Clutchness

Clutch. We hear this term all the time in professional sports. David Ortiz is clutch, Alex Rodriguez is not. The term is complete BS though, there are no stats to prove someone is more clutch than someone else. I decided to try and find a way to compare players and came up with something, it is not perfect, but it gets my idea across I think. My biggest problem I had was when I saw on MLB.com, the all clutch team, which Freddy Sanchez was not a candidate. How could the NL Batting Champ not be clutch, so if you notice some of the players I compare him to are the 3Bs listed and others who are considered clutch, or not clutch.

I will present the stats as follows:
Player
Runners in Scoring Position (RISP): RBI/AB, RBI to AB Average, BA/OBP/OPS, K’s, HR’s
RISP w/2 Outs
Bases Loaded

Freddy Sanchez
RISP: 76/153, .497, .386/.425/.915, 15, 0
RISP w/2: 31/57, .544, .421/.484/1.046, 6, 0
Loaded: 17/11, 1.545, .545/.467/1.194, 1, 0

Ryan Zimmerman
85/198, .429, .323/.397/.913, 40, 5
28/72, .389, .292/.386/.886, 19, 2
12/16, .750, .313/.421/.859, 6, 0

Miguel Cabrera
84/148, .568, .378/.505/1.127, 26, 7
30/57, .526, .368/.550/1.129, 9, 2
6/5, 1.200, .400/.333/.933, 1, 0

David Wright
91/167, .545, .365/.449/1.060, 32, 8
38/81, .469, .358/.464/1.057, 14, 4
19/15, 1.267, .400/.421/1.288, 4, 2

Joe Mauer
69/125, .552, .360/.497/1.041, 17, 3
29/49, .592, .408/.547/1.200, 5, 1
11/7, 1.571, .286/.308/.879, 2, 0

Ryan Howard
83/164, .506, .256/.423/.942, 56, 12
33/77, .429, .247/.468/.948, 23, 5
13/12, 1.083, .333/.308/.891, 3, 1

Albert Pujols
88/126, .698, .397/.535/1.337, 10,14
34/46, .739, .435/.581/1.407, 4, 5
16/16. 1.000, .375/.353/.915, 2, 1

Derek Jeter
83/155, .535, .381/.482/1.063, 29, 6
33/65, .508, .369/.506/1.075, 16, 2
16/11, 1.455, .455/.647/1.283, 2, 0

David Ortiz
79/156, .506, .288/.429/.967, 29, 10
31/66, .470, .288/.447/.947, 13, 4
20/14, 1.429, .357/.375/1.304, 2, 2

Alex Rodriguez
85/189, .450, .302/.431/.939, 50, 10
33/80, .413, .313/.495/.970, 24, 4
25/19, 1.316, .474/.500/1.289, 4, 2

Jason Bay
71/161, .441, .242/.385/.838, 50, 7
25/69, .362, .246/.441/.890, 18, 3
16/18, .889, .278/.318/.929, 4, 1

Jose Castillo
51/138, .370, .261/.333/.746, 28, 5
17/62, .274, .258/.361/.764, 15, 2
8/16, .500, .188/.263/.451, 4, 0

In my mind, being “clutch” means that when you have men on, you are the guy who usually brings them in, especially with two outs. Well it seems that at 3B, Freddy Sanchez was pretty much the best out of that group, he may not have the HR’s, but he does not strike out as often as the others.

The two players always considered clutch, Ortiz and Jeter have excellent numbers (Jeter’s are only like that for this year, every year before this they are much lower),but as you can see, Albert Pujols gets the nod as most clutch, he is the only one on here who is more often to hit a HR than to strike out. Also, notice that ARod is not as terrible as they acted like, except for the K’s, he is still better than most at bringing in runs.

On the other hand, Jason Bay’s numbers are not so good, but have more to do with what WHYGAVS pointed on this article.

Sometimes I wonder if we would even talk about players being clutch if there were never a Michael Jordan. Everytime MJ hit a buzzer beater to win the game, people would say, “my god, he is so clutch.” And since then, every sport tries to find guys who are clutch or not clutch. Maybe clutch is a way to place blame on one person. Unfortunately, in team sports, it is never one person’s fault, nor is it one person’s glory, well except for that highschool pitcher a few years ago, who pitched a perfect game, and had the only hit in the game, which was a homerun, but even he needed a few fielders…

Anyways, hopefully these stats will amuse some of you out there, or something.

Author: Ngewo

1 thought on “Clutchness

  1. I have checked this 4 times already this morning, waiting for a Heroes post. Instead, this “clutch” drivel greets me. WHERE’S MY POST?!

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