Trust is a powerful emotion. Over at Hardball Times I looked at which relievers gained or lost the most trust in a single year since 1974:
For a relief pitcher, perhaps the biggest form of trust in baseball is simply being allowed to play, because your manager controls whether and when you enter the game. So you start to notice things: Do you get called on when the game’s on the line and there are runners in scoring position? Or do you get called on in the sixth inning when your team is up by seven runs? Either way, you start to develop an understanding of how much your manager trusts you.
Photo by Keith Allison.