MLB Network’s Robert Flores on if baseball players can be clutch

Over the weekend, I spoke with Robert Flores (@RoFlo) on The Bronx Pinstripes Show. Robert co-hosts MLB Network’s “MLB Central” weekdays at 10:00 AM with Lauren Shehadi and Mark DeRosa, and this Wednesday’s program will broadcast live from Yankee Stadium before the Yankees and Padres game.

As Yankees fans, we tend to live in our bubble where every day a new player goes on the injured list and guys like Thairo Estrada continue to thrive. But I also enjoy some of the more broad topics and issues facing baseball today. One of those is analytics and how it is more prevalent today than ever before.

Robert talked about how he blends an old school mentality with new analytics on his show, and that there is a place for each kind of baseball fan. But when it comes to being "clutch," RoFlo thinks that's real.

https://twitter.com/RoFlo/status/1133390343825702914

I couldn’t agree more with RoFlo. It’s preposterous to ignore hot and cold streaks or clutch stats. I understand that past performance in a certain situation is not indicative of future outcomes, but players are also human, and some guys thrive in high leverage situations while others struggle. My favorite thing to cite is that Derek Jeter's lifetime batting average was .310 over 12,602 regular season plate appearances and .308 in 734 postseason PAs. Jeter was the same player whether the situation was game 25 vs Kansas City or Game 4 of the World Series vs Arizona. 

Be sure to check out the full episode. RoFlo and I also talked about:

• Who the “face” of MLB is

• One rule Robert would implement in today's game

• Robert’s Astros fandom and how it has evolved now that he covers baseball on a national level

• The best MLB video games of all time

• How the American League will shake out

Listen to the full episode below.