What is Your Tolerance Level on Slumping Pitchers?

[d18Mike]

Some interesting posts here on dropping pitchers -- i.e. Willis and Johnson.

Just wondering if anyone has hard/fast rules that they use to determine whether or not to keep a pitcher. Is it 4 consecutive bad outings. Is it 3? Is it performance over a 10-game stretch?

Or is it a gut thing.

Also, have you made any pitching cuts this year that in retrospect you wish you wouldn't have?


I'm not factoring injuries into this. That's another topic.

[Madison]

Well, I'm going to drop Willis today in all 3 leagues I have him. I was looking at his schedule the rest of the way out and it's not pretty: @Exp in Puerto Rico, Atlanta twice, then the Phillies. Not favorable at all.

RJ? If I had him, I'd still keep him.

As to when to cut a pitcher: For me it all depends on their track record and how big of an upside they have. Someone like RJ, who could toss a CG, 2 hitter, with 12-16 k's, is too good to cut. I really don't think he will do that this year, but 8 innings, 4 hits, 12 k's isn't out of the question for him. If it's just a run of the mill guy, it doesn't take too much to let them go if there is a better option out there.

[kcs261]

I wouldn't dump RJ. With Willis, it would depend who else was available.

That said, it's September. So there's no time like the present. If you have a slumping player, I wouldn't hesitate to cut him for somebody hot.

It's now or never. Patience was for April through July.

[demoflauchy]

It's now or never. Patience was for April through July.

Well said. You've got to get the best players on your team...stop waiting for that "2nd half" surge to happen...if it hasn't happend yet, likely it won't happen this year.

[Super GM]

I've been very patient....I hung on to Freddy Garcia way too long. I believed in him. I believed he'd be able to turn things around. But he didn't... One good move I made was to hang on to Mike Hampton after I nabbed him off the FA-pool for the third time. I really enjoyed his winning streak of 8 games or so....

[Madison]

If they give up a home run to Juan Pierre, they are off my team immediately!

ROFLMAO! One more "Way to go for Pierre!" Lol.

[demoflauchy]

I grabbed Hampton off the WW as welll...That's been nice.

I picked up and droped Webb 2 or 3 times early in the year, and then finally hung on to him when he started striking out 10-12 batters per game.

I hung on to Maddux far too long. Traded him with G Anderson and Wills for Sheff, Moose, and Guardado.

Such a fine line on when to keep and dump. The longer you hold on to someone, the harder it is to let go!