Who are the most clutch Cardinals playoff players? Sabermetrics makes it's case.

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The St. Louis Cardinals have made the postseason 32 times in its 132-season history. Many players have had amazing performances in the playoffs. From Lance Berkman and David Freese in the 2011 playoffs, to Albert Pujols smoking three home runs in the same season, to Chris Carpenter going toe-to-toe with Roy Halladay in 2011 (I miss the 2011 season), way back to Bob Gibson being a workhorse throughout his postseason career, Cardinals' lore is littered with dominant performances in the playoffs.

Many of the Cardinals' players have been "clutch", both in the formal and informal way of evaluating them. Fangraphs has a statistic that they call "clutch". I recently discussed the most and least clutch players for the Cardinals from this past year. Fangraphs also added postseason clutch and Win Probability Added statistics recently. Therefore, it seemed reasonable to find the most "clutch" pitchers and hitters in the history of baseball during the postseason and see where former Cardinals rank on that list.

Fangraphs defines its clutch statistic as "how much better or worse a player does in high-leverage situations than he would have done in a context-neutral environment." A positive score indicates a player's ability to be clutch, while a negative score denotes the inverse. Most players fall between -1.0 and 1.0, and anyone above 1.0 is considered an elite clutch player.

Unsurprisingly, the Cardinals have had plenty of players who performed well at the most critical moments in a game.

Here are the Cardinals' pitchers and hitters who were the most "clutch" in all of Major League Baseball history during the playoffs.

Pitchers

Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter pitched a total of 108 innings across 5 postseasons for the Cardinals. He had an ERA of 3.00, a WHIP of 1.296, and had a 10-4 record in 18 starts. Carpenter pitched in some of the biggest games between 2005 and 2012 for the Cardinals in the postseason, most notably in 2011. According to Fangraphs' Clutch stat, Carpenter is the 7th most clutch starting pitcher in all of baseball history. Carpenter's clutch value is 0.57, only .35 behind the leading pitcher, Jon Lester.

Mitchell Boggs

Ah, the famed Mitchell Boggs. Boggs played a total of 6 seasons in the majors, most of which were played with the Cardinals. He was a reliever for his entire career, and he provided solid support for the starting pitchers. In the playoffs, Boggs experienced a rollercoaster of success and lack thereof. In 16.1 innings, Boggs has a 3.86 ERA, 1.592 WHIP, and struck out 11 batters. Boggs's star shined most brightly in the 2012 playoffs where he pitched 7.2 innings and allowed only 2 runs. Boggs's clutch figure throughout the postseason ranks 21st among all relievers at 0.47. He stands only .55 points behind the leader, Ryan Pressly.

Hitters

David Freese

The hometown kid left an undeniable mark in the minds of many fans during the 2011 playoff run for the Cardinals, particularly in the World Series. David Freese's performances and hits during the World Series are some of the greatest moments in all of baseball history. He played so well that postseason that he was the MVP in both the NLCS and World Series. He had an OPS well above 1.000, hit a total of 14 extra-base hits in 3 series, and batted in 21 runners during that span. Due to his amazing performances during the 2011 playoff run for the Cardinals, Freese ranks 24th among all clutch playoff performers with a score of 0.68.

Scott Spiezio

Cardinal fans will never forget the luscious red goatee of Scott Spiezio. Spezio was a fantastic role player for the Cardinals during their postseason run of 2006. While most of his playoff success came with the Angels in the early 21st century, he still had a handful of memorable moments during the 2006 postseason. That year, he hit 2 triples, batted 5 runners in, and reached base a total of 7 times across the NLDS, NLCS, and World Series. Spiezio ranks 14th overall in clutch according to Fangraphs with a score of 0.79.

Lance Berkman

Not far behind David Freese for most memorable playoff performances in Lance Berkman. A surprising signing in the offseason of 2010, Berkman was inked to play a heavy amount of innings in the outfield, a position he had struggled with in recent years. However, his bat was still as strong as ever. That became evident in the 2011 postseason where Berkman hit a game-tying RBI single in the 10th inning to extend the game. Berkman was also a staple in many postseason runs of the 2000s with the Astros. His clutch score is 1.21, placing him 6th overall among hitters in postseason history.

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