[Peregrine]

As far as good pitchers having bad years, that does happen sometimes. Make sure to check what the difference is between the pitcher's Potential ability and their Current ability. A lot of times a young pitcher will be rated as 4 or 5 stars but they haven't completely developed, and will have problems because usually Control is the hardest part to master - with low control, even with good other stats, they can definitely get hit hard. Also, sometimes you have a really good pitcher with good ERA, WHIP, etc but who loses a lot of games because of lack of run support, or playing in a hitter's park where there are tons of home runs.

With hitters, the Eye can be quite important - if a player has a really low eye (especially matched with low Avoid Ks) they will strike out all the time, as well as get few walks, and not find the best pitches to hit so they may hit into more double plays, etc. Usually if they have really great contact they can overcome this though.