Runners in Scoring Position

• Melvin Mora stranded 11 baserunners yesterday. As the Baltimore Sun notes, Mora had been the Orioles leading hitter with RISP, batting at a .355 clip. For those who follow any of the baseball research that's been done in the last decade or so, it was entirely predictable that Mora would eventually start stranding more runners. Why? Because his batting average in all situations is .233. I've never seen any research that concludes clutch hitting is an identifiable, repeatable skill, despite Gary Thorne's and Kevin Millar's assertions to the contrary. Besides, if a player really did get better in the clutch, what does that say about his concentration the rest of the time?
  
• Considering that Terry Francona is likely managing a playoff team this year and the Red Sox, if applicable, would really like to have home field advantage in the World Series, I'd say there is almost no chance that O's fans will get to enjoy that George Sherrill All-Star Game appearance. Too bad one of the Orioles real All-Stars--Brian Roberts or Nick Markakis--wasn't selected instead.
  
• I'm on vacation on the west coast this week, so any postings will be few and far between.