Carp 34 RBI in 38 games since callup
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"RBI" being a dirty word to saber-only folks, but to Eric Wedge, Carp's RBI are one manifestation of the fact that Mike Carp enjoys bare-knuckle fighting.
Angels up by one run late, bring in Downs precisely to face Mike Carp, and how many times did we see the May-June ballclub roll over and die right there?
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It was one of Bill James' earliest insights that, in 1978 --- > the RBI stat was overrated. And that "clutch hitting" was overstated.
However, it's also sad that non-athlete observers now try to argue that RBI are worthless.
Mike Carp is an RBI man, and since his callup he's been on a 144.9 RBI pace. It's too bad that it's in poor taste to notice this accomplishment.
In Carp's last 176 AAA games, he drove in 140 runs.
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There is a routine baseball game, and then there is a "high-leverage" baseball game.
There is a game in July against the Royals' #4 starter, with both clubs out of the race, and then there is a pennant-race game against the Texas Rangers, and C.J. Wilson, with both teams computerized and booked-up and loaded for bear.
Everybody in pro sports will tell you that, in Game 7 with both sides booked up and breathing fire, there are players who challenge you and there are players who will disappear. When both sides take it up a notch, and bring their "A" games, well ... that level of intensity is too much for some people. They don't have the extra gear.
Opaque to the saberdweeb -- first principles to the man in the arena. As Bobby Fischer put it, "There are nice guys and there are tough players, and I'm a tough player."
Some men are fine until they receive a light shove to the shoulder, and then they start crying (or yelling at the 2B umpire until they're thrown out of the game). Al Pacino did Bobby one better: "Under pressure? Some focus. Others fold."
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The first half of the year, when the Mariners didn't have the RBI man that Baker had called for in March. Did you enjoy that?
If you watched the Mariners in May, and in August, and you still insist that "tough RBI" don't exist as a concept, you are too locked into your preconceptions. The 2011 Mariners have made it easy to perceive the difference.
Carp and Ackley relish the mano-a-mano. Carp wants that at-bat in the 8th, behind by one run. For precisely that reason -- the 4 times up-and-down, and the fact that Carp wants Dan Haren in the 8th -- he should be everybody's favorite Mariner.
You get why Wedge is talking about Carp learning RF in 2012. Where do you put Mike Carp? You put him on the baseball diamond.