I know a made a post about DH/1B yesterday but I am having some trouble with one of my starting pitchers.

Player Profile: Lyle Woods - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports has solid ratings but he is really struggling so far, at 5.00+ era after having few solid years, after 13GS. He is causing to lose tight games, hes 6-6 because of offense bailing him out a lot.

Would you leave him in or sub him for one of these for the time being?

Player Profile: Jade Valentine - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Player Profile: Bruce Simon - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Player Profile: Carmine Shannon - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Quick take:
1. Woods is a better option than any of those other 3
2. His season last year was an anomaly - don't expect that again.
3. The last guy, Shannon, should never be a thought to promote to the majors with his 20 Control.

Ok I will stick with woods, he is just sucking it up right now and I don't know why. Figure by 13 games in he would have it figured out, but hes still rocking 5-6 ERA.

Thanks for advice!

Hoping he can get it down to 4.

I think we have different definitions of solid ratings jaydubz. His 3,4, and 5 pitches demand higher splits. ERA of 5.0 will probably be the norm for that guy.

I'd be more hopeful than brianplath. He looks like he's just a little bit worse than league average to me; at Helena (NL) I think he ought to keep his ERA in the low 4s, presuming you surround him with an average defense and a catcher with solid pitch-calling.

His career average before this season through 4 ML seasons was high 3's, now hes like 4.03 I believe career average in his 5th, was hoping he could stay around 4 because he is improving each year, still a bit to go till he hits projected.

Thanks Dedelman

Posted by jaydubz1515 on 8/28/2016 4:46:00 PM (view original):
His career average before this season through 4 ML seasons was high 3's, now hes like 4.03 I believe career average in his 5th, was hoping he could stay around 4 because he is improving each year, still a bit to go till he hits projected.

Keep in mind over half of his innings have been pitching in SF, which is great pitchers park. I also wouldn't expect more than a couple of point increase over all of his rating, as far as projections go. This guy can be a useful pitcher but I wouldnt count on him.

Posted by jaydubz1515 on 8/28/2016 4:46:00 PM (view original):
His career average before this season through 4 ML seasons was high 3's, now hes like 4.03 I believe career average in his 5th, was hoping he could stay around 4 because he is improving each year, still a bit to go till he hits projected.

It takes a while for new players to understand player development. Don't rely on projections, new players put too much stock into projections and get burned by basing costly trade or FA decisions on them (unless you have $20M in adv. scouting, but that's a waste of money IMO anyway once you understand development patterns). Player development tends to go as follows:

Year signed/drafted - A few point increases per rating
2nd year: Biggest improvement - a given rating could go up as much as 12 points on high end prospects
3rd year: Decline in rate of ratings growth, tends to be around 1/2 of prior season
4th year: Elite studs still making some improvement, most players reach their ceiling in this year
5th year+: A point or two in a few categories if that.
Ratings declines can begin to show up in early 30's for position players, mid 30's for pitchers

That's a very rough rule of thumb and can vary greatly, but that's were I start from when evaluating a player. Older draftees/signees start out with higher ratings so development is reached sooner. Watch a player's growth in their second pro year. That is a good indicator of their ceiling. If a guy's vRH goes up 8 points in their 2nd year, he probably has somewhere close to 8 points left spread over the next few seasons. On the other hand, if it only goes up 3 points, he's already close to his ceiling.

Looks like you gave this guy $5.6M over 4 yrs without letting him reach arb. Without knowing your team's specific situation that seems a bit rash at first glance, especially if you were banking on more growth. Search the forums for more threads on player development, when and what kind of players to sign to long term contracts, etc. Lots of good info out there if you're willing to dig. So many facets of this game to learn, it can be overwhelming at first.

He's not a league average pitcher. Depending on the world, you're looking at 1.3ish WHIP and 4.1ish ERA as average. He's there but, as noted, he pitched in SF. If he stays at league average, good for you. I don't think he will.

But, if your SP5 is around league average, you're doing well. Since you gave him big money, might as well see what you have in him.

Ya he is SP5, I got 3 guys in 3.00 ERA and 1 guy in 2.50 ERA range. He just pitched 8.2 IP with 0 ER, got him back down to 4.61. I think I will just ride him out, ya I did give him some cash. Hes projected 77, I put 18 min into ADV scouting, I might just put that at 0 next season, who knows. Thanks for tips

I've got around 170 seasons. I still make mistakes. Make lemonade out of lemons.