Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

the strikeouts just seem to come in the close losses to the Tigers or Rangers. the hits just seem to come in the easy wins over the Twins. he did come up big against the Phillies 2 years ago. his strikeouts per game ratio is higher in the postseason that's what i was looking at. 60 ks 67 games. .895 ops postseason .953 reg season.

 

I really thought he had it.

 

Facing, on average, higher-quality pitching during the playoffs, the primary effect of this "choking" to the enormous pressure is that once every 33 at-bats, he has an extra strikeout instead of another kind of out (but not a lower OBP) and once every 20 at-bats, he hits a single instead of a double. How incredibly mentally weak of him.

In the meantime, in order to torture reality into the point we want to make (that an unlikable guy isn't really as good as he obviously is), apparently now some postseason games count and some don't. And what a shock, by the standards that are just made up on the spot, the ones that *do* count are the ones where he was bad, and the ones that don't are the ones where he was good. Coincidence!

 

A-Rod is the fail whale.

 

Alex Rodriguez as a Yankee:

Regular season .295/.391/.550
Postseason .260/.388/.500

Mr. May Redux


Derek Jeter as a Yankee:

Regular season .313/.383/.449
Postseason .307/.374/.466

 

While I don't believe in clutch, I do believe in people choking, and I am definitely more of a stats guy. Chuck Knoblauch, Rick Ankiel and others have had major breakdowns in the playoffs, so it's conceivable to me that A-Rod could also underperform because of a mental issue. I just don't think the opposite is true - That because chokers exist, that there are people who magically play much better in clutch situations.

 

all the postseason games count. but some at-bats are more important than others. in the 2nd inning the strikeout in a tie game isn't as bad because there are more at-bats to make up for it. when you are up in a tie game there is more pressure than when your team has a 5-run lead. if you played baseball you didn't ever feel like that at-bat?

 

Sure I did. But I didn't have to hit in front of scouts who would decide if I have a future in baseball or a future in used car sales. Then in the minors, where a few hits here and there would decide if I promoted a level or washed out. Then in the majors, with millions of dollars on the line. It's absurd to think that a player could handle all that, and then gak because the postseason is just too much.

And in the meantime, you haven't really shown that A-Rod has been worse in those high-leverage at-bats.

If you guys want to have the clutch/pressure argument, there are dozens of cases that make way more sense. Ankiel was a great example.

But Alex Rodriguez? His numbers look almost *exactly* like we'd expect over a long sample. He's had some terrible playoff series (just as he's had terrible regular season stretches), and he's also had some spectacular ones, including early in his career and pretty much carrying his team through an entire playoff year recently.

This isn't about clutchiness or pressure. This is about people disliking a talented jackass who has spent his career chasing money.

 

He had a great, great 2009 postseason. Brosius-like, maybe even, he was THAT good.

Other than that: Fail all around ever since he tried to purse-slap that ball in '04.

 

How good would the Mariners be if they would have kept Fister and Asdrubal Cabrera (who they gave away for a few months of Eduardo Perez?).

 

pretty much true. in 07 vs Cleveland he wasn't terrible but since 04 in the series the Yankees have lost he's been bad.

 

would Cabrera be worth 1 or 2 runs every game? Fister was pretty good there but was like 8 games under .500 because their lineup sucked.