A Stat That Everyone Can Enjoy

We UmpBump writers have spent far too much time debating the relative merits of many different kinds of statistics. Does a high RBI total actually signify a skill? Why should we care about a pitcher’s Win totals? Is WARP3 actually necessary?  The list continues.

But this past week, something wonderful has happened. Someone actually created a stat that could finally end the war between the awesome intergalactic sabermetric fleets armed with X-Wing Fighter Jets and the “classic” statisticians with their… umm… vaudeville shows and toothbrush mustaches and 23-skidoos… I don’t know. I wasn’t alive during this time.

Yes, friends, someone has finally created a quantifiable stat to measure GRIT.

<loud applause>

The good folks over at Flotsam Media, a sports blog, actually went through a data set beginning in 1955 to determine who was the most/least gritty player during this span:

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.

This DIRT factor was created by looking at stats such as HBP (the ultimate form of grittiness) , and Stolen Bases and Caught Stealing. Other factors that were determined through similar methods were:

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 (not) actually get there efficiently.

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.

I’ll stop cribbing because the Flotsam post is really worth reading for yourself (there you can also find out who the grittiest of the gritty were).  But I wanted to simply tip my cap to them. Maybe now, I can stop squirming when people call Miguel Cairo anything more than crappy.