Some people will tell you clutch hitting is a myth. Some will say clutchiness is a thing, but not a predictable thing, and perhaps not a measurable thing. All I know is I had a damn good feeling whenever David Ortiz was hitting in a key spot late in a playoff game.
One thing I never understood about the whole “clutch hitting” thing is that if it means that the player is bringing it when it “really matters”, doesn’t that imply that he’s dogging it during the August doldrums? Why is this supposed to be a good thing?
Do you always try your hardest 100% of the time? Or do you save your maximum effort for the times when it matters the most?
Being clutch is not about effort. It’s about performance. The two don’t always go hand in hand.
It’s kind of easy to dig up examples.
David Ortiz, for instance. Ortiz in 2005 had one of the greatest clutch hitting seasons of all time; according to Fangraphs, he was so good in the clutch that he added three or four wins to the Red Sox above what his hitting stats would suggest he did. That’s astounding - 3-4 wins might not sound like a lot but it’s incredible, really. He might well have been the deserving MVP that year just because of that.
But for the rest of his career, that isn’t true; he was pretty much just as good in the clutch as he was normally, and in fact, according to Fangraphs, was a little worse int he clutch (not by a lot.) His playoff statistics are almost bang on his regular season statistics. If hitting in the clutch was a repeatable skill, Ortiz would have done it more often than just one season.
I mean, of course Barkis Is Willin’ had a good feeling when Ortiz was hitting in key situations; he was David Ortiz. He was a great hitter. If everyone on your team could hit like David Ortiz you’d win 135 games a year. But Ortiz wasn’t great in the clutch because he improved his performance in those situations; he was great in the clutch because he was great in ALL situations.
If there is anyone who ever had a long career who was substantially better or worse in the clutch than normal, I don’t know who they were.