The Effect of Chemistry in MLB and the Yuniesky Betancourt Exception

People talk about how chemistry solves problems.  As an undergrad, I learned that if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re a colloid.  But on a MLB team maybe that just means you’re Yuniesky Betancourt.

The players at the top level of baseball provide a variety of personalities, but nearly all of them have in common that they are driven for success. They have proven themselves over and over again at many levels and in so doing have steeled themselves against negativity from the press, teammates and opponents. To believe that a disagreeable personality would derail someone of such focus and desire is ludicrous. In fact, as it does with the UPS executives, it makes sense that when you put 25 such people in a room together that the collective will of so many top notch people will cause sparks to fly on a rather regular basis. These moments are exactly what a manager is hired to handle. A good manager will recognize that the rough spots are a product of proper motivation and will create lines of communication that allow for players to be honest while not killing their desire.

There is also a reason that Major League managers are not hired from the pool of high school or college coaches. The reason is that they need to be able to relate to the drive to be the best. They need to understand the dedication and sacrifice that it took for each player to get where they are at. If he does not have that ability and drive himself he will not be able to do his job effectively.

In conclusion, what I am hoping people will begin to grasp is that unless you are someone driven to be the best at something then you cannot relate your own personal experiences to what happens in a Major League clubhouse. They do not align. Sure good chemistry makes the small courier operation better, but that is not analogous to what happens at the highest level of competition. Good chemistry at the highest level is more a matter of proficiency rather than camaraderie.

Yuni excerpts after the jump.

In conclusion, what I am hoping people will begin to grasp is that unless you are someone driven to be the best at something then you cannot relate your own personal experiences to what happens in a Major League clubhouse. They do not align. Sure good chemistry makes the small courier operation better, but that is not analogous to what happens at the highest level of competition. Good chemistry at the highest level is more a matter of proficiency rather than camaraderie.

Before I finish I feel I need to touch on the fact that there are exceptions to every rule and there are here also. I will use Yuniesky Betancourt as an example because I am very convinced that his presence on the Mariners in recent years has clouded this issue for the media and fans.

Yuniesky Betancourt played just over 100 games in the minor leagues. That is not very many. So why did he make it to the Major Leagues so fast? Talent and gobs of it. This guy is blessed with talents that we all wish we had and that scouts drool over. The problem is that he did not have the drive to succeed. He merely wanted to ride along on his natural ability and have some fun. On occasion people like this get a crack at running with the big dogs but they almost always flame out the way Betancourt did. This is because when everyone else on the team was working to hone their skills he would be sitting in the clubhouse resting on his laurels. Make no mistake about it, he is and always will be the poster child for wasted opportunity. In fact his refusal to push himself higher is a major reason this team failed in recent years.

This was labeled as a chemistry issue by far too many people. However, it was not an issue of the team having bad chemistry, but rather an issue of the team filling a rather important roster spot with someone who did not have the makeup to be successful. By removing him from the roster the team improves because he is replaced by someone with the proper motivations. The team does not improve because everyone is chummy and buddy buddy. It improves because you now have a team that will come to the park each day and actually work to be the best at what they do.

It is time for all of us to stop assuming that the feel good experiences of our youth baseball teams can be equated to what baseball players do at the highest level. It is also time for us to stop listening to the words of young men in their 20’s that have spent their whole lives focused on the one goal of being on a Major League roster. Often times they are so focused that they do not even know why they are doing things correctly. By the same token they may not get why Yuniesky Betancourt will be out of baseball completely in short order. It is not their job to understand all of those layers. It is only their job to be the best they can be.