Los Angeles Dodgers' Chad Billingsley: A Case of Confirmation Bias

Chad Billingsley's recent struggles have been well documented, so further addressing the issue is somewhat pointless to me.   However, one criticism that hasn't been looked at nearly enough is the charge that Billingsley is not mentally tough. Personally, I'm a firm believer that the concern over the mental toughness of Billingsley is pure fabrication that stems largely from confirmation bias on the part of fans. According to Wikipedia, "Confirmation bias is an irrational tendency to search for, interpret or remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions or working hypotheses.  It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning." What I believe is that a lot of fans have a preconceived notion of how Billingsley is supposed to act and perform, and when he doesn't meet their exact expectations, they end up looking for any intangible excuse they can find.  Those fans will buy into any reason that ...