Tons of Stuff

Courtesy of the St. Pete Times:

Apparently Crawford will not be back in time for hitting duties come the first round of the playoffs (GLWODaaT) instead he might be available to pinch run or play defense. Insert the sarcastic line about how that's all he was doing anyways. Upton is "close" (as in: available to pinch hit all ready) and could return as soon as this weekend. No word on whether that will involve him playing DH, right field, or manning his yard in center.

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Elsewhere Sky Kaulkman at BtB did a long summary of the NL MVP race which ties in nicely to something I wanted to post about, namely who has been "clutch" for the Rays this season. Sky summed it up better than I could when he said this:

Let's start with that last claim, that performance in clutch situations matters.  No, I don't think clutchiness is a real skill -- that is, you can't predict who's going to be clutch in the future.  But looking back over the season, the players who performed better in the clutch did help create more runs for their teams, leading to more wins.

Sky hasn't gotten to the AL race yet, but to spoil the surprise here are the top five Rays batters ranked by WPA/LI:

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The Rays can clinch a spot tonight if the Yankees, Jays, White Sox, and Twins all lose. I'd rather just win the next two games, but hey,  it's good to know.