Does he [Harper] typically regress?
There is nothing built into the game that would cause him to regress aside from the randomness built into the game. That sounds about like he has hit his peak potential and has the "hot" player bonus going. Keeping him, and the team, happy does play a role in performance. Given his age and barring injury, he should perform at slightly below that level for a long time. Occasionally a player has one standout year and regresses never to return but that it usually pretty obvious and with Harper's contract structure that shouldn't be a problem for you. I believe Zimmerman is an aged based regression but I have not looked at the underlying stats enough to know why he is effected more by it than other players.
I watch very closely via the Player Development Report when a player suffers an injury, even DTD, as this is the most common time when they regress. Also to get rid of fat contracts, it can be useful to try to deal players while they are on a hot streak. Granted shop too many and whole team starts to get pissed off.
I enjoy playing teams that I tear down and build back up which is why I have mostly played the Nationals and the Cubs. I suppose I could try rebuilding the O's for a change but I really don't like the American League.
I am starting to see some of the patterns in the fictional leagues. Honestly the inaugural draft and than minimal free agents is annoying to me although I am just starting to get the hang of it. It is because of this that I started noticing some of the relationships between fan interest, hot/cold players, contract extensions, and how the team performs relative the league.
