Playing For Pittsburgh Makes Ian Snell Depressed

Add Ian Snell to the list of baseball players struggling with mental issues this season. The good news is that he seems to found a causal link between his crippling depression and playing baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Snell, who had been struggling all season in the majors, actually requested to be sent down to AAA Indianapolis last month and responded by striking out 17 batters in 7 innings in his first game down. He's tearing up minor league hitters now, but has no desire to be called back up because that would require playing more games for a city that he doesn't like and hasn't been too kind to him in return.

"Sometimes people do stupid stuff and I had to fight it, not to do something stupid and take my life for myself and from my family and my parents," Snell told the station.

Ok, that's ... ominous. So a happy Ian Snell is an effective pitcher, but it's pretty much impossible to be happy when you play for the Pirates. Maybe if they demoted the whole team then the Indianapolis Indians could win the NL Central.

Indians' Snell deals with depression [The Indianapolis Star] Related: What Is Wrong With Our Fragile Baseball Players? [Deadspin]