Ok but I was putting clutch hits into context.
Ortiz certainly had his, but Yaz did, too.
If Ortiz’ walk off hits are a big factor, so should be Yaz going 16 for 28 with 5 HRs in the last week of 1967 to push the Sox to the AL pennant.
Ortiz was a great player, but Yaz was a better one…
That is a tough call, admittedly.
But that ALCS in 2013 was one where the Sox desperately needed to turn things around. They hit shut out in game one at home and scored 1 run in 16 innings, andwere just a few outs away from going 0-2 at Fenway. At least the 2004 team wasn’t dead offensively in the ALCS.
But the game 4 one in 2004 was huge, especially followed by the walkoff single some 20 hours later…
No. There’s math behind any projection system that helps the projector determine performance. But how often anyone plays? That’s just guessing.
Just because it isn’t always accurate doesn’t make it guessing…
Part of this is also because we’re Sox fans. You probably haven’t thought about Ben Zobrist in years.
Papi had some huge clutch hits as key walk offs, including TWO IN ONE DAY in the 2004 ALCS. But he wasn’t the 63rd best player in MLB even with that. But what he was was a Hall of Fame caliber player with a huge room-filling personality…
Totality the personality that separates him from the pack.
Luis Gonzalez got the most clutch and most famous and most critical walk off hit in MLB history. Does he even get talked about anymore?
Jim Thome is the all time MLB leader in walk off home runs. While he is in the HOF and deservedly so, did you even know he was the career leader?
I wouldn’t rank Ortiz anywhere near Yastrzemski on an All Time list. But both were certainly great players. I do think Ortiz does get helped a lot by his personality…
The 1978 team didn’t win anything, except 99 games, which was the most at the time for the Sox since 1946. The team also boasted 4 Hall of Famers (Rice, Yaz, Fisk, Eck’s) and a couple other very noteworthy candidates in Tiant and Evans…