Is There Such A Thing As "Just A Bad Year"?

[NCCubFan]

Bert Saberhagan was an interesting case of this to me. He would look great one year and the next year be below average.

That was also true for Steve Trachsel and Kyle Farnsworth during their years with the Cubs. If I recall correctly, in Saberhagen's case at least some of the down years were due to injuries.

[sethuel1]

Bert Saberhagan was an interesting case of this to me. He would look great one year and the next year be below average.

That was also true for Steve Trachsel and Kyle Farnsworth during their years with the Cubs. If I recall correctly, in Saberhagen's case at least some of the down years were due to injuries.

 

And in Farnsworth's case, it was due to him being a gutless, choking dog.

[fromthestretch]

Bert Saberhagan was an interesting case of this to me. He would look great one year and the next year be below average.

 

Looking at his stats, even in most of his "down" years, he was still above average.

[10man]

I don't know why everyone is getting on Dempster's case so much about last season so. I mean 2006 was a bad year for most closers in general. Take Brad Lidge; coming into last season, all of us thought of him as an elite closer and we all know how his season turned out. Not to mention other good ones like Izzy, Foulke, Gagne, etc.

[goonys evil twin]

I don't know why everyone is getting on Dempster's case so much about last season so. I mean 2006 was a bad year for most closers in general. Take Brad Lidge; coming into last season, all of us thought of him as an elite closer and we all know how his season turned out. Not to mention other good ones like Izzy, Foulke, Gagne, etc.

 

That's hardly an excuse for Dempster's struggles.

[Soriano12]

I don't know why everyone is getting on Dempster's case so much about last season so. .

 

ummmm.....because he sucked?

[Soul]

I don't believe there's such a thing as an anomalous season. Not an entire year. That sounds like there's no assignable reason----just bad years, which happen because the gods say so.

 

Dempster had a down year, there were reasons for it even if we can't identify or quantify them.

 

Hard to say if he'll bounce back. I wouldn't think the Cubs will come out in the press and say, "we know Dempster's going to suck but we're just keeping him around anyway."

[cheapseats]

I don't believe there's such a thing as an anomalous season. Not an entire year. That sounds like there's no assignable reason----just bad years, which happen because the gods say so.

 

Dempster had a down year, there were reasons for it even if we can't identify or quantify them.

 

Hard to say if he'll bounce back. I wouldn't think the Cubs will come out in the press and say, "we know Dempster's going to suck but we're just keeping him around anyway."

 

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/gonfalon_cubs/discussion/stretching_reality/

 

Good argument for Howry as closer and Dempster as ROOGY.