Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Is there any research that ranks the positions in a batting order most likely to appear in TSN "clutch" situations (runner in scoring position two outs)?

I like Edgar Martinez. I don't know where to hide his craptastic clutch while taking advantage of his non-craptastic raking.

I think the 5 spot is good for clutch hitters and the 2 spot is good for negative clutch hitters.

Someone put out an analysis of an 8 man lineup and how many clutch situations they have. It was done a long time ago, when the earth was green.
Most mgrs use it as bible, and it seems to work well.

6 comes up needing a clutch hit most often, closely followed by 5th and 2nd.
3rd and 8th have the least (8th because of walks in front of the pitcher).
1st, 4th and 7th are in between.

Not sure how having a DH impacts it - but prob not by much, ecept 8th and 9th might be equal to 7th.

the best way to minimize negative clutch is to never allow your team to make two outs


8-)

Or, even better, don't draft guys with negative clutch ratings. But note that, at least in recent years, guys with negative clutch ratings get compensated with a small bump in their hit chances in non-clutch situations.

This is very helpful -- thanks.

I wonder if the group values clutch hitting in the two hole more than avoiding GB(A)?

Willie Wilson's 3.98 card is a good example. I've used him in the 2 hole in the past because he's a solid hitter with outstanding speed. He also only has 4 GB(A) on his card. Now that I look at his card, I note that he has negative 8 clutch.

Is a player such as this -- not necessarily Wilson -- a bad 2 hole hitter in Strat despite the .290ish average (per Diamond Dope) and dearth of GB(A)? Would you rather have a high clutch hitter, with 8-10 GB(A) in the 2 hole?

I think the 2 hole is idea for Wilson. Low GbA and negative clutch.

Negative clutch is good there because, for his first AB of every game he is guaranteed to not come up with 2 outs.

That's theoretically 162 games with no chance of the negative clutch coming into play.

Edgar Martinez is great in the #3 spot