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Of the two, whoever brings back more will be traded. I want to ay that should be Vazquez, but there isn't much to support it...

So is that the definition of clutch you think we need to use? That clutch is love? It might be even more fun to get a definition of love...

No. I don't. I don't think too many players would ever rise to being one of the best 750 players in the world unless they were constantly focused...

That means you are operating on the definition that NONE o the definitions are accurate. Of course, if none of them are accurate, that means no one knows what clutch is, which means saying it does exist is a complete fallacy..

Leon is the journeyman getting by on a BABIP-fueled hot streak for his only offensive output. But of the two, he also might be the better defender..

Sample size absolutely matters. He caught 52 innings last season, and that was the only season he wasn't rushed to the majors out of desperation. 52 innings is meaningless. And the rest of his sample really just shows how unprepared he was. DRS is measured against a league average, and while he was well below it with a -9 that first year, did anyone expect anything else? If you want to cling to "he sucked" behind the plate, fine. But the sample so far really doesn't mean anything...

He caught 84 games over a 2 season stretch. That most definitely is a small sample size. And while he wasn't stellar, what was it about his defense that you claim "definitively sucked?"

In 330PA, A-Rod had a .365 OBP and a .457 SLG in 734PA. Jeter had a .374 OB and a .465 SLG. As he had over twice as many plate appearances, Jeter had many more opportunities (some of which were successful) to get meaningful hits. The end result was it created the clutch illusion around Jeter. A-Rod was a virtually identical hitter in the post-season, but fewer opportunities and successes have left him with the illusion of being a choker...

Is there? Players have also given us strong anecdotal "evidence" that hitting is tied to eating chicken and that pitch counts don't matter. Why is there belief in clutch and stronger than anyone else's? For that matter, the entire "clutch is not choking" argument is also probably as poorly supported. Fans like to believe in chokers, but the actual definition of one appears to be far more related to reputation than to actual performance. Take A-Rod. He is labeled a choker because he has a reputation for not coming through in the post-season. But has he really? He has an .822OPS in the post-season. For comparison, Derek Jeter has a career .838OPS in the post-season. Yet A-Rod is the consummate choker while Jeter is considered such a post-season legend, he was nicknamed "Mr. November" for his late season clutch hits. And the difference between the two is a whoppingly negligible 0.016 OPS points? Granted, not all post-season plate appearances are clutch situations (whatever they are), but then the post-season isn't the only time for clutch hits. It's just the most memorable one. In a very long career, Alex Rodriguez has likely had his share of successful hits in clutch situtations. But we as fans tend to give players "choke" or "clutch" reputations based on small samples and selective samples, usually spread out over multiple seasons. Sure, a player can come through in the clutch, and a player can fail (or choke, if you prefer) in a key situation, but you really should not try to support either a key attribute of the player by citing "these are human beings" and then go on to ignore that these human beings change from year to year physically and emotionally (the typical range for sample sizes)..

Which would put the Sox in a worse position than they are by not dealing Craig. In order to trade Craig and pay some of his deal, he first has to be added to the 40 man roster, and whatever they pay then counts towards the Luxury Tax. If the Sox don't deal him and keep him off the 40 man roster, nothing counts towards the Luxury Tax...

Evidence? Ummm no. Belief is not evidence. People believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Loch Ness Monster, Pukwudgies, that Obama wiretapped the White House after being born in Kenya, Nicholas Cage's acting ability. Belief alone doesn't prove the existence of any of these things....

Depending on whose posts you read, that arguably already happened.

He might be better than his 2015 numbers, But even his improved line drive rate suggests an xBABIP closer to .310-.320, far below last year's .392...

When it gets boiled down to a percentage, good s nd bad hitters all succeed within a very tight range as it is. .

Do you think they care? A lot of players we hear can't handle the media barely speak the language it's printed and spoken in. And it really DOES appear that enough of them are so egotistical they don't care about the opinions of people not good enough to be where they are. At the end of the day, The one thing players really care about once the game ends appears to be job security and pay checks. This is their livelihood. And while they probably all want to win, it might not be the same priority with players as it is with fans...

I'm an anti-Pomeranz as anyone, but Kendrick is very, very likely to prove himself the inferior option. Guys like Kendrick, who NEED to make an impression in spring training, tend to try harder in order to get noticed and have a chance. Pomeranz, on the other hand, knows he has a role in MLB and just needs to not hurt himself. We see these types of things every year. Maybe Kendrick is now challenging Selsky for the Jeff Bailey Award. ..

That's actually a better argument for him starting the season in Pawtucket and playing every day. Personally I've always thought he was a better overall player than the vastly overrated Brock Holt, but I would keep Holt and Rutledge over him in Boston for bench roles. However if the Sox need someone to start in the infield, I'd prefer calling up Hernandez and keeping Holt and Rutledge on the bench. ..

Why not just insert Hernandez at third? Bogaerts has worked hard at his shortstop defense and made immense improvements and was flat out uncomfortable at third. Why penalize him (and the team) for his hard work?

They did like Rutledge enough to take him in the Rule 5 draft so he must have impressed somebody.

He's on the 40 man already. Wait for the rest, especially if he outplayed Rutledge the rest of the way. ..

The time to trade Holt was probably three years ago after he made the all star team.

While Kendrick doesn't thrill me, hopefully he can do better than he did in Philadelphia. ..

I put zero faith in ST at bats. But clearly this March's winner of the Jeff Bailey Award - given to the player who excels in spring training to the point where fans argue he NEEDS to make the opening day roster - might go to Steve Selsky...

Are there any recent or older studies that prove the existence of clutch? Really so much of it appears to be fan perception and magnification of essentially small differences...

He traded Rutledge away last July. The reason he didn't just sign Rutledge is that Rutledge wasn't a free agent and was still property of the Colorado Rockies, having signed a minor league deal with them 2 weeks earlier. Now why DD didn't try to sign Rutledge before Colorado is anyone's guess. Perhaps he simply wasn't on the radar. ( And really, if he was, that's probably a bigger deal. I'm ok with Josh Rutledge being an afterthought.)