Running baseball thread part VIII

Nah, Davies will probably throw a gem because the Yankees have never faced him before.

 

Can you make the argument that A-Rod is not clutch with his performance up to 500? Ever since 499, he hasn't been hitting worth a bucket of handicapped squid. I mean it's a stretch, but maybe he's feeling the pressure like Bonds when they change the balls.

 

That is ridiculous. He went into an 0-for-22 slump, which averages out to a slump over 5 games, plenty of hitters have them but they aren't suddenly considered un-clutch.
Hell, Big Papi doesn't even have 20 home runs, yet everyone still considers him clutch.
He is hitting again right now and will probably reach 500 in the next couple of days.
To say he isn't clutch because he can't hit No. 500 is asinine in my opinion.

 

There are two guys named Ryan Braun in the majors....the stud rookie 3B for the Brewers and the crappy reliever for the Royals.

 

This is A-Rod's second longest homer-less drought of the year. He went 10 games before. Tomorrow will be his 8th game. But when he does hit one, he gets a streak going.

 

OK.

That's as weird as when there were two Jeff D'Amico pitchers a few years back.

 

Yeah. Everyone should be like you and forget the 2004 postseason ever occured.

This latest drought is just the latest evidence that the best thing that can happen to ARod is the Yankees missing the playoffs this year. Because he will have another miserable October if they get that far.

 

uber-choking a-rod in the postseason:
280/362/485

saint derek clutch mcclutcherson jeter in the postseason:
314/384/479

uber-choking a-rod in the 2004 ALCS meltdown:
258/378/516

true yankee super-clutch mcclutcherstein derek jeter in the 2004 ALCS meltdown:
200/333/233(it burns! it burns! get it off! get it off!)

carry on.

 

well done

 

Aaron actually hit MORE homers the closer he got to Ruth, but that's not typical. Many players have stalled short of historic odometer rollovers. Carl Yastrzrzemski took something like two weeks to get his 3000th hit. Early Wynn's pursuit of 300 wins became a bad joke. Remember what happened to Soriano when he had the chance to be a 40/40 guy with the Yanks?
Mental blocks are a real thing in every line of work. They don't just happen to writers.

 

Here are the longest gaps between 499 and 500 in baseball history:

Jimmie Foxx (1941) 61 ABs
Harmon Killebrew (1971) 43 ABs
Mickey Mantle (1967) 28 ABs
Alex Rodriguez (2007) 28 ABs
source: stolen shamelessly from SonsofSamHorn.net

So, I guess that means Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew and Jimmie Foxx should all hope they never played in the playoffs either because they are big huge CHOKERS!

 

From someone who lives in NY and watches the Yankees on an almost daily basis, A-Rod is trying too hard to hit 500. Plain and simple. I haven't looked it up specifically, but during that slump, he managed to strike out a lot of times because it seems like he's trying to sit on fastballs, he's looking really bad on the curves and sliders, etc.
Now that he's gotten a couple of hits the last couple of days, he'll get 500 before too long. I say good for him.

And as referenced a few posts back, A-Rod is Mr. April and May. Not September or October. To me, he's not clutch until he gets it done in October.

Having said that, with the full amount of disclosure, A-Rod is the best player in baseball. Period.