What Do You Do When Things Go Downhill?

[Wrathchild]

I'm playing a 16 team association, 2 leagues of 8 teams each. The current season started fairly well, but the second half of the season has just been crap. It's early August and we're 3-7 in our last 10, on a 5 game losing streak. We're still, somehow, in 3rd place in our league, but we've now fallen below .500 for the season. My instinct, from managing the games, is that it's our pitching staff. Only one team in the whole association has allowed more runs than we have. My pitchers blown more leads and games I thought were won than I care to mention. But then I look at our offense and we are 10th out of 16 in runs scored. How can we still be holding 3rd place? I can't figure out what's wrong with this team or why we're on such a downward slide. It's very frustrating.

[KG Erwin]

I feel your pain, Wrathchild. Are these close games, blowouts or a mix? One thing I'd suggest is to look at your defensive ratings. Perhaps you need to bring in defensive specialists in late innings to help protect leads. I've found nothing more frustrating than seeing a potential out or double-play ball slipping past a subpar defender. Remember Bill Buckner? [:(]

[Wrathchild]

The games are a mix. It seems we can either get a lead and then my pitching staff blows it, or the pitchers just give up run after run from the beginning. It seems lately that the other teams hit everything we throw at them, and my guys can't get on base to save their lives. And when they do I end up leaving 3 runners on at the end of the inning. I tend to bring in defensive substitutes in the 8th or 9th inning when necessary, but lately I haven't even been in a situation to do that. But maybe I'm not bringing in the right people, or I'm taking out the wrong people. What do you consider when you make someone a late inning defensive player? In the matter of a few days we fell from 3rd place to 5th place and are still losing. I'm thinking about uploading a game log to my website just to show how crazy things are. Even my #1 pitcher, Cy Young, is starting to lose games. I'm giving myself a deadline to start turning the team around and get some wins. It's almost mid-August and if things don't start looking up by the end of the month, I am going to terminate my relationship with the team, and consider myself unemployed!