gen-briefly-explain-leverage-index-in-close-games-and-one-common-566a

Briefly explain leverage index in close games and one common misconception about it.

# Leverage Index in Close Games **What it is:** Leverage Index (LI) measures how much a particular plate appearance can change a team's win probability. It's scaled so that 1.0 represents average leverage, with higher numbers indicating more critical situations. Close-and-late game situations (tied game in the 9th inning, for example) have very high leverage because each outcome dramatically swings win probability. **Common misconception:** Many people mistakenly believe that leverage measures a **player's** clutch ability or how well they perform in pressure situations. In reality, leverage only measures the **importance of the situation itself**, not how the player performs in it. A player with high average LI simply batted in more critical moments—it says nothing about whether they actually succeeded more or less often in those spots. Clutch performance must be measured separately by comparing actual results to expected results in high-leverage situations.