It’s the 6th inning in today’s Yankees-Royals game. There’s a Royal on second, two outs, and Mark Grudzielanek is at the plate. For about the sixth time today, broadcaster David Cone is heaping praise upon Grudzielanek in a manner consistent with the way most mediocre second basemen are praised. In other words, Cone is calling him a “professional hitter,” a “gamer,” a “leader,” “scrappy” and “underrated.” Fine.
Then Cone calls him “clutch in these situations.” I can only assume he’s talking about hitting with two outs and runners in scoring position. I can also assume that Cone did not look this up, because broadcasters never look up things like this. So I did just that.
For his career, Mark Grudzielanek has put up a .289/.332/.395 line, good for a 90 OPS+. This is not that good, which sort of dispels the notion that he is underrated. But that is not our concern. Our concern is whether or not Grudzielanek is actually better in these “clutch” situations, as Cone suggested.
With two outs and runners in scoring position, for his career, Grudzielanek has hit .250/.341/.330 for an 86 OPS+.
Mark Grudzielanek is just as bad in “clutch” situations as he is in regular situations, and David Cone did not look this up.
