"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I entered a team about 5 months ago in a 90M theme (draft a real life team, add up to 5 players from other teams from the same season as your team).

Well, I drafted the 2010 Phillies and had a disappointing season: 77-85 (.475).  However, I noticed that our Exp. Pct. was .541.  This confirmed my feeling that the team had underperformed.  So a couple of months ago, I thought I'd tweak a couple of players on the roster, re-enter the team in the same theme and coast to the playoffs.

Alas, no.  The 2.0 team did better, 87-75 (.537), but missed the wild card by a game.  Frustratingly, we once again had a high Exp. Pct: this time .596, the 2nd highest Exp. Pct. in the league.  Was this team built to underperform, or what?

In Team Rankings, the two teams were very similar.  Both finished 12th in runs scored, the first time around scoring 2 more than the league average, the second time 3 more.  The pitching was a bit better the second time (the ERA went from 4.06 to 3.57) but only moved us up one slot, from 4th overall to 3rd.

Here are some stats from full-time batters and starting pitchers who appeared in both seasons, with season 1 on top.  A bit of an eye-opener -- or I guess "reminder" is a better word -- to see the role chance plays from one season to the next (Oswalt and Halladay in particular had a "Trading Places" experience).

Chase Utley '10 (L)                 562          493          10            45            13            .245         .335         .369 
Chase Utley '10 (L)                 588          514          18            71            21            .284         .371         .449 

Jose Bautista '10 (R)              733          622          40            115          0              .254         .366         .506 
Jose Bautista '10 (R)              742          646          40            99            0              .206         .305         .452       

Ryan Howard '10 (L)              566          517          21            80            0              .269         .329         .458 
Ryan Howard '10 (L)              677          616          23            78            0              .258         .318         .411 

Jayson Werth '10 (R)            693          598          24            70            0              .283         .380         .463 
Jayson Werth '10 (R)            717          615          19            69            12            .257         .360         .410 

Shane Victorino '10 (S)         648          591          12            71            26            .254         .315         .381 
Shane Victorino '10 (S)         666          604          10            69            36            .243         .311         .364  
       
Carlos Ruiz '10 (R)                 477          415          7              57            0              .287         .375         .407 
Carlos Ruiz '10 (R)                 489          416          5              41            0              .262         .364         .382 

Roy Halladay '10 (R)             20-13       3              303.1       3.44         .266         1.17         6.62         1.19 
Roy Halladay '10 (R)             9-20         5              255.2       4.19         .269         1.19         5.60         1.20 

Roy Oswalt '10 (R)                10-15       2              238.2       4.26         .256         1.32         7.01         3.02 
Roy Oswalt '10 (R)                19-8         2              260.0       2.60         .214         1.10         5.43         2.80 

Thank you for the post but where do we find this information -"Exp. Pct: this time .596" ?

Advanced Standings

thanks boogs...Crazy, besides Utley and Oswalt the other players did a bit better the 1st year.  The few tweaks in your team along with your two key players Utley and Oswalt gave you a 10 game winning swing. Did you do anything else different the 2nd year? Were the opposing teams different the 2nd year?

The opposing teams were mostly different, but I'd say the overall competition was about the same.  

My offense didn't change much -- a lot of guys performed worse, but I got a boost at SS, where I added Troy Tulowitzki, a huge improvement over Jimmy Rollins/Wilson Valdez.  The pitching improved largely due to new additions Adam Wainwright (21-14, 3.17) and Felix Hernandez (20-10, 2.98).

By the way, I was tempted to enter 2010 Phillies 3.0 in the latest season of this theme.  I decided against it -- 3 seasons in a row missing the playoffs with the same team would kill me.  

adds fuel to the fire that the 2010 Bautista is over priced.

I have a theme team with an ExWPct of .636 that's playing at .566 and has lost six in a row in the stretch, including two straight to the division's worst team.

Bad luck? Bad managing? Both?