Listen, I understand that on some level this is like telling a Protestant that they should convert to Catholicism or vice versa. I don’t think either one of us is going to change the other one’s mind.

And I do understand what you are saying about mindset and outside distractions, but I have to disagree. I played baseball in high school, and I did get nervous coming to the plate in certain situations (mostly because I just wasn’t that good), but I have to believe that players who have risen through high school, college, and the minors and now play games on live television, in front of crowds of 25,000 people, for tens of millions of dollars a year have gotten to the point where they can block out nerves or personal issues. I just can’t convince myself to believe anything else.

A couple of years ago, David Ortiz just seemed to be unstoppable every time there was a runner on base in the 9th inning. He must have hit something .700 for the year in those situations. But my question is, did something in his head just “click” on during those situations, because if any of it was willing and conscious, why couldn’t he hit .700 overall for the year?

I believe that every single at bat is the same, in the sense that the hitter is trying to do the exact same thing, every single time – wait for his pitch and give it his best swing. And whether the score is 22-3 in the 4th inning, or it’s 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 of the World Series, every hitter is trying to do exactly the same thing – get the pitch he wants and give it his best swing. And so, in a simple sense, there is no “clutch”. Every player tries his hardest every time he’s at the plate.

Derek Jeter is actually a few at bats short of 500 in his postseason career, and his OPS is only a point or two off of his career OPS. And so I’m not saying that the human brain plays no role during the game, but we tend to distort or misunderstand clutch for what it is. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, by definition, should be good clutch hitters, because they’re good hitters to start with. The fact that A-Rod isn’t perceived this way has more to do with an obsessive media drawn to his high profile and the relatively small number of at-bats he’s had in the postseason than it does with anything that’s going on in his head.

I hate to beat the Cervelli horse again, but nobody praises Posada’s defensive effort because he’s renowned for his hitting. We call good hitters good hitters and good fielders good fielders. But as bad as this sounds, when a player has a reputation for something non-statistical, like hustling, being scrappy, or calling a good game….he’s usually a pretty lousy hitter. I’m thinking of guys like David Eckstein, Craig Counsell, and Aaron Rowand to some degree.

It doesn’t mean that intangibles don’t have value, far from it. Derek Jeter diving face-first into the stands makes a pretty strong statement. What I’m saying, though, is that Jeter has the intangibles AND he’s a excellent hitter. If somebody can barely hit at replacement level, it’s going to be nearly impossible to make up for it with intangibles.

So there’s no doubt that Cervelli is a better defensive catcher than Posada, but we disagree on how much of an impact the difference has. To some extent, it goes back to the David Ortiz argument – Cervelli has only caught about 160 innings this year, which isn’t much. I know we’ve beaten the catcher’s ERA debate to death too, but still, Cervelli’s is 4.00 and Posada’s is 5.40, which equates to a difference of almost 230 runs over the course of a full season.

So, considering that the average AL team is on pace to score 776 runs this season, do you really believe that the way Cervelli calls for pitches selection, positions himself behind the plate, and frames the strike zone keeps the Yankees opponents from scoring 230 runs per year? I say no way.

I say the sum of Posada’s above-average offense, minus his below-average defense, minus his “bad game calling” still outweighs everything that Cervelli brings to the table.