I have lurked for a couple of years, but this topic piqued my interest. I coached a high school team for a couple of years here in FL. I have multiple guys playing in the pros and countless playing in college at the D1 level. I think as baseball fans, we tend to second guess almost every move the players/ coaches make. This is the nature of the game. There are things that are given “rules” of the game, but then there are things that are out of our control.
Example- last night all we needed was a fly ball in one situation, and we grounded into a double play. As a critic, I would say WTF was that guy thinking?!?! But as an ex player/head coach, I understand that maybe the pitcher made the pitch he needed to make, and we just got bested in that situation.
I seem to fall right in the middle. There are things that I would do differently than DiMare, but there are also things that I know are just part of the game. I was never “negative” towards my guys, I would say I was tough on them and expected mistakes, but not mental mistakes. We can all jump on dumb mental mistakes, but errors and execution by opposing teams is tough to pile on for…just my two cents