For one thing, this kinda interested me while driving to work.
Second, I wanted to test some table styles, so this seemed like a good page to do it.
Incidentally, I started writing this article with active Internet links for all the players mentioned, but I quickly realized that to do that, I wouldn't have it finished until the next season was over. So if you want to look at the players' pages on Baseball Reference, click this link instead.
Although this isn't the focus of this article, I checked out the performance of the bullpens for the three teams in the 2005 postseason.
| Team | Inn. | ER | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston | 9.2 | 7 | 6.52 |
| Atlanta | 16.2 | 13 | 7.02 |
| New York | 18.2 | 8 | 3.86 |
At the moment after Brad Ausmus' homerun in the ninth inning of Game 4, the Braves' bullpen ERA stood at 13.50 over eight innings of work. Nice, boys. Pack your bags.
With all this talk about Alex Rodriguez supposedly not being clutch or a "True Yankee," whatever the hell that is, I wondered which of the three teams' postseason veterans really have underperformed in the playoffs.
The following lists all the players from the Braves, Yankees and Red Sox who (a) played in the 2005 playoffs and (b) have at least 20 games, career, in the playoffs. Along with that, I've given their career games in the playoffs, their career batting average during the regular season, their career batting average for the playoffs, and the percentage of change. They are ranked from largest increase to largest dropoff in the playoffs.
Since simplistic announcers focus on batting average, I will too. Plus I couldn't find a comprehensive career playoff stat site. I also did a lot of rounding because I don't need this to be exact.
| Name | G | Avg | Post | %Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hideki Matsui | 33 | .297 | .319 | +7 |
| David Ortiz | 38 | .282 | .301 | +7 |
| Andruw Jones | 75 | .267 | .273 | +2 |
| Jason Giambi | 36 | .295 | .301 | +2 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 31 | .307 | .305 | -1 |
| Ruben Sierra | 31 | .268 | .264 | -1 |
| Derek Jeter | 115 | .314 | .307 | -2 |
| Johnny Damon | 32 | .290 | .283 | -2 |
| Trot Nixon | 38 | .279 | .268 | -4 |
| Chipper Jones | 92 | .303 | .288 | -5 |
| John Olerud | 66 | .295 | .278 | -6 |
| Bernie Williams | 120 | .298 | .277 | -7 |
| Jason Varitek | 39 | .272 | .254 | -7 |
| Gary Sheffield | 41 | .297 | .262 | -12 |
| Brian Jordan | 38 | .283 | .250 | -12 |
| Tino Martinez | 99 | .271 | .233 | -14 |
| Edgar Renteria | 55 | .288 | .246 | -15 |
| Jorge Posada | 88 | .269 | .229 | -15 |
| Kevin Millar | 28 | .289 | .242 | -16 |
| Manny Ramirez | 81 | .314 | .257 | -18 |
| Rafael Furcal | 22 | .284 | .232 | -18 |
| Bill Mueller | 36 | .292 | .234 | -20 |
| Julio Franco | 27 | .299 | .234 | -22 |
| Tony Womack | 40 | .273 | .212 | -22 |
| Marcus Giles | 25 | .292 | .217 | -25 |
Of the 25 players listed here, only four have higher career batting averages in the postseason than the regular season. The point of this is not to label players as clutch or chokers. The point is that most players can expect to hit worse against better teams. Imagine that! To label Alex Rodriguez as some kind of choker, when in fact he is one of the few players with significant postseason experience to retain his value, is not only uneducated, it's rude.
So much of this claptrap is being put out there by ignorant writers who don't really understand what winning requires, so they assign it to a magical formula called "leadership, aura, mystique." So much was written of Tino Martinez's leadership abilities and their role in the Yankees' World Series wins during his tenure. Don't ask, "Why did the teams he played for in 2002-2004 not win?" Ask yourself, "If his leadership was so special, how did he lose it before coming back to the Yankees?"
Randy Johnson's career regular season ERA is 3.11. In the playoffs, it's 3.28 — a difference of two earned runs over 115 1/3 innings.
Of special note, John Smoltz is a career .170 hitter in the regular season and .211 in the playoffs! Maybe he is the true Mr. Clutch.
From Fire Joe Morgan, a site I highly recommend if you hate all sports announcers and writers: "If I hear anyone say the phrase 'true Yankee' in person, I will taser their nutsack."
And this little stat line from the Yankees series:
I had mentioned on this Web site just a couple days ago that three teams in particular — the Braves, Yankees and Red Sox — entered the postseason with serious bullpen concerns. Of those three, the Bronx Bombers also had the handicap of being, well, craptastic on defense too.
As I was driving to work, I was musing on that thought when a way to attack the issue without just spewing a bunch of numbers occurred to me: Which player from those three teams at each position would you want based solely on defense? Could it be as bad for the Yankees as I assumed?
What I've done is broken down the teams by their defensive positions. This is just my opinion, of course, and it's not even very heavily backed by research. Time and tide, as they say.
If you're scoring at home, I'm giving 2 points to the first team, 1 to the second, and none to the third at each position.
Catcher
NYY 2, BOS 1, ATL 0: Anyone who wants to malign Jorge Posada's defense, well, I just don't see it. Jason Varitek is adequate, but he threw out just 24 percent of runners trying to steal off him. Posada and Johnny Estrada were both over 30 percent, but Estrada's problems blocking the plate after the June 6 collision with Darin Erstad are well documented.
First Base
BOS 2, ATL 1, NYY 0: Tough call between Atlanta and Boston on this one. Boston had John Olerud, who's been good, backing up Kevin Millar, who started 24 games in the outfield for the Red Sox. Although I think they're pretty good at first base, I can't see Adam LaRoche or the ageless Julio Franco* playing in the outfield.
As for the Yankees, I see you, Jason Giambi. You can't hide.
* When discussing the ageless Julio Franco, it is mandatory to put the word "ageless" in front of his name, like "Mister" in front of Magoo. Very much like how you can't tell anyone where former Seahawks quarterback Dave Krieg went to college — Milton College — without adding "now defunct."
Second Base
ATL 2, NYY 1, BOS 0: I think Marcus Giles has a decent chance to win a Gold Glove this year. Mark Bellhorn and Tony Graffanino for the BoSox and Robinson Cano for the Yankees aren't quite in that class.
Third Base
BOS 2, NYY 1, ATL 0: Bill Mueller and Alex Rodriguez are good at third, and I think Chipper Jones is underrated. In fact, his fielding numbers over his 101 games at third base this year are better than either Mueller's or A-Rod's. I think he's a half-notch below Mueller and about even with A-Rod defensively. Since the Braves are about to score some major points, however, I'll drop him here.
Shortstop
ATL 2, NYY 1, BOS 0: The real question here isn't that the Braves have the best defensive shortstop of the three — I think Rafael Furcal is now the best shortstop in the majors — but how far behind are Derek Jeter and Edgar Renteria?
Renteria made 30 errors, which doesn't necessarily mean much since Boston's infield as seen from TV looks like the Stones play there every night, but he also had a lot fewer chances than the other two. Adding those up, he drops to the back.
Left Field
ATL 2, NYY 1, Bos 0: He's not the worst of the bunch, but why does it seem like every time Hideki Matsui tries to make a sliding catch, the ball hits him in the belly?
Even if I didn't think he was a better left fielder than Manny Ramirez, however, his porn collection is worth at least a point on this scale.
Instructed to stay in the team dormitory and refrain from dating during the first several years of his career, so as to devote all his concentration solely to baseball, Matsui agreeably complied, without so much as a whimper. Indeed, his only eccentricity, if it can be called that, is his extensive private library of adult videos. His refreshing ability to laugh self-deprecatingly about his porno collection, reporters say, is one reason why fans and even nonfans have taken to him so much.
The Braves have Ryan Langerhans, who is good enough to cover all three outfield spots. Not at the same time.
Center Field
ATL 2, BOS 1, NYY 0: Can I give New York negative points for this one? Andruw Jones has dropped to the middle of the pack in plays per nine innings, and he didn't catch 500 balls this year like he used to, but I still think he's an excellent center fielder. No one gets a better bead on a fly ball or makes better throws through the infield. It's true. Watch Andruw throw home a few times. You'll almost always see a one-hop throw that the cutoff man could take if he wanted.
Of course, Jones is getting older, but I think another reason his plays have dropped off is because the Braves pull extreme shifts on defense, maybe more so than any other team in the majors. Those extreme shifts can get burned if the pitchers don't hit their spots to entice hitting into the shift. As the Braves' pitching has declined, so has the efficiency of the shifts.
Johnny Damon is a good outfielder, but he can't throw worth a lick. And his arm looks like a rail gun compared to Bernie Williams'.
Just for the curious, Jones has 105 assists in his career, and Williams and Damon both have 62. Williams may retire and Damon is three years older than Jones.
Right Field
ATL 2, BOS 1, NYY 0: Atlanta has Jeff Francoeur, who led all major league right fielders with 13 assists in just 65 starts. He's 21, and he's young, fast and energetic. Boston's Trot Nixon is good, but not great. I used to say that Gary Sheffield was underrated as an outfielder. He's not anymore. Time takes its toll on all mortals.
So there you have it. The final standings:
To be honest, I was surprised to see New York do as well as it did. Sure, the Yankee bullpen wasn't good except for the usual suspects. If Randy Johnson hadn't pitched well in Game 5 of the ALDS, the Bombers could have been shelled out of the playoffs instead of going with a whimper. But the older, less agile men at first, center and right can turn even the few balls that are hit weakly into hits instead of outs. That's the last thing mediocre pitchers need.
Since I know there's a lot of Braves, Red Sox and Yankees fans on the O-fers, lemme take a second to discuss the playoffs:
Umm, the bullpen is kinda important.
And it should be something you can create cheaply. Just find five guys who throw strikes — striking batters out helps too — and pay them a million per. When they're ready to be paid two million per, send them packing. Simple. Elegant.
Of course, the Yankees had the additional encumbrance of a defense that completely sucks butt. With, I don't know, just one outfielder who can get out of his own way, they probably could have won Game 5 and headed to the ALCS.
Update: Yeah, what Michael Kay said: "The ironic thing is that Sheffield makes the play if Bernie Williams starts in center field, because Bernie probably doesn't get a good enough jump to get there in time to collide with Sheffield."
Oh, and then there's this:
"Derek Jeter hit a home run Friday with the Yankees down four runs. He hit one last night with the team down three. The one last night was pointed to, by the game broadcasters as well as the ones on SportsCenter, as evidence of his 'clutchness.'
"Not for nothing, but why is it if Alex Rodriguez hits a solo homer with the Yankees down by a bunch, it's evidence that he's a stat-padding loser, but when Jeter does it, it's clutch?"
