CrespoBlows

The seven who voted no all probably witnessed David Ortiz work his magic in the 2004 ALCS. Now, stating that, did Ortiz' performance sway your vote in anyway?

True, but if you are to rate one as a clutch hitter, shouldn't he consistently be able to put up a .300 BA in clutch situations? To quote Bill James, "how is it that a player who possesses the reflexes and the batting stroke and the knowledge and the experience to be a .260 hitter in other circumstances magically becomes a .300 hitter when the game is on the line? How does that happen? What is the process? What are the effects?" Is it because he's clutch? If so, why isn't the said player able to consistently able to come up in "clutch" situations. Why does the said player, hit .300 one year, then revert back to a mediocre .240, the next year? Disecting Ortiz even more: Basically, the question is: If there is such a skill as clutch hitting, why does the skill disappear?

We did, I just showed you a finding that Ortiz is somewhat inconsistent when it comes to clutch situations. Want another one? Ortiz hit .093 against the Oakland A's in the 2003 ALDS. Is it possible, that maybe a hitter as immensely talented as David Ortiz had one of the hottest streaks in baseball history during that '04 October series? Maybe he was lucky to be facing a burnt out Paul Quantrill and Tom Gordon. No one seems to bring up batter vs pitcher matchups. Against Mariano Rivera (2004 ALCS, all AB's were close and late), Ortiz did the following in order: struck out, struck out, popped out. In those AB's, Ortiz was overmatched, as none of those AB's lasted longer than four pitches. This is kind of tied into the other quote below. (As you are using a case study) Your example isn't a bad one (the basketball one), but it isn't relevant to what we are talking about. Show me one professional player that is a world beater in the regular season, but disappears in the postseason. Then, show me one player who has had a great postseason. Tell me, if that player has consistently done that. I'm sure you meant the same Armando Benitez whose postseason ERA is 3.56. Which, by the way, should be lower. Thanks to Jeff Maier.

It was Clint Barnes, shows what a huge Rockie fan you are. :dance:

I don't know. Perhaps it is an opinion, and not a fact. Also, those 10 people probably believe clutch hitting exists. What's more ironic to that question is that Alex Rodriguez is statistically just as good as David Ortiz is in the postseason, and was actually a tougher out than Ortiz was "in the clutch" last year. In the Clutch 2005 Player AB H HR RBI Avg. OBP Slg. Rodriguez 67 21 4 12 .313 .439 .567 Ortiz 68 21 7 25 .309 .407 .691 Guerrero 67 25 3 9 .373 .481 .552 While Ortiz delievered the big blow, the two players seem to hit near their batting averages overall. Besides, if clutch hitting were actually a skill, wouldn't a player be able to consistently do it? I mean, would you be able to believe that the most "clutch" hitter in the game, (Ortiz) was hitting 2-14 with only two RBI's in late games this year?

Backing me up. Bill James, Pete Palmer, Dick Cramer, and Baseball Prospectus say the following. From wikipedia.com

I'm curious to hear what people say about this. I read an article by a writer for a Philly paper, and afterwards was convinced that clutch hitting was an illusion. Should be interesting to hear this debate.

Don't tell me that you would prefer Wang over Beckett.

Maybe they should have moved then. As is stands right now, Wang's trade value is slipping dramatically. The Marlins should be shot if they take him over a combo that Arizona, or either the Los Angeles teams could offer.

The Yankees apparently don't think so. In the Beckett deal, the Marlins wanted to start the deal with Wang, the Yankees immediately killed talks.

Yankee bullpen is in serious trouble if Rivera is out for an extended period of time.

The front three for the Red Sox is much more formidable than the front three for the Yankees. 1. Mussina 2. Johnson 3. Wang vs 1. Schilling 2. Beckett 3. Wakefield Throw in the fact that your three and four starters aren't exactly world beaters. Small and Wright? Pauley and Clement are probably worse, but we know they won't be their all year. Jon Lester and Craig Hansen could probably pitch league average innings for the Red Sox come August. If not, the Red Sox could probably make a move for a fourth or fifth starter. The Yankees? Not many teams are attracted to the Yankee farm system. The one jewel of your farm system is untouchable. Who are the Yankees going to center their deal around? If they were smart, they'd deal Wang, who is overvalued, and probably could net them Willis if they threw in Duncan and another prospect. Realistically, they won't move Wang, so they won't be able to improve their rotation. I mean hypothetically, they could add a Kyle Lohse, or Livan Hernandez, but is that really going to make them a better team come October?

No, I'd rather see him get at least 100 IP at AAA before calling him up, but I don't think we have that luxury of time. We could conceiveably see him at Yankee stadium next week. Though, that's unlikely seeing that the Yankees are 11-2 against left-handed pitchers. I'd rather see him pitch in our rotation, come August 1st. That way he could get twelve more starts at AAA, and probably 60 more innings.

Did the Red Sox plan to start Egan at Greenville? I assumed because of his age, and lack of experience that they would play him at XST, then to Lowell. Is it even likely that he'll play this year?

Hank Conger, a high school catcher is said to be an early draft pick. To clear things up, Jonathan Egan and Mark Wagner are the Red Sox best catching prospects.

Brewers. Miller Park owns.

No love for Jermaine Dye? He's currently hitting at a .298/.402/.638/1.041 clip. That's tied for highest in the AL, with Alexis Rios. Also, Nick Swisher's not doing too bad. His OPS is at 1.038, good enough for second place in the AL. In parts, I'm going to leave off two of SOTK's All-Star outfied, and go with, LF: Nick Swisher CF: Alexis Rios RF: Jermaine Dye As for the rest of the team: C: Joe Mauer/Jorge Posada 1B: Jim Thome/Travis Hafner 2B: Mark Loretta/Jose Lopez SS: Miguel Tejada/Derek Jeter 3B: Alex Rodriguez/Mike Lowell OF: Manny Ramirez/Vernon Wells/Vlad Guerrero/Gomes? (reserves) Drawback. Got to find a way to squeeze a Royal on this roster. Grudzielanek? He's the only one worth. They do have Joe Nelson, who has an ERA of 0.96 this year. Granted, it's only 9.1 IP, but he might have to do.

Loretta homered? How is that possible?

Wouldn't matter. The Red Sox didn't ask for a physical, and the Reds can claim they dealt Pena in good faith. The Red Sox have no evidence to support a tampering, or something fishey from the Reds office.

If Theo learned anything from Bill James/Beane then he will move Papelbon to the rotation.

Prob so. But clicking on that link would require another pushing of the finger. I was unwilling to make that risk. Would you be? :dunno: Kidding aside, you're right. The deal is done.

Cubs close to acquiring Nevin. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5654126

Yep. That would be from his song Levon. On a side note, would anyone be interested in acquiring Kelvin Escobar? If he can stay healthy, he's got the stuff to shut down the opposition. I'm sure the Angels wouldn't mind moving him to open up a rotation spot for Jared Weaver.

No one is doubting that. We all know that Mariano Rivera is an excellent closer, we've been through this. You asked, if Jonathan Papelbon could do the same, and yeah, he has done it in the past. Could he do it that effeciently? Probably not, but he could give you three strong innings.

He's thrown more than 26 pitches, if that's what you meant to ask.