Clutch
Description:
Thank goodness, finally an easy statistic to explain! Clutch measures how well a player performs in high leverage situations. Easy enough, right? Bam, done.
To calculate Clutch, all one needs to do is to subtract a player’s WPA/LI from their WPA. Since WPA/LI removes leverage from WPA, if a player has a much higher WPA than their WPA/LI, that means they must be performing extraordinarily well in high leverage situations. Woh! Not so easy anymore, huh? It takes a bit to wrap your brain around all that, but read those two sentences over a couple times and if it doesn’t make sense, don’t worry too much. You can just take FanGraph’s word for it: Clutch measures how clutch a player has been.
Context:
The majority of players in the league end up with Clutch scores between 1 and -1, with zero being neutral. Only a few players each year are lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to have extreme Clutch scores.
2009 Clutch Numbers
| Clutch | |
| Ryan Howard | 2.74 |
| Alfonso Soriano | 1.52 |
| Victor Martinez | 1.18 |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | 0.49 |
| Chipper Jones | 0.01 |
| Derek Jeter | -0.85 |
| Jayson Werth | -1.18 |
| Jacoby Ellsbury | -1.42 |
| Robinson Cano | -2.37 |
Things to Remember:
- Clutch as a metric does a good job of describing the past, but it does very little towards predicting the future. Simply because one player was clutch at one point does not mean they will continue to perform well in high leveraged situations. For example, here’s Alex Rodriguez’s last four years of Clutch scores: 0.95, -3.17, 0.97, -1.40. No continuity at all.
Links for Further Reading:
Get to Know: Clutch – FanGraphs
The Concept of “Clutch” – Baseball Prospectus
Is David Ortiz Really Mr. Clutch? – ESPN/Nate Silver
Clutchiness Breakdown – FanGraphs
