Study Reveals Baseball's Great Clutch Hitters

[Dead]

The question has been answered:

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LiveScience Staff

LiveScience.com Thu May 5, 6:27 PM ET

A baseball fan and statistics buff has proven that clutch hitters really do exist, putting statistics behind the obvious.

The new study, by math and economics student Elan Fuld of the University of Pennsylvania, was announced by the university Thursday.

Fuld defined a clutch hitter as one who hits better at more important moments. He studied stats on 1,075 Major League players in the 1974-1992 seasons.

Factors determining a clutch hit: how many bases were occupied, the score at the time, the inning, and how many outs. He also counted sacrifice flies, in which a runner scores but no hit is recorded.

"What I found was that, when I included sacrifice flys in the analysis, there was overwhelming evidence that there were clutch hitters," Fuld said.

So who were the greatest under pressure? Frank Duffy, Eddie Murray and Luis Gomez stood out.

Bill Buckner, known as a choke artist for his Game 6
World Series error in 1986 that many remember as costing Boston the championship, was statistically proven to be a clutch hitter, too.

Fans and players have always known there's a lot of psychology to hitting.

"Once situational importance rose to around at least a certain level," Fuld explained, "the player would start to think this is very important and start doing something that makes him hit better, if he's clutch, or panics and does something that makes him hit worse, if he's a choke hitter."

[J.R.]

Eddie haters abound but his play never gets enough respect.

[daryn]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />

Fuld defined a clutch hitter as one who hits better at more important moments.

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but why exactly does he do so? is it a statistical coincidence? just variance? yes.

this article proves nothing.

[Voltron87]

This has always been an oxymoron. The point of clutch hitters and players is that you can't measure their contributions to the team in numbers.

[istewart]

[ QUOTE ]
student Elan Fuld of the University of Pennsylvania

[/ QUOTE ]

As much as I would like to agree, I can't see anything revealing about this article or study. Sample size pwns him.

And I haven't heard anything about this study here [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Paluka]

The only way to prove clutch hitting is to see if it predictive- going over the past and seeing if players behaved as if they were clutch hitters is stupid.

[bisonbison]

The only way to prove clutch hitting is to see if it predictive- going over the past and seeing if players behaved as if they were clutch hitters is stupid.

ding.

[pryor15]

haven't read the article yet, but there's a new one by everyone's favorite geek, bill james, on this very issue, available here

it's a link to a pdf, just so you know.

[Dead]

Bill James makes my head hurt.

I resent the fact that he has turned baseball into such a mathematical game.

[Jack of Arcades]

[ QUOTE ]
Bill James makes my head hurt.

I resent the fact that he has turned baseball into such a mathematical game.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have the greatest GM of all time, Branch Rickey, to blame for that.