• A-Rod Least “Clutch” 3B In Majors This Year?

    Posted by on May 31st, 2011 · Comments (8)

    See the numbers below – which are this season to date:

    Rk Player Clutch Year Age Tm Lg G PA
    1 Daniel Descalso 1.5 2011 24 STL NL 49 156
    2 Brandon Inge 0.6 2011 34 DET AL 50 174
    3 Chris Johnson 0.3 2011 26 HOU NL 46 184
    4 Adrian Beltre 0.2 2011 32 TEX AL 54 225
    5 Casey McGehee 0.2 2011 28 MIL NL 53 223
    6 Chipper Jones 0.2 2011 39 ATL NL 50 212
    7 Aramis Ramirez 0.1 2011 33 CHC NL 48 201
    8 Jack Hannahan -0.1 2011 31 CLE AL 44 169
    9 Danny Valencia -0.1 2011 26 MIN AL 52 208
    10 Kevin Youkilis -0.2 2011 32 BOS AL 50 212
    11 Chase Headley -0.2 2011 27 SDP NL 53 201
    12 Chone Figgins -0.3 2011 33 SEA AL 48 209
    13 Kevin Kouzmanoff -0.3 2011 29 OAK AL 41 133
    14 Mark Reynolds -0.3 2011 27 BAL AL 51 203
    15 Alberto Callaspo -0.3 2011 28 LAA AL 52 216
    16 Placido Polanco -0.8 2011 35 PHI NL 53 232
    17 Alex Rodriguez -0.9 2011 35 NYY AL 48 208
    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
    Generated 5/31/2011.

    .

    What is “Clutch” above? It’s WPA divided by aLI – WPA/LI. The context dependent WPA is divided by the average leverage minus context-neutral situational wins. You can read more about it here. But, in everyday speak, it tells you who is stat padding with garbage time production – if I understand it correctly.

    If you want a point of comparison, A-Rod was best in the A.L., at his position, in 2007 in this stat during his opt-out year:

    Rk Player Clutch Year Age Tm Lg G PA
    1 Alex Rodriguez 0.9 2007 31 NYY AL 158 708
    2 Nick Punto 0.5 2007 29 MIN AL 150 536
    3 Troy Glaus 0.4 2007 30 TOR AL 115 456
    4 Adrian Beltre 0.3 2007 28 SEA AL 149 639
    5 Melvin Mora -0.2 2007 35 BAL AL 126 527
    6 Brandon Inge -0.5 2007 30 DET AL 151 577
    7 Mike Lowell -0.5 2007 33 BOS AL 154 653
    8 Akinori Iwamura -0.6 2007 28 TBD AL 123 559
    9 Casey Blake -0.7 2007 33 CLE AL 156 662
    10 Alex Gordon -1.0 2007 23 KCR AL 151 600
    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
    Generated 5/31/2011.

    Of course, this season is still young and Alex can improve on his mark here – and hopefully he will.

    Filed under Math Class · ·

    Comments on A-Rod Least “Clutch” 3B In Majors This Year?

    1. Evan3457
      May 31st, 2011 | 5:52 pm

      Here’s another point of comparison. Among all MLB thirdbaseman, from 2007-2011, WPA/LI

      Wright: 16.44
      Rodriguez: 13.96
      Chipper: 13.69
      Youkillis: 11.51
      Bautista: 7.83

      …and at the bottom…

      Ty Wigginton: -0.94
      Jhonny Peralta: -1.44
      Brandon Inge: -4.22
      Jose Lopez: -4.54
      Pedro Feliz: -5.05

      A-Rod was 3rd in 2008 at 3.61, 7th in 2009 at 2.40, 7th in 2010 at 2.02.
      He is 10th of 19 at +0.06 so far this season. (Stats from Fangraphs).

      ================================================
      In their measure “Clutch”, Fangraphs has him at 18th of 19 this year, but he was 3rd of 23 last year, 5th of 23 in 2009, 18th of 18 in 2008, and 3rd of 21 in 2007.

      This matches up with my own recollection, he was superb in clutch spots in the regular season in 2007 and 2010, better than usual in 2009, and his long slump in the middle of the 2008 season helped doom the team to miss the playoffs, along with the Wang injury, the Posada injury, the Matsui injury, and the Cano season-long coma.

      This year, we have all seen that he’s been awful in key spots since he got hurt. As we can see from recent past data, this is about 25/75 to continue.
    2. redbug
      May 31st, 2011 | 5:53 pm

      Forgeting advanced stat’s, I thought he was clutch in ’09. I’m no fan of Arod’s, so take what I say w/ that in mind, but except for ’09′s postseason, Arod hasn’t been clutch in the regular and postseason since the Yankees got him.
    3. MJ Recanati
      May 31st, 2011 | 8:57 pm

      redbug wrote:

      except for ’09′s postseason, Arod hasn’t been clutch in the regular and postseason since the Yankees got him.

      Well at least you admit you’re not a fan of his because this statement just isn’t factually accurate.
    4. YankCrank
      June 1st, 2011 | 10:12 am

      redbug wrote:

      except for ’09′s postseason, Arod hasn’t been clutch in the regular and postseason since the Yankees got him.

      Wow. A-Rod haters find new ways to surprise me every day. It would really be nice if Yankee fans could be less spoiled and appreciate the talent they have.

      Too much to ask, I guess.
    5. Raf
      June 1st, 2011 | 12:27 pm

      @ YankCrank:
      The sentiment can be extended to sports fans in general.
    6. redbug
      June 1st, 2011 | 6:08 pm

      Alright, show me seasons where you think he was clutch in the regular and postseason other than 2009.

      And, how about replying w/o questioning my ability to be a Yankee or baseball fan. Is it really too difficult to disagree w/ my (or someone elses) view w/o being disagreeable?
    7. Raf
      June 1st, 2011 | 7:11 pm

      redbug wrote:

      Alright, show me seasons where you think he was clutch in the regular and postseason other than 2009.

      Regular season: 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010
      Postseason: 1997, 2000, 2004, 2009

      Regular season AND postseason: 2000, 2004, 2009
    8. Raf
      June 2nd, 2011 | 3:28 pm

      From Bronx Banter
      http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2011/06/02/color-by-numbers-in-the-clutch/

    Leave a reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.