[Pelican]

The responses have been thoughtful and helpful and provocative. Glad that others have struggled through this. And yes, two starts is a very small sample size, in the course of a long season. It’s just that the change was so dramatic, and with even the few outs being “loud outs”, my instinct was to think something was wrong. Like the trading team concealed an injury.

In trying to analyze this, maybe I missed the obvious. What’s the one thing that changed? A player got traded. Midseason. To a bad team (the 2021 Orioles). From a pitchers’ park (KC) to a hitters park (Camden Yards). So, just as IRL this could mess up someone’s head, new teammates, new defense behind you, different lineup supporting you, so too in OOTP?

So yeah, I’m going to run him out there at least one more time, on pitch-by-pitch mode, so I can better understand what’s going on. It’s not like I am in a pennant race. If the bad performance keeps up, maybe long relief out of the bullpen is the answer. Or skipping his turn in the rotation at least once. And I may look at his contract status. I’ve extended guys - usually when they ask - and that seems to help, sometimes, not always. Of course, a real gamble to extend someone who is not getting anybody out.

I’ll keep you posted. If Minor goes out and pitches a shutout, I will look like an overreacting fool. But I’m still on the learning curve here. I can chalk this up to experience. And believe me, I’m not knocking the game. Stuff happens. Like in “League of Their Own”: “Hard?! Of course it’s hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it”.