The season is still early with a relatively small sample size of 9 starts, but this guy https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerLog.aspx?pid=4835705 now has 7 starts in a row where he has gotten rocked (4 of those against sub .380 teams). Career 4.12 ERA in 9 seasons, is at 7.79 this year in those 9 starts, WHIP .35 higher than average at 1.67. His vRH is lower than ideal at 62 but his other ratings are solid. Defense is in the top half/third of the league. Same park as last year, and the rest of the staff is doing fairly well. No ratings decline yet. Chalk it up to bad luck? Increase call bullpen setting? (at 2 right now) Waive? Release? Demote to rookie ball!?!

Not much consolation, and not much of an answer, but sometimes **** happens and players inexplicably have a bad season now and then. You're dealing with a small sample size of only nine starts, but all you can really do is ride it out and hope his performance starts to move back to "normal".

My best example of "sometimes **** happens" is my Hall of Fame pitcher from Cooperstown, who throw in an absolute stinker of a season right in the middle of his career (season 19):

Season	Fran	Level	G	GS	CG	W	L	SV	SVO	Inn	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	OAV	OBP	SLG	WHIP	ERA
9	MC	ML	6	6	0	4	1	0	0	40.2	33	15	12	4	13	32	.216	.297	.346	1.13	2.66
10	MC	ML	35	35	1	18	12	0	0	219.1	227	108	103	26	71	145	.268	.329	.409	1.36	4.23
11	MC	ML	35	35	5	23	6	0	0	246.1	231	90	83	34	52	173	.247	.290	.384	1.15	3.03
12	MC	ML	34	34	0	15	8	0	0	217.0	210	98	95	31	92	161	.250	.328	.406	1.39	3.94
13	MC	ML	34	34	2	23	6	0	0	235.2	199	73	71	22	59	175	.226	.280	.329	1.09	2.71
14	MC	ML	34	34	0	22	7	0	0	229.0	231	98	97	27	58	140	.261	.311	.401	1.26	3.81
15	MC	ML	35	35	5	19	7	0	0	243.1	198	81	69	32	63	166	.219	.273	.350	1.07	2.55
16	MC	ML	35	35	3	16	10	0	0	243.2	233	107	103	30	61	155	.247	.298	.378	1.21	3.80
17	MC	ML	23	23	3	13	8	0	0	159.0	160	64	62	17	33	118	.263	.303	.400	1.21	3.51
18	MC	ML	35	35	2	13	13	0	0	235.0	226	99	94	32	51	168	.249	.293	.404	1.18	3.60
19	MC	ML	35	35	0	6	19	0	0	211.0	249	138	130	36	73	156	.292	.355	.470	1.53	5.55
20	MC	ML	27	27	2	13	5	0	0	181.2	173	65	63	17	42	128	.249	.295	.378	1.18	3.12
21	MC	ML	27	27	1	11	11	0	0	181.1	168	74	70	25	53	112	.243	.303	.396	1.22	3.47
22	MC	ML	34	34	1	12	10	0	0	203.1	195	93	90	33	53	124	.250	.305	.431	1.22	3.98
23	MC	ML	35	35	0	15	11	0	0	222.1	211	86	85	29	56	151	.247	.300	.398	1.20	3.44
24	MC	ML	33	33	0	10	12	0	0	206.1	177	84	70	21	69	137	.228	.294	.358	1.19	3.05
25	MC	ML	33	33	0	12	11	0	0	186.0	189	88	81	23	56	113	.261	.317	.401	1.32	3.92
26	MC	ML	8	8	0	4	0	0	0	46.1	39	14	11	3	11	37	.227	.293	.291	1.08	2.14
27	MC	ML	33	33	0	15	8	0	0	181.0	165	76	73	16	61	100	.241	.307	.361	1.25	3.63
28	MC	ML	32	32	0	11	7	0	0	165.1	156	71	68	24	50	100	.244	.305	.399	1.25	3.70
Career	Totals	ML	603	603	25	275	172	0	0	3853.2	3670	1622	1530	482	1077	2591	.248	.304	.390	1.23	3.57

Player Profile: The Great Jimmy Powell - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

never has a bad season. But most players do. However, they are not The Great Jimmy Powell.

hmm

Posted by MikeT23 on 2/18/2016 9:34:00 AM (view original):

Player Profile: The Great Jimmy Powell - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

never has a bad season. But most players do. However, they are not The Great Jimmy Powell.

The Great Jimmy Powell is 0-96 lifetime against Mexico City. Or something close to that. So he's had 3 bad seasons, just in a non-traditional sense.

I do hope that when the inevitable torn shoulder occurs to Jimmy, that Tec will let us all know...

Thanks for the input guys. Figured as much, but thought a second pair of eyes couldn't hurt. Post was probably for venting more than anything else. My team started the season off with 14 quality starts in 17 games and now has gone on a 3-12 slump against weaker teams no less. HBD is very much a love/hate relationship.

A guy getting shelled like that sometimes portends an upcoming injury.

Posted by mal247 on 2/18/2016 4:37:00 PM (view original):
A guy getting shelled like that sometimes portends an upcoming injury.

Great, adding injury to insult, haha. Thanks for the heads up mal.

Ummm. Injuries are not in any way correlated with performance when it comes to HBD.

Yeah, I don't think there's any correlation but, when it happens, we remember it and think "Hmmmm.....I wonder????"

That sort of thing would require quite a bit of depth in the programming that I don't think is there.

Martin has brought his ERA down a bit to 5.12 thanks in no part to his last two outings of 5 ER a piece. But the disease is spreading. Chico Pulido and Kirby Blair both with ~4.00 ERA's last year have 6+ ERA's this year.

Everyone seems to be giving up a lot more HR

WHIP and AVG are pretty much what he has been normally throwing not counting that one outlier season (season 31). Slugging is up about .40 points but that's about all.
https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerStats.aspx?pid=5662605

Is having a rough year where his ERA is up but everything else is normal as well. It happens.