Alex Rodriguez’s newfound playoff prowess after years of choking in the post-season is a product of his steamy — and surprisingly honest — romance with sexy screen siren Kate Hudson, a team source and a top sports shrink said yesterday….

A team insider said A-Rod has ditched his philandering ways and is making a big effort to inject honesty and openness into his relationship with the actress.

The healthy off-field relationship with Hudson is translating into October success on the baseball diamond, experts said.

“If he’s becoming a little more honest . . . he would have less anxiety,” said Palm Beach sports psychologist Dr. John Murray. “He would sleep better at night and be more relaxed. More focused. That is key.”

While racking up a paltry .212 lifetime batting average in the playoffs, he carried on “extramarital affairs and other marital misconduct,” according to papers filed by his ex-wife, Cynthia. In postseason play from 2005 to 2007. A-Rod had a grand total of one RBI…

But this year, A-Rod has “looked really relaxed, really great,” Murray said.

He has hit .500 over two games and smacked five RBIs, and his game-tying, ninth-inning homer Friday night set up a Yankee win.

“If you get somebody like a gorgeous woman, someone who you admire, somebody who’s behind you, [athletes] know it,” Murray said….
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Joe DiMaggio had Marilyn Monroe. But nobody told Ted Williams.

If that’s the case, then both managers should be optimizing their clutch from the defensive, as well as the offensive POV. Under this assumption, the results (or statistical data) would be a wash and there shouldn’t be significant evidence in the data for clutch hitting. If a manager doesn’t put in their so-called ‘clutchy’ guy when the other manager has in their ‘clutchy’ pitcher, then he isn’t optimizing his strategy. Unfortunately, for those trying to discern a ‘clutch’ skill, the only thing that would happen by putting in the ‘clutchy’ hitter is arriving back at the expectation that we originally had for the event.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a repeatable skill. If, for some reason, there isn’t clutch pitching, then perhaps the idea of clutch hitting would be more manageable. Even if it were the case that it exists, I can only imagine it is quite tiny and probably not of interest in payroll as Jim states above. I think this ‘fog’ is just too thick for us to really find anything, and what could be found probably isn’t all that worth finding.

There are lots of things I can’t prove don’t exist regarding which it would be foolish of me to bet money on the assumption they do.

If you compare a batter’s stats with nobody on base vs RISP, some hitters have consistent numbers, far above the ML average difference. Mike Sweeney for example.

In Bill James’ “Mr. Clutch,” as it appeared in The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2008, he said that…

“Clutch” is a complicated concept, containing at least seven elements:

1. The score,
2. The runners on base,
3. The outs,
4. The inning,
5. The opposition,
6. The standings,
7. The calendar.

Here’s a link to that feature, as it was reprinted in SI:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/30/james.clutch/index.html