I have seen players perform above and below their expected ratings. We all have. Nothing new there. When this happens ... it's natural to look for a cause. I am on my cell typing.. so I am not in a place to illustrate specific examples, but here are some "causes" I consider when I witness unusual performances.

Giving an SP a shot at SP1.
Extending a contract
Assigning a player to his most natural fielding position

Without evidence and proof, its easy to dismiss... but i am going to guess other owners out there have had similar thoughts. It's hard to ignore when performance changes dramatically... even if just for 15 or 20 games... For those of you who consider intangibles... are there any causes you would add to my short list above?

Oh.... and the effect i consider when finding a players true fielding position is offensive.

1,  SP at SP1:   Don't think so.  I move my guys around so that my best pitcher is pitching again as quickly as possible.    That rotates them between all 5 slots.
2.  Extending a contract:   Most of us mention the guy getting the LT deal and stinking or playing well when he's in a "contract year".   I think we just notice a player underperforming when we expect more based on the recent events.
3.  Assigning a player to his most natural fielding position:  I'm not sure what you mean.   If he's in the bigs, he should probably be at the correct position.

He probably means, for example, moving a SS to 2B because you have a better SS.  Like if you moved Jeter to 2B, he would have cried and maybe played worse offensively.

The short answer is no, there are no "intangibles" in that way you're asking.

Streaks happen, that's all there is to it. One pattern I've noticed is an uptick in streaking during frosh week. There's definitely something to that.

Anyone else noticed players doing a good season then bad season then good season then bad season then good etc.?  Not all players do this but I have seen it enough times with big enough good-bad differences to make me wonder about it. 

Posted by MikeT23 on 9/5/2014 3:20:00 PM (view original):
1,  SP at SP1:   Don't think so.  I move my guys around so that my best pitcher is pitching again as quickly as possible.    That rotates them between all 5 slots.
2.  Extending a contract:   Most of us mention the guy getting the LT deal and stinking or playing well when he's in a "contract year".   I think we just notice a player underperforming when we expect more based on the recent events.
3.  Assigning a player to his most natural fielding position:  I'm not sure what you mean.   If he's in the bigs, he should probably be at the correct position.

The SP1 perceived effect is noticeable if my move is based on 'demoting" a player from that spot.   The new SP1 has, on a few occassions, performed much better from SP1 than whatever spot i had him in.   Coincidence?  Most likely..  Noteworthy?  Sure.. why not.  

The natural position comment has to do with removing a player from a position where he appears to be forced into playing.   For example (as the other poster mentioned)  a true 2bman playing SS for a lengthy period of time and then, when he is allowed to go back to his more natural fielding position, in this case 2b... his offensive production seems to flourish.   Perhaps players are created with a natural position attached to their profile (that owners cannot see).   And if this is true, perhaps playing a player in his natural fielding position results in a bonus multiplier.  Fractional...  i don't know.  

Posted by dyoungquist on 9/6/2014 11:04:00 AM (view original):
Anyone else noticed players doing a good season then bad season then good season then bad season then good etc.?  Not all players do this but I have seen it enough times with big enough good-bad differences to make me wonder about it. 

Totally this i suspect might even be coded in the game.

I believe there nothing like this coded in the game.

What about makeup affecting performance?  Higher ratings, more consistency?

The game developers will tell you that there are no hidden ratings, and only the skill and physical ratings affect performance.

140 seasons of experience will tell you the same thing.

Posted by dyoungquist on 9/6/2014 11:04:00 AM (view original):
Anyone else noticed players doing a good season then bad season then good season then bad season then good etc.?  Not all players do this but I have seen it enough times with big enough good-bad differences to make me wonder about it. 

No different than in actual baseball. No player is going to out up the same numbers every season. There's no need to program this into the game; you'd get the same result with random chance. If you flip a coin, there's a 50% chance of getting tails. And if you flip the coin 500 times, you'll probably get close to 50% tails. But there will be streaks. You'll probably have at least one streak where you get tails 8-10 times in a row, for example.

Likewise, if you have a guy who is a career .300 hitter, he's not going to hit between .290 and .310 every year. He'll have some years of .275 and some of .320. Maybe even a few more extreme than that. This has nothing to do with any programming quirk. It's just Statistics 101.

So makeup has no effect on performance, it is related only to injuries?

Improvement and decline are also affected by make-up.