I will say it again - Patience: Don't Be Afraid to Exercise It. I tried to speak to the hysteria yesterday in that piece, but the questions continued through the day and night unabated. Clearly the message didn't get through to everyone, so let me be clear about what I'm saying.

(1) You should give batters at least a month, preferably 150 at-bats, before you go a panicking with them. There are obviously differences depending on the player. Maybe you give Gregor Blanco 50 at-bats but you should give an Mark Trumbo 150. As a baseline, you have to give a guy at least a month before you start panicking.

(2) Starting pitchers deserve at least a month as well. Honestly, I would like to give a guy 8-10 starts before I pull the trigger and make a move. Of course, there's a difference between Tim Lincecum and Gio Gonzalez, but hopefully you get that.

(3) Sample sizes at this point of the season are infinitesimally small. The performance of a player is magnified beyond belief because there is nothing to work against other than air. Start out hot and you're a star. Start off cold and you are the worst player of all-time. Consider the following data from 2014. 

In June last season Seth Smith hit .354 with a 1.142 OPS.
On the year he hit .266 with a .807 OPS.

Evan Gattis hit .353 last June.
He hit .263 on the year.

Josh Donaldson hit .181 last June.
He hit .255 for the year.

Adam Wainwright had a 5.17 ERA in August.
His season long mark was 2.38.

Scott Kazmir had a 7.80 ERA in August. 
His season long mark was 3.55. 

The point is that all players, from the solid guys to the stars, see their performance vacillate. If Kazmir had a 7.80 ERA in April last year he would have been dropped in every league, right? If Donaldson had hit .181 in April of last year people would have been trading him for Manny Machado. Come on, you know it's true.

Understand that this isn't fantasy football where there are only 16 games. In baseball we have 162 games to consider. As is often said, baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. So do your best to maintain an understanding of the entire board. Don't be a front line solider just blindly running at the opposition with your weapon. Try to be the general who is reading the entire battlefield. The fact is that making snap decisions, after 10 games, is idiotic. As some of the above numbers easily show as well, players struggle just the way it is. Don't allow the first 10 games of a season to have more importance than 10 games in July.

The fact is nearly every player has a rough two weeks at some point. Hell, even the mighty Mike Trout stunk at points last season. Don't believe me? Here's the data. From May 2nd through May 18th, 2014, a span of 16 games, Mike Trout hit .155 with an OPS of .650. The best player in the history of the sport (hyperbole), Mike Trout, was atrocious for a two and a half week span last year. If he had hit like that from April 2nd through April 18th there would have been looting in the streets with people assuming that the end of the world was at hand. But it happened after Trout hit .321 with six homers, 18 RBIs, 21 runs scored and four steals over his first 27 games so no one noticed, let alone panicked. 

The sample size game can be a dicey situation to try and navigate. Be careful you're looking at the right things to make the choices you need to for your fantasy baseball team. Don't be too quick to judge, down or up - there are plenty of people thinking Jose Iglesias or D.J. LeMahieu will be stars this season so it's not just those panicking that could be in danger - merely because of 10 games.

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