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Craig Wilson's Homers

I just posted the paragraphs that follow at Honest Wagner, in response to Rowdy's repeat of the demonstrably false claim that Craig Wilson hits most of his homers during garbage time. I've posted it here for posterity, so that anytime someone repeats that argument, you can just point them here.

Wilson has seven homers this year. Three came in one-run games. Two more came in a game the Pirates won by four, but in which Wilson drove in four runs. Another one was in a game the Bucs lost by five, but which was still winnable when Wilson hit the homer. So that's one homer out of seven that Wilson has hit that didn't matter. Given the stunning amount of garbage time the Bucs have had this year, I'd say that's kind of remarkable, actually.

None of Wilson's five homers in 2005 came during anything resembling garbage time.

I checked the game logs for 2004 and looked at the boxes for any game in which Wilson homered and the Pirates won or lost by more than three runs. Most of Wilson's homers in those games came early, when the outcome of the game was still in doubt. In fact, I only found one game in which the game was clearly won or lost when Wilson hit his homer, on April 15 against the Cubs.

So, the idea that Wilson only hits homers when it doesn't matter is a myth. Who knows why people say it so often, but it was probably started by people who just don't like Wilson and would like to continue to cling to the opinion that he is not a good player.