Even Michael Jordan acknowledged he missed plenty of game-winning shots. Small samples, yes, but he doesn't always rise to the occasion - no one does. 373/.439/.797 this postseason, he hasn't always delivered this time of year. One could argue he's essentially the same player in lower- and higher-stakes environments, though one could also argue he generally faced a higher level of pitching in the playoffs. 308/.374/.465 (121 wRC+).Ī clutch player? Or simply a great player?ĭavid Ortiz produced a. 310/.377/.440 slash for his career in the regular season (119 wRC+). Jeter's an interesting study because of his reputation for playoff magic and because he also owns the most postseason plate appearances (734) in MLB history. Many think of Derek Jeter as a clutch player. The guys who are good enough to be in the majors are all capable of succeeding and failing in these situations, and they're as likely to do one or the other in the clutch as they are at any other time." Rob Tringali / Getty They've proven that by rising to the top of an enormous pyramid of players, tens of thousands of them, all trying to be one of the top 0.1% that gets to call themselves 'major leaguers.'. "All major-league players have a demonstrated ability to perform under pressure. Joe Sheehan wrote the following in Baseball Prospectus in 2004:
This view was further tested and gained wide acceptance in sabermetric circles. … So fades a legend - but after all, what was really meant when someone was called a 'clutch hitter'? Was he really a batter who didn’t fold under pressure, or was he a lazy batter who bothered to try his hardest only when the game was on the line?" In 1977, Dick Cramer, writing for the Baseball Research Journal, summarized his findings: "Good hitters are good hitters and weak hitters are weak hitters regardless of the game situation. Questioning the idea of clutch players goes back decades, too. The term "clutch" appears to originate in baseball and dates back to the 1920s, meaning a "moment when heroics are required." One theory has it that a sportswriter was influenced by “Invictus," a poem in which English writer William Ernest Henley wrote: "In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud." But were there players who had the skill more than others? Were there players who performed better in high-stress situations than low-stress ones? Did the so-called "clutch gene" exist? Tim Nwachukwu / Getty
No one was debating whether there were clutch plays - contributions that have outsized impacts in determining the outcome of a game.
One of the early battlegrounds between analytical and traditional viewpoints was this debate, whether clutch players existed.
0 kommentar(er)
