Current Jeopardy! winner James Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, has now won $940K in just 13 games, over $70K per show. He'll likely go over a million tomorrow. This includes the highest every one day total of over $130,000 (about double the previous high.)
He often does this by "going all in" on Double Jeopardy, of which he gets about 95% correct. He's a "clutch player", he comes through when big things are at stake. (He's also very smart.) You want him on your team and you want him up to the plate when the game's on the line.
In baseball, the clutch player is the one who comes up with men in scoring position and gets the big hit to drive in runs. So, who are the top clutch players for Vandy?
Overall, the team is .295 with RISP, 145-491 (along with 103 B, so an OBP of .418 which is amazing.)
[these totals are "unedited", based only on my own score-keeping, so they may be off by 2-3 either way, but not enough to really change anything]
Grisanti leads the team at .556, but that's just 5-9, but it does indicate to me that he needs to be used more often as the DH or as a PH.
[Somebody pass that along to Corbs, I'm too cowered in his presence and get tongue-tied, so I just come off sounding like a blithering idiot when I try to talk to him. My wife also says I'm often a blithering idiot. My kids agree with her. But that's all a different story for a different day.]
Of regular starters the leader is Ethan Paul, 26-55, .473, along with 6 walks. That's amazing, and .125 higher than his normal batting average of .348. So Paul is clearly our most clutch hitter and we all should be glad he bats 3rd/4th in our line-up. Throw in walks and his OBP with RISP is .525. He's right where he needs to be. And while I think we'd all say JJ is our MVP, I think Ethan should get a lot of consideration as well when you throw in how solid he's been at shortstop.
But what about others? Who are the other top clutch guys?
Next comes JJ Bleday (surprise, surprise) at 21-56 .393 + 19 walks. That's a lot of walks and indicates teams are trying to pitch around him, only to run into Paul who's up next. Good luck with that!
This is also 30 points higher than his regular average, which just indicates JJ is good to have at the plate most anytime. Overall, JJ hits a home run every 8 at bats. My stats don't tell me how many HR's he hits with runners in scoring position, but I'd be interested to know if anybody out there can find out.
And if you add in his walks he's 40-75 with getting on base with RISP, and that's a remarkable .533, #1 on the team.
Others whose average with RISP is similar to their overall average are Gonzo, Davis, Clarke, DeMarco, and Duvall. Clarke has the most such hits at 21. He's good hitting 4th/5th which is where he most often is. Davis' OBP with RISP is 50% so he's a perfect lead-off guy.
What about the others? Who's NOT so much a clutch hitter?
Working from the bottom up we have:
Infante, 2-22 .091 + 3 BB, regular average .221. I'm sure you've noticed most of his home runs are solo shots. But, batting 9th is a good spot for him. If he contributes, it's great, but if he doesn't, it doesn't really hurt us that much. He's your quintessential #9 hole hitter.
Ray, 6-43 .140 + 3 BB, normal .271. Clearly, he should not be batting 5th/6th in the line-up. I'm thinking 8th/9th, but then again, I'm also thinking move Martin to 2nd and let Gonza play 3rd more often; IOW, he shouldn't be in the line-up at all.
Martin, 12-49 .245 + 9 BB, normal .400. Clearly, he bats right where he should at 1st/2nd. His job is to get on base for Bleday and Paul and he's a master at getting on base (OBP .479.)
Scott, 15-59 .254 + 14 BB, normal .313. He walks as often as he gets a hit and together that pushes him up to 29-73 which is .397, which is good. So he's okay hitting 6th/7th. He doesn't help out all that much, but he doesn't really hurt things.
So, using these stats he's my ideal line-up just using RISP as a guide:
Davis
Martin
Bleday
Paul
Clarke
Scott
Gonzo
Duvall/Grisanti
Infante
With the exception of trading Ray for Gonzo, this is basically Corbs line-up. Imagine that.
He often does this by "going all in" on Double Jeopardy, of which he gets about 95% correct. He's a "clutch player", he comes through when big things are at stake. (He's also very smart.) You want him on your team and you want him up to the plate when the game's on the line.
In baseball, the clutch player is the one who comes up with men in scoring position and gets the big hit to drive in runs. So, who are the top clutch players for Vandy?
Overall, the team is .295 with RISP, 145-491 (along with 103 B, so an OBP of .418 which is amazing.)
[these totals are "unedited", based only on my own score-keeping, so they may be off by 2-3 either way, but not enough to really change anything]
Grisanti leads the team at .556, but that's just 5-9, but it does indicate to me that he needs to be used more often as the DH or as a PH.
[Somebody pass that along to Corbs, I'm too cowered in his presence and get tongue-tied, so I just come off sounding like a blithering idiot when I try to talk to him. My wife also says I'm often a blithering idiot. My kids agree with her. But that's all a different story for a different day.]
Of regular starters the leader is Ethan Paul, 26-55, .473, along with 6 walks. That's amazing, and .125 higher than his normal batting average of .348. So Paul is clearly our most clutch hitter and we all should be glad he bats 3rd/4th in our line-up. Throw in walks and his OBP with RISP is .525. He's right where he needs to be. And while I think we'd all say JJ is our MVP, I think Ethan should get a lot of consideration as well when you throw in how solid he's been at shortstop.
But what about others? Who are the other top clutch guys?
Next comes JJ Bleday (surprise, surprise) at 21-56 .393 + 19 walks. That's a lot of walks and indicates teams are trying to pitch around him, only to run into Paul who's up next. Good luck with that!
This is also 30 points higher than his regular average, which just indicates JJ is good to have at the plate most anytime. Overall, JJ hits a home run every 8 at bats. My stats don't tell me how many HR's he hits with runners in scoring position, but I'd be interested to know if anybody out there can find out.
And if you add in his walks he's 40-75 with getting on base with RISP, and that's a remarkable .533, #1 on the team.
Others whose average with RISP is similar to their overall average are Gonzo, Davis, Clarke, DeMarco, and Duvall. Clarke has the most such hits at 21. He's good hitting 4th/5th which is where he most often is. Davis' OBP with RISP is 50% so he's a perfect lead-off guy.
What about the others? Who's NOT so much a clutch hitter?
Working from the bottom up we have:
Infante, 2-22 .091 + 3 BB, regular average .221. I'm sure you've noticed most of his home runs are solo shots. But, batting 9th is a good spot for him. If he contributes, it's great, but if he doesn't, it doesn't really hurt us that much. He's your quintessential #9 hole hitter.
Ray, 6-43 .140 + 3 BB, normal .271. Clearly, he should not be batting 5th/6th in the line-up. I'm thinking 8th/9th, but then again, I'm also thinking move Martin to 2nd and let Gonza play 3rd more often; IOW, he shouldn't be in the line-up at all.
Martin, 12-49 .245 + 9 BB, normal .400. Clearly, he bats right where he should at 1st/2nd. His job is to get on base for Bleday and Paul and he's a master at getting on base (OBP .479.)
Scott, 15-59 .254 + 14 BB, normal .313. He walks as often as he gets a hit and together that pushes him up to 29-73 which is .397, which is good. So he's okay hitting 6th/7th. He doesn't help out all that much, but he doesn't really hurt things.
So, using these stats he's my ideal line-up just using RISP as a guide:
Davis
Martin
Bleday
Paul
Clarke
Scott
Gonzo
Duvall/Grisanti
Infante
With the exception of trading Ray for Gonzo, this is basically Corbs line-up. Imagine that.
