Liquid Tension
Footballguy
End of story for someone who has no understanding of expected statistical deviations and someone who makes up incorrect stats. ARod has 7 hits (not 4) in his last 44 AB's, with a double a homer and 8 walks.So you conveniently exclude the 72 AB's prior to these 44 where ARod had 25 hits, 7 doubles, 5 homers, 9 walks and was hit twice? This is a .347 BA, .433 OBP and a .653 slug (OPS of 1.087)!!! How is it possible he wasn't choking under the pressure of the playoffs and all the lights for these 72 AB's???
So tell me why Tino Martinez isn't a huge choker and why he is thought of as a clutch player? I can tell you why, it is because the Yankees won and people overlook bad performances when a team wins. It is also because people have unrealistic expectations for great players. Tino had a career OPS of .672 in 356 AB's in the postseason. But Tino had some good performances as well...which happens when you understand statistical deviations.
Mr. clutch Girardi had exactly ONE RBI and a .463 OPS in 114 postseason AB's. How did Girardi manage a HUGE triple when he was clearly so unclutch?
Do you remember how many people were on another great player in Barry Bonds about him choking so badly in the playoffs after having 3 bad series' (and one pretty good one .868 OPS)? Then, all of a sudden the guy had a 74 plate appearance stretch that was the best ever (something around an OPS of 1.550)...Yeah, I know it was all roids...
How about a fellow Yankee like Bernie Williams? Do you remember the first 3 series' he had in the postseason and he was labeled as clutch performer? Sure was great, an OPS of about 1.40 in 55 AB's. Then, he went through a stretch of 52 AB's where his OPS was about .420??? How can this be? He is so clutch?
...and finally let me rest my case for anyone being objective. Your entire weak argument is based on the ARod's most recent 44 AB's (it is really only the 29 AB's but I will extend it for you). Let's compare some under pressure spots in critical moments of Mr consistent D. Jeter. Jeter actually had a similar 44 AB stretch, in fact, it was critical in that the WS that was as close as they come was part of this stretch.
ARod 44 AB's - 7 hits, 1 double and 1 homer with 8 walks = OPS .538
Jeter 44 AB's - 6 hits, 0 double and 1 homer with 2 walks = OPS .371
How is this possible? On ARod's worst small stretch he is .167 OPS points higher than Jeter's??? Perhaps if ARod's postseason career would have ended after a 4 game sweep of Boston, people would have wrongly assumed that he was one of the most clutch players to play the game?
The point is that when people start getting closer to a full season of postseason AB's or even half of that, you can see that they revert closer to their norm. Jeter has a full year of postseason stats and his stats are about the same in both areas. Bernie had a .858 OPS in the regular season and a .851 OPS in the postseason in almost a full year of postseason AB's.
If clutch ability were a real thing wouldn't you see a more consistent trend from players to almost always be clutch or unclutch? They wouldn;t swing back and forth. One good series like he has already had a few times and ARod is not a choker? I would also expect someone who was a choker to perform much worse than normal, maybe like Tino and Girardi, but if you have the same OPS in the postseason as Jeter, i have a hard time calling that type of performance a choker, even if it is less than his normal stellar self.
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Santana is 11-8 on an awful Mets team and sporting a 3.12 ERA, which is his lifetime number (and an ERA+ better than any current Yankee starter). He's absolutely fine and is exactly what the Yanks need...another dominant starter. I have no faith that the current starting Yankee group as a whole can be consistent enough to win in the playoffs.
Santana is 11-8 on an awful Mets team and sporting a 3.12 ERA, which is his lifetime number (and an ERA+ better than any current Yankee starter). He's absolutely fine and is exactly what the Yanks need...another dominant starter. I have no faith that the current starting Yankee group as a whole can be consistent enough to win in the playoffs.
Santana is 11-8 on an awful Mets team and sporting a 3.12 ERA, which is his lifetime number (and an ERA+ better than any current Yankee starter). He's absolutely fine and is exactly what the Yanks need...another dominant starter. I have no faith that the current starting Yankee group as a whole can be consistent enough to win in the playoffs.
Santana is 11-8 on an awful Mets team and sporting a 3.12 ERA, which is his lifetime number (and an ERA+ better than any current Yankee starter). He's absolutely fine and is exactly what the Yanks need...another dominant starter. I have no faith that the current starting Yankee group as a whole can be consistent enough to win in the playoffs.
Totally agree.
