NEED HELP - Last yr's MVP in HUGE slump
 

I'm at wits end. My best player and last year's run away MVP is starting this season with an unbelievably bad slump and it keeps getting worse. My whole team is in the worst slump since I took over 5 seasons ago and I don't know how to get them to pull out.

Does anyone have any advice???!

2B - Jorge Martinez

2016: .251/.402/.384 in 111 games
2017: .273/.436/.473 in 153 games
2018: .342/.492/.622 in 127 games
2019: .200/.394/.327 in 48 games

Either bad luck or screwy park factors is what I'm thinking, but I'm trending towards bad luck.

Just power ahead everyone hits slumps ever multiple MVP winners in my league have slumps or off seasons they usually bounce back

Thanks guys. I really don't have much choice so i'm gonna have to I guess. Gonna try him in the #5 spot next sim.

Sit the guy down for some games. Then use him in some good matchups where he's facing a pitcher who's bad against batters of his handedness. You could bench him and then try pinch hitting with him a couple of times, but only when you've got a good matchup. That might get him a couple of hits and snap him out of the cold spell.

:mad:

Dump his ass...Slacker!!

Get him (back) on the juice.

He's in a slump but it looks worse when compared to 2018. He is a 0.260-0.290 hitter who obviously takes plenty of BB. His OBP is better than good so he's not a black hole in the lineup. Looks like he is paying the BABIP tax on last seasons luck. By any chance did you lose another hitter that may have been complementary to him? Where does he normally hit in the order?

With his OBP I wouldn't sit him but you may want to give him a couple of days off in the next two weeks. I'd keep him in his regular spot unless it's killing your offense.

Don't bat him #5. Bat him #2. Put him between your lead-off hitter and your best #3 hitter and give him a few weeks, and he will bust out. The number 2 spot is the best cure for slumps ever, guaranteed.

I'm going to have to agree with Charlie here. Every time I see a player go in a slump (especially a pitcher "in-game") I just know that an injury is coming. So, I'd spot start him for 7-10 days and set him up in good spots on off-days and try to dodge that season-ending injury that is looming right around the corner.

I've played through many seasons and have seen this happen a lot. It seems to be the game's way of keeping guys from deviating too far from their career average.

You need a live chicken.

Really, I see no reason to panic. Just let him ride it out and he'll hit .265 by years end. You need to prepare yourself that 2018 was an aberration, not a new performance level, and enjoy it for what it was worth.

:confused:

Help me understand. Are you saying career batting average? He has not quite 3 seasons worth of stats based on games played and his cumulative career BA has fluctuated wildly. Are you saying that his future stats will be manipulated to stay close to his current CBA of 0.278? If not then please elaborate. That doesn't make sense to me.

Looks like he's a .260/.400/.440 ish hitter who played out of his MIND in 2018.

I'd be expecting an OPS around .820-.860 rather than the 1.100.

What I'm saying is when the game creates a player, it creates a stats baseline for him. Open any player and click on the editor tab and you'll see the stats line which will give you an idea of what to expect from a player in a given year discounting things like park effects, aging, and any of the other modifiers.

My opinion, based on what I've seen, is that if a player has a year that significantly deviates from that stats baseline, then you can expect a statistical correction to follow that will bring him back closer to those baseline stats.

I haven't examined this too closely to say for sure this is what is going on, but it seems to explain what I've seen. I did just look at a newly created international free agent that my scout just emailed me about. He's only 16, so his baseline stats are incredibly low - so maybe these numbers change over time. Again, I haven't really examined it that closely.

In stats we call that regression towards the mean.

The development engine makes this "baseline" variable. It's not a yearly thing. I'd say the ratings make the "baseline", not the other way around. Ratings are relative not absolute. A 19 year old prospect will not carry the same ratings/baseline as the future 28 year old 3 time MVP version of himself. So as a player gets rating boosts and hits the stats baseline will change even within a season.

The point is; there is no built in "career" adjustment. A player who consistently over or under achieves will show ratings changes consistent with his performance. I see it as the beating heart of OOTP. A very realistic player development, plateau and decline.

When this kind of scenario happens in real life, there's sometimes a personal storyline behind it - a painful divorce (his wife discovered all the tail the guy pulled during his 2018 campaign, and is now taking him to the cleaners in the middle of the season), a child with a severe illness being treated behind the scenes (this happened with JD Drew in his first year in Boston, I believe), or the death of a parent.

Or, perhaps he just caught something from one of his roadies (statistically, probably in Baltimore), and he's symptomatic right now.

Slumps happen, but really impressive, severe ones weave into the fabric of real life once you overlay your own backstory a little bit onto some of these players.

Still not much luck over the past week. I'm putting him #2 in the line up hoping that if nothing else, at least he can continue to force some walks. My whole team is in a historic slump (batting .220 vs. .250 for the past 5 seasons). Month over month he keeps getting worse too. Thankfully we'll be ending this 13 game road trip against some mediocre teams so hopefully things will pick up.

Current stats:
.217/.392/.363 212ABs

Turnaround?

Last two weeks have been kind to Mr. Martinez. He's increased his average from .217 to .263. Still would like to see him batting well over .300, but this is a step in the right direction. Sadly, probably too little too late when it comes to our playoff hopes as we're already 9.5 back in mid-June.