Clutch hitting has always been something of an anomaly. Is it real? Is it just coincidence? Bill James recently wrote an article in the book The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2008 discussing his ambivalence to clutch hitting at first being that it was difficult to prove, but now he has rethought his previous theory and has some interesting theories on Juan Pierre. Who hasn't hit well in the clutch? Juan Pierre hasn't done great.
| Juan Pierre | | Season | Avg | OBP | Slg | OPS | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | GIDP | | 2002 | .111 | .111 | .111 | .222 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | | 2003 | .318 | .434 | .364 | .798 | 44 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 2 | | 2004 | .233 | .327 | .349 | .675 | 43 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 0 | | 2005 | .309 | .367 | .382 | .748 | 55 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 2 | | 2006 | .229 | .289 | .314 | .604 | 35 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | | 2007 | .190 | .246 | .206 | .453 | 63 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 1 | | Totals | .240 | .311 | .296 | .607 | 267 | 64 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 47 | 24 | 22 | 7 | | |
Nobody would confuse Juan Pierre with David Ortiz anyway, but that's not a great clutch record for a guy who gets 200 hits a year.
Once again Juan Pierre is not good at baseball. He gets many infield hits, slap hits and his speed helps him get hits that would normally be outs, but those hits do little to help the Dodgers win. In fact, he does more to help them lose. If you'd like to read the entire article then here's the link.
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