Being able to perform in the 'clutch', when the game is on the line and there is no room for error, is a unique ability. Feeling 50,000+ pairs of eyes watching your every move and knowing millions more are watching on their TVs in their homes can be nerve-racking, to say the least.
Nonetheless, professional baseball players are often faced with a situation like this and how they perform in them can becoming a defining characteristic. A great baseball player can lose respect, and ultimately significant money in his contract, if he is known for not getting the big hit when needed; likewise, a player can prolong, or even make, a career out of timely hits.
Lenny Harris, for example was a career .269 hitter but he got the hits when it counted most. Over his 18 season career, much of which was either has a platoon player or pinch hitter, Harris batted .294 with tow outs and a runner on third; he also batted .323 with the bases loaded.
Individual clutch performances can greatly affect a player's career and it can also give his team an extra win or two but the combine clutch offensive performances of an entire team can have a huge impact on the team's season. A team with a lot of talent but who doesn't get the big hits often misses the playoffs whereas a team with less offensive talent but gets the big hit when it matters most can win the World Series (see the 2010 San Francisco Giants).
This slideshow is ranking the 30 MLB teams from least to most clutch, as a whole, for the 2010 season. In order to fully analyze the 'clutchness' of a team I used 8 different statistical categories.
This includes: WAR (wins above replacement), BT Wins (adjusted batting wins - which measures a hitter's contribution to his team's wins with only his bat), Clutch (which measures the win probability of a team having a particular player), Productive Outs Percentage (which measures a player's ability to make productive outs - i.e. moving a runner along, etc.), BA with Two Outs and RISP, BA in Late+Close games, BA in High Leverage Situations, and, finally, BA in Extra innings.
With this extensive list of stats of the entire teams combined offensive stats, I was able to fully analyze each team's ability to perform in the clutch and, thus, rank them from least to most clutch.
West Michigan Edge Eastern Conference Fredericksburg Gunners Hampton Roads Piranhas
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