There’s a nasty bit of conventional wisdom in the baseball industry that players are never better than when they’re hungry. I am, admittedly, condensing down all the years of conversations I’ve sat in on and just plain listened to on sports talk channels (including the league’s own MLB Network Radio), to a very simple conceit, but I think it has that sting of truth in it that lends the idea some weight.
Players play their best when there’s a contract on the line.
Jump over to the Giants now and we find a host of players who are well fed and a three-year run of amateur-level professional baseball, though not strictly from those high-priced vets.