Chuck Dickens
Idiot Savant
After Tim McCarver’s month-long David Eckstein sploogefest that was October 2006, a serious investigation into 'grit' was long overdue. Despite the penchant of sportswriters and broadcasters to throw the term around willy-nilly, I was hard-pressed to locate a firm definition of grit in the baseball sense. Using lots of laptop science stuff, I think I’ve improved the definition, which isn’t really saying much, since there wasn’t one to begin with.
First, some definitions to help us focus in on what exactly this 'grit' stuff is.
Gritty
1. Containing, covered with, or resembling grit.
2. Showing resolution and fortitude; plucky: Biggio’s gritty 12-pitch at-bat ultimately resulted in a routine 6-3 groundout.
In keeping with those definitions I’m proposing a new composite statistic: General Requirements of Intangible Talent (GRIT). GRIT incorporates four basic components: dirt, determination, talent, and opportunity.
DATA
I used a modified version of the Sean Lahman dataset that includes player statistics from 1871-2006. My dataset includes player-seasons starting in 1955, the first year for which statistical data for intentional walks and GIDP was available. To chop the dataset down to a manageable size, I limited the number of eligible players to those who have at least 100 plate appearances and 81 games played. This removes pitchers from consideration, but also ensures that an adequate indication of a player’s abilities during each season is evident. Statistics for 2007 were compiled from ESPN.
The resulting dataset includes 13,249 player-seasons with 2,385 unique players represented.
HYPOTHESIS
I hold that gritty players are those who sincerely want to win or succeed at baseball (determination), but due to a lack of natural skill (talent), are forced to do so through the least efficient means possible, resulting in an excessive amount of dirt on their uniform.
DIRT
The most important factor in determining a player's GRIT is his uniform. A player who is "containing, covered with, or resembling grit" will show visible signs of his grittiness on his uniform. Dirty uniforms are good; bloody uniforms are better. A true team player, the gritty player is prepared to sacrifice his body at all costs. This is one of the few ways gritty players are efficient, since they probably aren’t as well compensated as their genuinely talented teammates.
The Dirt Formula
HBP: A hit batter produce minimal gains (one base) with relatively high costs in terms of potential bodily injury. The official colors of gritty players may well be black and blue. And red. And maybe some brown with a little purple and some yellow around the edges, depending on the severity of the bruising.
IBB: Next to home runs, intentional walks are probably the most anti-gritty statistic. Intentional walks are indicative that a player has so much talent that the pitcher would rather give him first base than risk an extra-base hit. Gritty players have to earn every base through hard-knocks, moxie, and a heaping helping of some good ol’ fashioned hustle.
CS/SB stuff (SBINEFF): This is a statistic I call Stolen Base Inefficiency (SBINEFF). This looks for players who like to attempt lots of steals but are largely unsuccessful. Stealing bases produces minimal gains (one base) but comes with greater potential costs by raising the likelihood of being thrown out. Base-stealers (successful or not) also have dirty uniforms from sliding.
DID YOU KNOW: Harold Reynolds holds the single-season record for SBINEFF with a stunning 13.385? Harold’s 1988 season saw him tally 35 steals while being caught 29 times. He broke the record set by Will Clark (13.304) during the previous season when Mr. Eyeblack went 5 for 22 on steal attempts. WOW!
DETERMINATION
Gritty players want to succeed. They just happen to not have the talent to actually do so. This results in inefficient baseball plays. For example, Jerry Hairston is gritty. He slides head-first into first base. A true sign of someone gritty enough to want to get to first base, but shitty enough to actually get there efficiently.
The Determination Formula
(Outs – SO): As short in stature as they are on talent, gritty players are determined to put the ball in play at all costs. Additionally, the ball looks gigantic to their tiny, elfin eyes and thus they’re less prone to striking out.
(BB+SH+SF): With their microscopic strike zones, gritty players generate walks (the unintentional ones) at a superhuman rate. Sacrificing oneself is an inefficient (read: gritty) method of moving runners along.
GIDP: Double plays are produced by well-struck balls that are able to cut through the infield grass. Aside from a bottle of hard liquor (eh, Mr. Furcal?) gritty players rarely hit anything well.
DID YOU KNOW: 2007 NL MVP Jimmy Rollins produced the sixth-highest season total of outs since 1955? He probably owes a fair share of his award to a trail-blazing fellow Phillie middle-infielder who set a precedent. Juan Samuel, in 1984, produced the second highest number of outs on his way to earning a tie for 21st place in the MVP voting and 2nd in the NL ROY. HOOCHIEMAMA!
DID YOU ALSO KNOW: Pete Rose has only the second highest season total of determination. The real "Charlie Hustle" is actually a "Dick." Dick Howser, that is. Howser’s 1964 season slightly edges out Pete’s numbers from 1974. CRACKER JACK!
WHATCHUKNOWABOUTTHISHERE: Dick Howser’s phone listing reads as "Howser, Dick." This tidbit is worth a few laughs given the right delivery, set-up, and audience. SHABANG!
Talent – It is my contention that "grittiness" is a subset of talent that cannot translate well statistically. Two players may very well have the same raw amount of grit, but one player may have more tangible talent, making him appear less gritty because the grit is too diluted. Gritty players are those who have the largest concentration of grit. As such, too find the grittiest players, we should look for players who have as little tangible talent as possible.
The Talent Formula
XBH: Extra base hits are über-efficient ways of getting multiple bases.
RBI: Gritty players move runners over, but aren’t talented enough to drive them in.
TB: Total bases is an additional means of counting the overall ability of a player.
(OMS*1000): OMS (OBP minus SLG) is a proprietary statistic I developed for use in GRIT. It rewards players who reach base, but deprecates players who have the talent to get extra bases.
OPPORTUNITY
In order for a player to become gritty, they first need to be on the field. In the words of Ted Williams, "Nobody ever became a .400 hitter without taking the bat off their shoulder." To apply the quote more appropriately here, one might attribute it to Willams' quasi-gritty teammate, Milt Bolling, and change it to read "Nobody ever became a .250 hitter by getting splinters in their ass.” We simply use plate appearances as a representation of opportunity.
After calculating the four GRIT component values for each player-season, the resulting values are then plugged in to this equation:
(Dirt + Determination – Talent) / Opportunity
However, each component has a different scale relative to the others, so I experimented with normalizing the values. This can be accomplished by calculating an average and a standard deviation for the dirt, determination, talent, and opportunity scores of all the player-years.
Basic Normalization Formula
This was applied for each of the basic components across all player-seasons. The rationale for normalizing this data is to remove as much bias as possible from the process. As each of the four basic components creates a different range of values, some sort of weighting would be necessary to produce a meaningful list. Normalization automatically weights the components by determining how far a given player-season is above or below the average of all player-seasons.
RESULTS
Across 13,249 player-seasons, the data appears to have a relatively normal distribution. The data shows a range of about -50 to +50 with one outlier at -90.011 (see below), and a mean and median extremely close to 0. These numbers are promising for the prospects of GRIT as a statistic, as they suggest that the average player is neither extremely gritty, nor extremely talented. The tails in the extreme positive end of the distribution should show the grittiest players, while talented players should appear in the negative tail.
Enough talk; bring on the numbers ...
The Top 50 Grittiest Season and the 25 Least Gritty Seasons
| Rank | Year | Player | Team | GRIT |
| 1 | 1971 | Ron Hunt | MON | 52.061 |
| 2 | 2002 | David Eckstein | ANA | 35.963 |
| 3 | 1968 | Ron Hunt | SFN | 34.901 |
| 4 | 1998 | Fernando Vina | MIL | 33.296 |
| 5 | 1996 | Craig Biggio | HOU | 32.251 |
| 6 | 1997 | Craig Biggio | HOU | 27.964 |
| 7 | 2002 | Fernando Vina | SLN | 27.687 |
| 8 | 2005 | Jason Kendall | OAK | 27.373 |
| 9 | 2001 | Jason Kendall | PIT | 27.018 |
| 10 | 1955 | Nellie Fox | CHA | 26.703 |
| 11 | 1986 | Don Baylor | BOS | 26.442 |
| 12 | 2003 | Jason Kendall | PIT | 26.319 |
| 13 | 2000 | Fernando Vina | SLN | 26.064 |
| 14 | 1999 | Chuck Knoblauch | NYA | 25.910 |
| 15 | 2003 | Craig Biggio | HOU | 25.743 |
| 16 | 2001 | David Eckstein | ANA | 25.423 |
| 17 | 1957 | Nellie Fox | CHA | 25.311 |
| 18 | 1975 | Felix Millan | NYN | 25.188 |
| 19 | 1967 | Cesar Tovar | MIN | 25.102 |
| 20 | 1969 | Ron Hunt | SFN | 24.829 |
| 21 | 1968 | Cesar Tovar | MIN | 24.692 |
| 22 | 2005 | Brady Clark | MIL | 24.659 |
| 23 | 1996 | Eric Young | COL | 24.635 |
| 24 | 1998 | Chuck Knoblauch | NYA | 24.558 |
| 25 | 2001 | Craig Biggio | HOU | 24.346 |
| 26 | 1997 | Jason Kendall | PIT | 23.913 |
| 27 | 2004 | Jason Kendall | PIT | 23.717 |
| 28 | 1998 | Jason Kendall | PIT | 23.617 |
| 29 | 1972 | Ron Hunt | MON | 23.580 |
| 30 | 2001 | Fernando Vina | SLN | 23.189 |
| 31 | 2004 | Juan Pierre | FLO | 23.028 |
| 32 | 1980 | Ozzie Smith | SDN | 22.815 |
| 33 | 1976 | Don Baylor | OAK | 22.419 |
| 34 | 2005 | David Eckstein | SLN | 22.402 |
| 35 | 1957 | Minnie Minoso | CHA | 22.188 |
| 36 | 1991 | Brett Butler | LAN | 21.874 |
| 37 | 1961 | Nellie Fox | CHA | 21.834 |
| 38 | 1970 | Ed Brinkman | WS2 | 21.702 |
| 39 | 2006 | Juan Pierre | CHN | 21.334 |
| 40 | 1973 | Ron Hunt | MON | 21.142 |
| 41 | 2002 | Melvin Mora | BAL | 20.893 |
| 42 | 1980 | Alfredo Griffin | TOR | 20.875 |
| 43 | 1993 | Mike Bordick | OAK | 20.719 |
| 44 | 2005 | Juan Pierre | FLO | 20.615 |
| 45 | 1995 | Craig Biggio | HOU | 20.413 |
| 46 | 1990 | Brett Butler | SFN | 20.399 |
| 47 | 1959 | Richie Ashburn | PHI | 20.079 |
| 48 | 1993 | Chuck Knoblauch | MIN | 19.994 |
| 49 | 1993 | Brett Butler | LAN | 19.919 |
| 50 | 1984 | Brett Butler | CLE | 19.816 |
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| Rank | Year | Player | Team | GRIT |
| 13234 | 1957 | Ted Williams | BOS | -27.054 |
| 13235 | 2000 | Sammy Sosa | CHN | -27.055 |
| 13236 | 1999 | Mark McGwire | SLN | -27.905 |
| 13237 | 2006 | Albert Pujols | SLN | -27.913 |
| 13238 | 1989 | Kevin Mitchell | SFN | -31.490 |
| 13239 | 1998 | Mark McGwire | SLN | -32.316 |
| 13240 | 1970 | Willie McCovey | SFN | -34.094 |
| 13241 | 2001 | Barry Bonds | SFN | -35.160 |
| 13242 | 2007 | Ryan Howard | PHI | -35.452 |
| 13243 | 1969 | Willie McCovey | SFN | -38.707 |
| 13244 | 2006 | Ryan Howard | PHI | -38.898 |
| 13245 | 1993 | Barry Bonds | SFN | -39.723 |
| 13246 | 2003 | Barry Bonds | SFN | -42.087 |
| 13247 | 2001 | Sammy Sosa | CHN | -42.659 |
| 13248 | 2002 | Barry Bonds | SFN | -50.984 |
| 13249 | 2004 | Barry Bonds | SFN | -90.011 |
50 All-Time Grittiest Players and the 15 All-Time Least Gritty Players
| Rank |
| Full Name | CareerGRIT | Yrs | Yearly Avg |
| 1 | * | Craig Biggio | 250.22 | 19 | 13.17 |
| 2 |
| Ron Hunt | 236.96 | 11 | 21.54 |
| 3 | * | Jason Kendall | 214.62 | 11 | 19.51 |
| 4 |
| Nellie Fox | 188.42 | 10 | 18.84 |
| 5 |
| Brett Butler | 187.26 | 15 | 12.48 |
| 6 |
| Chuck Knoblauch | 170.67 | 11 | 15.52 |
| 7 | * | Omar Vizquel | 165.22 | 17 | 9.72 |
| 8 |
| Luis Aparicio | 162.49 | 18 | 9.03 |
| 9 |
| Bert Campaneris | 154.16 | 15 | 10.28 |
| 10 |
| Don Baylor | 152.16 | 17 | 8.95 |
| 11 | * | David Eckstein | 146.58 | 7 | 20.94 |
| 12 |
| Pete Rose | 143.91 | 23 | 6.26 |
| 13 |
| Maury Wills | 142.30 | 13 | 10.95 |
| 14 |
| Ozzie Smith | 140.77 | 18 | 7.82 |
| 15 |
| Rickey Henderson | 137.94 | 23 | 6.00 |
| 16 |
| Cesar Tovar | 137.83 | 10 | |
