Does it make any sense to bench a slumping player?

[Humboldt KA]

Originally Posted by Humboldt KA

-Anecdotally, I do observe that "hot" and "cold" icons are easy to lose. I've seen players gain one and lose it again in the same game.

BUT:
-In my mileage it is much harder for "cold" pitchers to recover b/c they give up hits to the 1st 2-3 batters > 50% of the time. It can take forever to recover based on a couple of decent outings, sometimes to next season. (Really painful when I have to pitch an otherwise top pitcher "cold" and he immediately loses my lead and the game. )

-Moving them down to AAA for 2-4 weeks doesn't help. The "cold" icon doesn't show in the minors, but when I bring them back the icon is still there. (Admittedly, I gave up doing this after 3 tries w/different pitchers; now I just send them down and wait till next year.)

-Much harder to tell with hitters.

Question: Does anyone know whether hot/cold affects 2-way players both ways, or pitchers' hitting?

My experience is the same on all these. I have tried using pitchers in low leverage short relief but even 5-6 decent or good outings hasn't helped. The only thing I have found is too start them, hope they don't give up 3 runs without getting > 1 out--which they do often as not--and someday they will pitch 5 decent innings and it goes away. This costs wins, but doing without my #2 or #3 starter also would.

Agree that hitters do seem to recover (and lose "hot" status) easily--I have often seen hitters gain an icon and lose it again 1-2 ABs later, sometimes seemingly perversely, e.g., a hot hitter gets a hit and loses the icon--I do what a poster below suggests: if I need them in the lineup I play them. If I can bench them, I do for as long as I can. I am hopeful that someday I will see a hitter spontaneously recover after sitting for appoximately forever, but I haven't yet. (Letting the season end seems to always work.)