Comments on: eMailBag: Is Beltran Clutch?

By: Coolpapabell

Coolpapabell — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:17:35 +0000

I love these discussions. These are the type that bring out the reasonable Mets fans that weren’t sleeping in their high school statistics classes. Yes, this sample is entirely to small! Comparing his stats to the league average was a good suggestion. Or maybe we can compare his “clutch” stats for the three years he’s been a Met or why not his career?

May I suggest those Beltran haters compare his overall stats to that of the league average before booing him.

By: metawan

metawan — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:59:29 +0000

The yahoos calling to trade everyone in the farm for J. Santana are the same people who will destroy him if he ever got here. As soon as the Mets sign or trade for a guy with a bloated contract they become a target, right or wrong. Beltran is streaky and when he is going bad he is hard to watch. When he is going good he is absolutly lights out, and clutch. Get off the one at bat in the NLCS game. Chances are if theMets maned-up and got their sorry a$$es in theplayoffs #15 would have redeemed himself.

By the way…..what happened to all the Eli bashers? Same PITA’s as the Beltran bashers. Trade Jose because he had a bad month. Mike Piazza haters, same fans.

By: ferazwon

ferazwon — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:56:40 +0000

the guy is a streaky hitter period! when he’s on he hits everything in any situation and when he’s off he looks clueless. i don’t think the guy gets rattled in any situation and if he’s swinging well he’s extremely clutch. its amazing how many mets fans bitch about this guy. with the exception of his 1st year he’s been worth every penny. we bitch how the wilpons never spend then they go out and spend on beltran and now met fans hang that contract over beltrans head and cut the guy zero slack its pathetic. can we just support the guys wearing our jersey and not act like the fake ass yankee fans out there. who cares how much a guy is makin as long as he’s helpin us win ballgames. besides the wilpons are paying him not us fans so enough

By: darkstar73

darkstar73 — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:36:34 +0000

if Beltran is what people are complaining about, then as fans, we have some serious problems…

By: Wayneo

Wayneo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:21:43 +0000

My fault, he is Mr. Clutch. I’ll just erase the memory of him striking out looking from my brain.

By: VCarver

VCarver — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:06:07 +0000

Well I agree with Mike Nichols that simply comparing lifetime situational stats with his overall career stats is not a good way to define clutch and that each person does define it a little differently. What that fails to do is properly value times when a late inning close-and-late RBI is more important than at other times — like a game in September during a pennant race vs. one in April. Further, I think most people would agree that postseason performance, where it exists, is a good indicator of clutchness.

Having said that, it is interesting to note that Beltran’s lifetime OPS for many so called “clutch” situations is higher than his overall numbers. That includes hitting with Runners On, RISP, RISP w-2 outs, bases loaded, Men on 2-outs, and Man on 3rd <2 outs. It is also interesting to note that in both years he appeared in the postseason, his OPS was higher than his career OPS. So no matter how you define clutch, it’s hard to say Beltran is not clutch. However, I think it would be valuable to see him over a few more postseasons and stretch drives in order to make a more definitive judgment. But so far, so good.

By: Lovemonkeystudios

Lovemonkeystudios — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:59:36 +0000

And if we’re talking Clutch, how about the hill catch in Houston? That is Clutch. As were the two days in a row of smashing into the Center field fence last year.

And in September when everything was falling apart, he hit .282 with 8 homeruns and 27 RBIs in 28 games. Not too shabby.

By: zen

zen — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:48:01 +0000

how often did beltran hit a double or triple with a guy on 1st who scored in the late innings? with 2 outs? solo hr or hr with a guy on 1st? with 2 outs?

those are very clutch, but are not addressed in the stats.

By: PhillR

PhillR — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:42:01 +0000

I just read some of the other comments on here. Good god people, learn some math!

“Let me see if I can simplify it for you then, .224 with 2 out and RISP is NOT clutch. Nor is a .175 close and late. Beltran’s numbers in 06 were very good while in 07 he was horrible!!!”

We are talking about 57 and 67 at bats respectively. Talk about a small sample size. .224 means he had 15 hits I think? If he had 20 hits he is batting .298 over the same period.

5 hits is one or two bad/good games. You can not draw a conclusion over such a small sample size. The difference between 2007 and 2006 is better explained by random variation then anything else.

By: PhillR

PhillR — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:26:17 +0000

Repeat after me: “There is no such thing as clutch. There is no such thing as clutch. There is no such thing as clutch.”

Seriously people.