The strongest anti-clutch argument on the Pirates’ roster can be made by Freddy Sanchez.

He won the National League batting title with a .344 average last summer, and his .386 mark with runners in scoring position was the team’s highest. Only Pujols’ .397 mark was higher in the league.

Seems plenty clutch.

Not the case at all, he maintains.

"To me, it’s pretty simple," Sanchez said. "If you’re hot going into that clutch situation, you have a good chance. You’re already feeling good. Obviously, there are times when a hitter can tense up, and there are some better mentally prepared than others. All I can say is that, for me, when I go up to the plate, it’s not about the men on base. It’s about how I’m feeling."

He rolled his eyes, remembering those four consecutive strikeouts in a game last week in Milwaukee.

"Trust me: If I’m feeling lousy at the plate like that, I’m not just going to walk up there with bases loaded and get a hit because I’m some great clutch hitter."

In the simplest terms that I can think of: “Clutch” exists rather undeniably. However, at the major league level it doesn’t affect performance in any meaningful way. The stats don’t say that it doesn’t exist. They say that it doesn’t matter.

Another perspective, albeit one that came out of a football discussion.

it’s a little bit of stretch to say that clutch definitely doesn’t exist.

I’m more in the “probably doesn’t exist” camp.

Obviously, we can measure that.

I’m not sure, however, that clutch as a repeatable skill exists, if that makes sense.

I’m going to go ahead and go outside the box here: clutch hitting, hitting better in high-pressure situations, probably doesn’t exist. It doesn’t really make sense from a logical point: if a batter is consciously a better hitter in a clutch situation…then why wouldn’t they apply that to non-clutch situations and become a better hitter overall? That would theoretically put their clutch performance right in line with their regular performance, and boost their value as a hitter.

Of course, there are things you can’t really replicate: the adrenaline, the knowledge of pressure, the actual situation. You can tell yourself to act the same way, but it’s hard to sort of use the placebo effect when you can clearly see they’re sugar pills; telling yourself to hit like there’s a runner on 2nd and two outs because you’re better in that situation doesn’t change the fact that you can see there isn’t a runner on 2nd and you know there aren’t two outs. That’s the reason for the probably. But I’d say, like pretty much everyone else, in all likelihood it doesn’t exist or it’s too insignificant to spend time trying to fix. Get your BB% up instead.

I believe it exists as well. Just look at ARod in the post season as an example. I don’t know what it is, whether it’s a different attitude, Kate Hudson, steroids, or no longer giving a shit about anything, but the ARod of this year just looks like a different player than the ARod of past post seasons. He’s on a roll and he knows it. His body language is different, in fact the look on his face is different. Major league players are not immune to being confident up there at one point and lacking confidence at the plate at other times. If you want to argue that “clutch” hitting comes and goes with all players depending on whether they’re hot or not that’s one thing, but there definitely are players who focus better and hit better when the game is on the line, and others who want no part of those situations.

when i saw the title, i felt like yelling at you, but you brought up some interesting questions, which haven’t been discussed before.

If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist?

OT: Do any of you whippersnappers even know how to drive clutch?