I think what contrarian is referring to as underperformance is different from others are referring to. It was noted earlier that Davis's average AVG in the performance history is around .340. Based on the binomial distribution, the standard deviation for AVG @ 80 PA for a player whose true talent level for AVG is .340 is .053, meaning one would expect 95% of all times used the player should have an average within 2 SD, which would be between .234 and .446 (simply due to random variation without regard to league environment). So, yes, this is on the low end, but it's still possible. I'd call this the bad luck of random variation. Changing players isn't going to change one's luck. There are (still?) some who assert that each player is coded with a random bump up or down--that not all versions of the same player are created equal. There would be no need for the SIM to code that in due to the already present fluctuations of random variation.