if you’re up by ten or down by ten, it’s important to make quiet outs, and save production for more important situations

No, no, no, no. You don’t give up when you’re down by ten. But you can’t get all ten runs back with one swing of the bat – that’s Sexson’s problem, swingin’ for the fences down by ten. In that situation, you have to work extra hard on doing the little things right, like bunting the runner over to second, so that you can scrap back into the game a bit at a time.

This was Sexson’s big problem last season. He would come to bat in clutch situations, only to realize that he had used up his allotment of hits and RBIs for the week. They had been squandered for personal glory in blowout games. What a jerk.

Indeed. He’s getting all the hits out of his system before the season begins…