What does that say then about today generation when it was done year after year in the past...
Not sure why you keep bringing up April and May..
You trying to say players dont need or want to play hard everyday cause those games dont matter...
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Just because something was done in the past doesn't make it optimal. We can go on and on about this back Maddon and the cubs front office and at the very least Rizzo all agree here that pushing balls to the wall is counter productive for a team as a whole. The fact of the matter is players are going to get banged up throughout a season. Whether it's legitimate injuries that require DL stints or nagging day to day pains there's simply no reason to go out there and play every day to show how "tough" you are.
As for the April/May thing, it's nothing to do with what the players want. Every player from the MVP caliber Bryant to the 25th guy on your roster goes out there and does their best to win. That's why it's such bullshit when people complain about a playoff contending team losing to a 60-70 win team. Everyone is trying to win. The point is you don't have to go out every night and try to win by 5 runs. A good team can run out there with 80% of their every day starters and still have enough talent to legitimately have a shot to win while preserving themselves for important series/2nd half.
Does that risk getting out to a slow start such as the 2017 cubs have? Sure but have you seen the cubs second half record the past 3 years?
First half
2015 - 47-40(.540)
2016 - 53-35(.602)
2017 - 43-45(.489)
Total - 143-120(.544)
Second half
2015 - 50-25(.667)
2016 - 50-23(.685)
2017 - 48-24(.667)
Total - 148-72(.672)
For the record a .672 win% is a 109 win pace over 162 games. So it's not that they are trying to lose in April/May. You talk about finding that rhythm for players... a team like the dodgers who wrap up in August/early sept will sit their players most of September to give them a break anyways. What's that do to their rhythm? Would you not prefer to space out that rest throughout a season and play harder in the second half headed into the playoffs? And I mean if we're talking about the dodgers, they were 61-29(.678) in the first half and are 41-29(.586) in the second half. I'd certainly prefer to be the team really hot headed into the playoff rather than one that appears to be fading a bit.
I'd have to check the numbers on this but I don't particularly think the team with the best record often does very well well in the playoffs and it's a good bet the reasoning why is they simply faded late in the year pressing too hard too early.