Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

How long do you hold a player with a good card when he's seriously under-performing?

I am currently playing in a '90s league. I drafted Rusty Greer to play left field. He's had two injures and, as a result thereof, I confirmed that I do not have the card for his worst season (1995). I can't tell which season I have, however. Greer's cards for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 are solid. He hits .332, .321, .306 and .300, respectively, and his on OBP for each of those years hovers around .400. Through 95 at bats, he's hitting .190 with an OBP of .304. His slugging percentage is a paltry .295. How can he be performing so badly? I know the pitching in a 12 team league will cause players to sometimes hit for a lower average than that achieved by a player in a given year, but this is bordering on ridiculous. I do play in the Astrodome, but his cards are not super ballpark dependent. I'm scared to cut him because there aren't many left fielders that look good and, despite his weak bat, he's a decent fielder.

So, I'd like to know:

1. What's the longest you've stayed with an under-performing player when you know you have a card with a good year?

2. Have you ever had a player perform terribly for a prolonged period of time and then had the player start performing in line with his stats?

Your thought/advise would be greatly appreciated.

stick with him. if you do not have his bad card then stick with him. He will turn it around.

ggrover15 wrote:stick with him. if you do not have his bad card then stick with him. He will turn it around.

I agree 100 percent. Since you know you have a card you like, don't cut him. His card didn't get worse just because he has underperformed.

I would stick with him. Mean reversion more frequently occurs with hitters than pitchers in Strat-land. I've had pitchers have years that nowhere near resemble the carded year!

I'm going to answer this by giving you an example from the opposite end of the spectrum:

I am off to a 5-13 start in a $60 million 70s league. One of the only bright spots has been Phil Garner: .319/.368/.551 through 18 games. Wow, he must be on his best card of 1979, right? Well, in game #18, injury confirms that he is on his worst card, 1975, and I drop him without a 2nd thought, despite the fact that the rest of my team is either slumping or on awful cards.

Granted, you have been very patient with Greer, but if you know that he is not on a bad card (double check, just in case, I know I have made mistakes), you almost have to keep him. There is no bad pairing of player and stadium that would account for that poor of a start: it's just bad luck, whereas I was getting good luck from Garner.

Look at some of the splits, you might get some insight.
For example in the MISC Splits, has he rolled a disproportionate amount on the pitchers card so far?
Has he lost some hits & homers because of ball park effects?

I am in an 80s league right now. I noticed early on that another team had Mattingly injured, I determined that he was on one of his stronger cards. I had Keith Hernandez, when I found out he was on an average card I offered a trade (Hernandez for Mattingly who was hitting .225 through 30 games).
Mattingly has been on a tear for me ever since.

The rest of my team sucks but that is another story.

This is what can happen if you have patience with a player (extreme edition!)...

Check out Dale Murphy's stats at the end of the season.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/810198

Now check out what he did in the postseason

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/te ... son/810198

Howdy,

I tend to be more patient with higher priced position players. FWIW, I play almost exclusively in the 70s-where offense is harder to come by! Many times I've stuck with Pete Rose, who often gets off to a slow start, only to have him finish the season hitting .300 with 30+ doubles, etc.

Another vote to stick with an underperforming card...I had Dale Murphy in a recent league (80s)...after about 150 ABs, Murphy was hitting .195, with no injury reveal...I was getting an itchy trigger finger, but the one outlier stat was he had about 5 triples, which would indicate that it wasn't his bad card (1989, with 0 triples on his card)

I stuck with him, and turned out I had his 84 card, he ended up at .265 with an .850 OPS, and carried my team to the finals (where I got swept)

I hold players with good cards the whole season if I'm sure it's a good card. Of course I drop good cards all the time when I don't know. Just because you don't have Greer's worst year doesn't mean he's a keeper. It depends on what you're looking for in a nearly nearly 6 million $ player. His 98 card is not worth it to me at all and his 99 card is mainly worth it if you are looking for an on base guy. If you're looking for power from a 6 million salary he's not your guy. You need to decide if you can get something better for the price if he doesn't fit the plan you have for the team and if it's worth the risk knowing that the worst he can be is his 98 season. Hold him until game 41 if that hasn't passed. Then decide if there are better options.