Fangraphs recently added a sweet new suite of functions to their leader boards. Tom Tango rightly sings its praises:
Finally. Finally! Want to know the best wOBA, for 2006-2010, in high-leverage situations? Pujols (naturally), Ryan Howard, Carlos Beltran, and then ARod. In the same situations, Ryan Howard has 0.43 HR per FB! Arod is at 0.31.
Who pads his stats in low-leverage situations? Well, that’s ARod.
Great stuff!
So, on a whim, I decided to also look up the best and worst performers in high leverage situations over the last decade or so. The top performers, according to wRC+, were predictable: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Vladimir Guerrero, and the like. Then, I'd decided to flip this beach, and look at the worst. And wouldn't you know, but our old friend Dioner "Burrito" Navarro made an appearance!
The idea of "clutch" is overplayed in the media, and possibly underplayed in the sabermetric community. Tango's The Book does a great job to show clutchiness exists, just in smaller ways than we might expect. Still, Navarro seems to exude FAIL when his batting gloves get sweaty.
UPDATE:
