I have 49 seasons under my belt, but have to say I'm in disbelief on the performance of one of my teams.  So far this year they are:
5-22 in a year I expected to contend.  We've scored 84 runs (easily last in league) and given up 149 (5th worse in league).

Certainly it's not the largest of sample sizes, but that said I don't think we should be as bad as we are.  In addition, the team I believe underperformed last year as well.  I'm posting because I don't know what to say except the team seems jinxed and cannot win.  I feel its a better team then many of the other teams I have, but they don't seem to win.  Despite putting in every effort I can, I'm not even sure they will meet the league minimum of 55 wins this year.

I'm sure some will say I'm not the greatest owner, but I am over .500 across all teams all time.  If it wasn't for this one team my record would be much better as I'm .525 if you take out this one team's history.

Now, every team has some weaknesses.  I see this team's weaknesses are mainly below-average defense at some key spots and power.  My strength is my starting rotation and L/R splits.  When I look at franchise rankings for current ratings in the AL, my team is:
Starting Lineup
#1 in American League for vsL hitting
#1 in vsR hitting
#6 in contact (68 average and the league leading team is 74)
#1 in baserunning
2nd to last in power (49 average vs 70 league leader)
13th in eye (58 vs 76 league leader)

Rotation
#2 in Stamina (83 vs 87 league leader)
#10 in control (81 vs 90 league leader)
#1 in vsL
#3 in vsR (77 vs 83 league leader)
#4 in velocity (66 vs 79 leader)
#3 in GB/FB (73 vs 83)

My starting rotation has these 5 guys, all very young players, but all with solid to great ratings:
Dur/Stam/Control    vsL/vs R   Vel/GB   1/2/3/4/5
27/78/77    78/82    50/55    79/69/50/63/62
31/85/79    84/71    78/83    74/78/61
32/78/81    78/95    85/67    75/71/55/64
30/98/86    82/75    23/80    85/66/73/69
34/78/83    68/66    94/80    84/79/42

My bullpen isn't too bad, with 5th best control, 2 pts behind leader in vs L, and #1 in vs R.

My primary coaches are the best money could buy:
ML Hitting Coach is 90 hitting and 72 Discipline
ML Pitching Coach is 96 Pitching and 38 Discipline
ML Bench Coach is 97 Strategy and 71 Pitching, 63 Discpline

The point of my post, I suppose, is to say I'm coming to one of three conclusions, all of which I did not think were part of this game:

1) With so many young players on the team, the team is underperforming because the engine accounts of young players needing to acclimate to the majors.  Either that, or because many of these players didn't have 5 full years in the minors, rushing them has hurt their performance, despite their ML-ready ratings.  My coaches' patience ratings aren't great, maybe this plays a huge part in the engine?
2) There is something in the engine that gives some cities/team a disadvantage.  This team is not going to win in Syracuse.  I'm starting to think the opposite may be true as well, as in Glavine jwinners' 11 world series titles in 22 years seems amazing.
3) Is it possible that how I handle spring training actually is the reason for the bad start?  Does resting players at certain times cause bad performances when they start playing again?  I saw this in Lasorda as well, where I had such a large division lead that I rested my starters for ~20 games before the playoffs...And when the playoffs started they were ice cold.

Could any of these three things be true?  Or is it just small sample size and bad defense that is keeping me from performing? 

Again, I wouldn't even post if we were 13-14 or something.  But we are 17 games under .500 after 27 games.  We are horrid.  Maybe I overvalue L/R split ratings, but they are all stellar for both my hitters and pitchers.

small sample

Karma?

12	egide10	ML	64-98	.395	4th	No	No
13	egide10	ML	63-99	.389	4th	No	No
14	egide10	ML	66-96	.407	3rd	No	No
15	egide10	ML	60-102	.370	4th	No	No
16	jlinchec	ML	59-103	.364	4th	No	No
17	jlinchec	ML	49-113	.302	4th	No	No
18	jlinchec	ML	55-107	.340	4th	No	No
19	jlinchec	ML	56-106	.346	4th	No	No
20	jlinchec	ML	72-90	.444	4th	No	No
21	jlinchec	ML	5-23	.179	-	-	-

Guess that supports the point - the team is jinxed.  They never should have been that bad.

1909-2013

SSS

1)  Those are HUGE gaps in power and eye; it's a sample size fluke that the team is hitting .254 but it would be hard to be more than middle of the pack in runs scored with that terrible power and eye.  You may eventually hit .280, but you won't score a ton of runs.

2) You don't have enough stamina in your bullpen, IMO.  Your relievers are probably working down to a low in-game fatigue number... even if they recover quickly d/t high DUR they are less effective at the end of their outings than they should be.  You may need to change your staff around to add a couple of guys that can throw 30-40 pitches in relief.

3) Coaches are not supposed to affect performance, just development.

4) Your catcher has a PC of 50, and your primary SS is well below average defensively.  These decisions may be defensible for the overall team performance but they are part of why your ERA doesn't match your pitchers' ratings.

Thanks, I agree with everything you said dedelman, though I didn't know that coaches didn't affect performance at all.  I do have 3 players in my starting lineup that are contact guys with power of 12, 4, and 4 - that effects my average power rating a lot I know.  So I don't think it's as bad as it looks in the average.

As another data point, allow me to bring up Delvi Cruz.  I signed him as an international, and his ratings were already good enough to be the best arm in my bullpen.  So I put him in the majors day 1, thinking the better coaches would help his development.

On day one, he was a 74 durability/34 stamina pitcher with 74 control, L/R splits of 73/86, 83 velocity, and pitches of 84/66.

He's now been in the majors for parts of 2 seasons and has pitched in 81 ML games covering 101.1 innings.  He has never been in the minors (call him Mike Leake).  His ERA is 5.33 (9.77 this year).  His OAV is sitting at .292 (.361 this year).

In other words, he's been terrible.  I believe his ratings are good enough he should be much better.  Part of it is certainly the PC and defense you mention, but shouldn't he be better then a 5.33 ERA even with these factors?  He's only given up 3 unearned runs in his career.  This is what makes me think that the engine is making him worse because he went straight to the majors as a 20/21 year old.

In addition, despite my top-notch coaches he hasn't improved much.  He did have a short 15 day DL stint, but over those 100 innings and parts of 2 seasons he has only gained in the ratings: 1 control point, 1 vs L point, and 1 vs R point.  That is it.

Just want to add that I agree with most of dedelman's observations.  Those are the same factors I looked at when checking out your team.  Don't like the combo of good contact/bad eye, it kind of cancels the good out. 

Sturtze might be your best player, but he's not playing SS at a major league level.  Norton should be major league average or a little better, move Sturtze to 2B.  Norton has a wet noodle for a bat, so you punt the spot in the batting order, but might be worth it.

As for Cruz, good ratings but the high DUR/STA combo makes me wonder if his pitch count isn't too high.  (Limited experience, but it's a mistake I've made.)  If you could do as dedelman says and put more guys around him, give him less innings, it might help.  One thing I don't like is that he's only got two pitches and the second one is "only" 66.  That's a weakness that will get exposed, IMO.

Posted by jlinchec on 9/23/2013 12:38:00 PM (view original):
Thanks, I agree with everything you said dedelman, though I didn't know that coaches didn't affect performance at all.  I do have 3 players in my starting lineup that are contact guys with power of 12, 4, and 4 - that effects my average power rating a lot I know.  So I don't think it's as bad as it looks in the average.

As another data point, allow me to bring up Delvi Cruz.  I signed him as an international, and his ratings were already good enough to be the best arm in my bullpen.  So I put him in the majors day 1, thinking the better coaches would help his development.

On day one, he was a 74 durability/34 stamina pitcher with 74 control, L/R splits of 73/86, 83 velocity, and pitches of 84/66.

He's now been in the majors for parts of 2 seasons and has pitched in 81 ML games covering 101.1 innings.  He has never been in the minors (call him Mike Leake).  His ERA is 5.33 (9.77 this year).  His OAV is sitting at .292 (.361 this year).

In other words, he's been terrible.  I believe his ratings are good enough he should be much better.  Part of it is certainly the PC and defense you mention, but shouldn't he be better then a 5.33 ERA even with these factors?  He's only given up 3 unearned runs in his career.  This is what makes me think that the engine is making him worse because he went straight to the majors as a 20/21 year old.

In addition, despite my top-notch coaches he hasn't improved much.  He did have a short 15 day DL stint, but over those 100 innings and parts of 2 seasons he has only gained in the ratings: 1 control point, 1 vs L point, and 1 vs R point.  That is it.

Cruz allowed 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning at 60%.  Take away that appearance and he has a 4.21 ERA this year.

Some internationals really just don't improve too much at all.  Maybe he's one of them.

The pitching is probably OK.  I don't think you should be giving up that many runs, even with the so-so defense and poor PC of your catcher.  I believe that should come back closer to average in the league.

I don't see anything special with your hitters, though.  There's no pop in that lineup.  You need some power.  Nobody in that lineup scares me.