a700hitter

We need something to turn this game around.

BTW Torre is staying and the Boss is leaving.

If this guy doesn't get better next year, it is difficult to imagine watching this act for the next 5 years.

Is his meltdown coming now?

Umps in Japan must have given this guy a big strike zone, because his control has sucked all year long.

A couple of points: 1.I agree that a player's compensation should not be based on a reputation of being clutch or not clutch. It's too hard to define and too imprecise for it too be fairly and accurately reflected in the marketplace. 2. Despite the difficulty in defining and valuing intangibles like "clutch", leadership, and attitude, the discerning GM will consider those qualities when putting together a team. Based solely on stats the Yankees should win every year. Oddly enough, when they were winning championships, they had no batting champions, or HR or RBI leaders. They had no Cy Young pitchers. They had clutch pitchers, a great pen, and very good players with great winning attitudes like O'Neil. 3. Is Papi more talented or valuable than ARod? Absolutely not. Is Papi a better leader? From what I hear and read, players not only look up to him, but he'll let you know, without being confrontational, if you need to pick up your game. He's probably the only guy alive who Manny would listen to. Is ARod a leader? He probably has very little value in the clubhouse. Should Ortiz be paid more than ARod? No, but for the price of ARod, I can get Ortiz, Lowell and a bullpen guy. I'll take my chances without ARod. 4. You have assumed equal weighting for the stats in the clutch situations. I don't think that is a fair valuation. In those situations, the pitching is generally much tougher than the league average, especially in the post season and All Star games. Putting up numbers in those situations that are comparable to career averages is an accomplishment. That in an of itself is clutch. Most guys do worse than their averages against good pitching. I don't think you are being fair in the weighting of the pressure ABs. Willie Mays once told a young player that you just try to hold your own against the top pitchers, but you feast on everyone else. If a player can perform at the same level against top level pitchers as he does against everyone else, that is a guy that I want on my team. I'd call him a clutch player. Theo and the FO look carefully at acquisitions for indications that the player can perform against the Yankees. Not everyone can. Some players with good stats, play very poorly against the Yankees. Playing well against the Yankees is clutch, because it is harder to do than playing well against KC. 5. I enjoyed your post. It was a very good post.

How do your stats explain hot streaks-- those times when the ball appears bigger and slower for a batter? Are they just a function of probability and the laws of large numbers? I don't think that's true. There is a mental aspect that has to be taken into consideration. Sometimes it is attributable to increased confidence. When players describe the feeling of the game slowing down, blocking out everything else etc., this is the increased focus. It's not another gear. You cannot completely deny the mental and emotional aspect of the game. Anyone who saw Calvin Schiraldi in the 86 playoffs and World Series would tell you that he crumbled under the pressure. However, if you looked at his pressure save situations down the stretch and lumped it together with the WS and playoffs, you might conclude that he was no better or worse than any other reliever. There's a big difference between a 1 run save in the regular season and a one run save in the playoffs or World Series.

He still knows how to steal a headline. Witness the threat to Torre's job in the ALDS.

I was wondering the same thing. The reason why the Guardians won last night was because the s***** end of their pen (Mastny) performed better than the s***** end of our pen (Gagne and lopez). Definitely a trollish post by jacko. There was no quit in the Guardians but none in the Sox either.

Leave it to the Boss stealing headlines. I am surprised that he did n't wait until the World Series to make this announcement. He probably didn't want to wait until the WS, because he wasn't sure that the Red Sox would make it and he wanted to steal some of their thunder.

The FA market for pitchers is very thin and if he walks we have three slots behind Beckett and Dice K that need to be filled.

Before Eric the Terrible threw a pitch

Curt took this one on himself, and rightly so.

Management made some very poor decisions in choosing the roster for this series.

Trot Nixon reminded me tonight why I always liked him

Who was the Home Plate ump tonight? The next time he has the plate I am definitely going to bet the Over.