SPECULATOR: Forgiving bad days

It's one of the worst feelings in our game.

You're out and about (in normal times). You pull out your phone to check on your starting pitcher for the day. And bam: the other team has seven-plus runs by the third inning. Any errors? Nope, all runs are earned. Assuming you haven't thrown your phone yet, you check your league's live standings and—at this juncture of the season—you've dropped five points. It stings, and we've all been there.

But what if we turn these nuclear starts into a buying opportunity? At this point in the season, one bad outing can still have lingering effects on a pitcher's ratios, but how different would those stats look if we gave them a pass? Players on fantasy teams are sometimes unfortunately referred to as...

Almost!

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