Perhaps, Tango, there is no one here that believes that clutch hitting is predictable.  Or else, no one wants to bet on Derek Jeter!

I dunno about that.  I've got 58 ballots for the Jays (6th most), and it's shaping up for quite a fight, between Stairs, Thomas, and Rios.  Scutaro and Hill are getting some love.

Vernon Wells is sparking reaction from the lovers and haters, one of the worst reactions in the whole league for a hitter of that quality.

Interesting reading Bill James' Gold Mine (which, tangentially, was awfully disappointing -- the rebirth of the Abstract it ain't). James takes an explicitly neutral stance on clutch hitting, even going so far as to show some clutch hitting stats (tacitly giving credence to their credibility as more than post hoc number crunching). All of this contradicts his vehement opposition to the idea 25-30 years ago which I guess we all knew was coming given his comments in his Underestimating the Fog essay from whenever that was.

OK, Tango.  I figured that one or two of those who participated might have commented here about the reasons for their choices.  Wrong on my part, (again).

I did not evaluate the Jays, or even my team of choice Da Bombers, but rather the local nine, Texas' Rangers, who I see most often.

That said, one of only two guys I rated as "GREAT" on that club is an ex-Jay farmhand, Michael Young.

Great trade, that, for the Jays. Imagine, you could have avoided the Royce Clayton Era. Although, who knows if Young develops into the clutch hitter he is (if such a thing exists, of course)  without the Rudy Jaramillo influence?

This was an interesting exercise, as I instantly had gut reaction as to who I wouldn't want in a clutch situation (Vernon Wells), but I didn't have the same reaction for who I would want. So I couldn't rate any GREAT, but I did rate Rios, Thomas and Stairs (for some reason he seemed clutchy to me) Good.

So you're a Yankees fan, you follow the Jays, and watch the Rangers? Interesting, but why the Yankees and Jays? And to what extent?

ANA, believe it or not, the answer has nothing to do with paranoid schizophrenia. The Rangers because I live in Dallas/Fort Worth -- I can see their stadium from the building I work in.  The Yankees -- my family is from New York, my dad grew up watching Joe D. and Mantle and all those greats, so it's a bit of a genetic thing. (I also lived in New York before moving to DFW, but upstate, not in the City.) And to be honest, when I was a kid, I followed the Tigers (just an hour away from where I grew up in Ohio) and Reds (because I was growing up in Ohio during the time of the Big Red Machine.)

As for the Jays, honestly, I am not a "fan," per se, though I suppose I root for them more than most teams because of my time here on Da Box. I started out on Da Box because I knew Kent Williams from our time together  writing at ESPN.com (along with Gitz and others) and really respected him, personally.

But beyond that it didn't take me but about 15 minutes to realize that this space, this "interactive magazine," has the best baseball discussion on the Web. The quality is matched elswhere, true, but the congeniality and lack of combative Internet stinkitude (TM) is  what kept me here even after Kent stepped down. Batter's Box -- is, as we have said elsewhere on this site, a Peņa.  And by now I've learned that I wouldn't have my online baseball fix any other way.

Gotcha. I had not realised you and others wrote for ESPN.com, that's interesting.

<a href="http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/with-the-game-on-the-line-i-want/ ">The project</a>

<a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/clutch.aspx">The players</a>

Tango's note with links activated:

• The project
• The players