually know, so out of all of these people there are going to be a ton that play like [censored] when they are happy but it isn't because they are happy obviously. The point is is that you give yourself the best opportunity to succeed when you are happy than when you are miserable, this is a fact.

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i'm not going to argue this point with you, because it's a subjective thing and i can't prove anything. what i can show is that throughout recent history (when baseball contracts exploded), players in contract years do not perform better as a whole. for every adrian beltre, there is a mark mulder. (actually, several mark mulders are needed to even out beltre, but there are many more bad baseball players than good ones.)

also, while it might be true that happy players inherently play better than unhappy ones, this effect is confounded by the fact that successful players, or those on successful teams, will naturally be happier, as a result of this, than others who are not doing so hot. this is similar to the idea that clubhouse chemistry causes teams to win, rather than vice versa, or that running the ball 40 times is the key to winning a football game, rather than a result of getting a big early lead.