On this installment, we pay a visit to the Orioles Hangout. This fringe messageboard community is a pretty tight knit group who are known for their staunch isolationism. Shrouded in mystery and the repugnant stench of failure, little is known about the board’s ongoings. Much like black holes, most of what we do know about the Orioles Hangout was ascertained by registering its effects on nearby online communities (e.g. relative changes in the presence of Brian Roberts trade rumors and Andy MacPhail sweatervest pictures) . With your appetite thoroughly whetted, let’s take a look!

What caught our attention this week was a post by member tsand72. Titled “This team has no baseball soul,” tsand72 delves in to the main problem facing the Orioles: a complete and total lack of hustle/grittiness/moxie/mojo/scrappiness.

Take it away, tsand72.

Throw out the stats.

Open your eyes.

Every time I sit down to watch the O’s I’m looking for one thing: Soul. Grit. Grime.

I can’t say that I’m familiar with “sitting down to watch the O’s”, but I have the sneaking suspicion that if I were, I’d be looking for the remote. But tsand72 looks for soul, grit and grime. So (questionable Oriole fanaticism aside) we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is a reputable gentleman and scholar of the highest degree.

I saw it in the first few days of the season. Jones had it.

Had it? Are we talking about grit? Adam Jones isn’t really gritty. In fact, he’s kinda sorta good. Especially during those first weeks of the season.

Are we talking about venereal disease? Or is that the other Adam Jones?

The veteran Zaun was ooozing it.

Ok. So we are talking about venereal disease. But for the record, Zaun’s pretty gritty. Damn shame about his VD, though.

It was infectious and actually made the first week or so fun to watch.

Apparently, lots of the Orioles had it. If only Zaun had clubhouse cancer, this outbreak could’ve been easily prevented.

There isn’t much of it there, though. What was there during the first few weeks of baseball this season started to dwindle… and guess where it was completely LOST… ??

After the final regimen of Azithromycin was administered?

…. it was the day the Red Sox staged a 2 out rally to tie the O’s and push them into extra innings.

Thanks for just coming out and saying it. That would’ve probably been about my 137th guess.

Guess what? In that game, Bergeson had it. And Trembly ripped it out of him and stomped into the dug out floor. That was the end of the season… right then and there… on many levels.

And we’re off. Just so we’re all on the same page, the Orioles’ season ended when their manager removed Brad Bergeson’s syphilis with his bare hands and cast it aside? That sounds surprisingly Biblical.

Since that day, the Orioles have been flying around firing a bunch of blanks. They sorely lack what winners have: Gamers.

Aha! Firing blanks? So Trembly didn’t just rip out the syphilis? Maybe Orioles baseball is worth watching after all.

But tsand72 is right about one thing. You can’t be gritty without a pair of gamers. Having a healthy and functional set of gamers is what separates the men from, well, everyone else who don’t have gamers.

You know who didn’t have gamers? The very non-gritty John Kruk (Career GRIT3 of -76.31). You know who retired from baseball mid-game in 1995? John Kruk. Maybe Kruk wouldn’t have tucked tail and ran for the nearest Sizzler buffet (seriously) if he had a set of gamers like Lenny Dykstra or Tim Flannery. But it was probably easy for him to tuck tail, since he didn’t have any gamers.

Example: The Mets. On paper they are winners. On the field? They don’t got it. Therefore, they are losers. Their talent doesn’t overcome the lack of baseball grit.

You see, I don’t know about this. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains. But at the end of the day, grit’s not something you want to add to your team lightly. Yeah, you may think those sportscasters are right and that you want a “gritty little sparkplug” that will get your team’s engine revving. But in reality, if you sprinkle a little grit in to an engine, you’re probably going to wind up needing an overhaul in the near future. So just think about that for a while. I obviously haven’t.

The Phillies? Well, going into last year they were hardly the favorites. But guess what… they have it. Shane Victorino is case and point. He’s got the baseball mojo and he uses it to his advantage. Grit and determination… and this all comes from a guy that who was hardly heralded (and when I lived in Philly no one counted on him as a possible “real” replacement for Bobby Abreu (incidentally… Abreu is the perfect example of a player that doesn’t have it. He’s a stat sheet stuffer that brings nothing onto the field. No drive to dive or go hard into the wall… he’s the first to hit bombs in 6 run game… but the last to be clutch when the team needs it). Don’t get me wrong… Victorino has talent. But his baseball mojo pushes him to a higher level.

I love this paragraph so much, I’d like to marry it and get it pregnant. Shane Victorino does have the mojo. We noted so earlier this year. And he’s right on about Bobby Abreu. Bobby Abreu is about as gritty as staying home on a Friday night with season 2 of “The Facts of Life” and a pint of french vanilla Häagen-Dazs. Bobby Abreu treats his body like a temple. That’s not gritty. This past off-season, Abreu’s main competition among free agent right-fielders was Milton Bradley. Bradley’s a lot grittier than Abreu. You know why? Because he doesn’t make it easy for himself. Bradley and Abreu might give you similar levels of production, but Milton’s going to do it after alienating his fans, throwing down a full boat of race cards, upending the table, and and snapping every ligament in his body. Now that’s gritty

You want some Mojo? Watch a Dustin Pedroia. I personally really DISLIKE (read: loathe) the Red Sox. But they are a team that rides on a lot of talent and uses their mojo to push themselves to the limit.

Note for you amateur bloggers at home, take note of what tsand72 did here. When you’re blogging about the Yankees or Red Sox, it is of vital importance to explicitly mention that you dislike these two teams. If you can do it in ALLCAPS, even better. The same goes for the Cowboys and Patriots in football. If you fail to mention your distaste for either of them, then it’s likely that your audience will not take you seriously as they will assume you LOVE the Yankees/Red Sox like the rest of the uninformed general public. Heed my words. Don’t assume that your readers are knowledgeable. I know mine aren’t. That’s why I’ll just go on record right now. I HATE THE YANKEES. AND THE RED SOX. They broke baseball and they’re on ESPN ALL OF THE TIME. For this they deserve your contempt.

The Orioles are absolutely flat. Roberts? Flat. Weiters? Relatively Flat. Jones? He can have it… but he’s not sure if he wants it. Markakis? Flat.

As far as I can see, Reimold looks like he could be a gamer. Bergeson looks like he could be a gamer…

But what is left after that?

Now, hold it just a minute right there. Have you forgotten Melvin Mora? He’s got a GRIT3 of 8.67! That’s second only to Chone Figgins among third basemen. He has eighteen children. FAMILY VALUES.

Or what about Cesar Izturis? He’s got a GRIT3 of 5.78, only a hundredth of a point behind Shane Victorino. He leaks veteran leadership from his loins. He uses that to polish the GOLD GLOVE that he won a few years ago.

Cesar’s GRIT3 would be higher but he’s only received 373 PAs. Robert Andino got the majority of the other playing time at shortstop and he hasn’t disappointed in the GRIT3 department; as of this writing, he’s sitting at 1.43.

I have a buddy who does work for MLB TV. He’s been in and out of the O’s clubhouse and other team’s clubhouses up and down the east coast for the last few years… and when the team let go of Millar he spoke up. He told me that, as far as he could tell, Millar was the only baseball “force” (again, we’re talking “baseball in the blood” kind of a leader) in the clubhouse. According to him it was painfully obvious that Roberts and Markakis were dead-as-doornails when it came to leadership.

Frankly, that’s one person’s opinion. But it shows.

I feel your pain but, seriously — just take a look at Cesar Izturis’ mantle, please? That Gold Glove is literally slathered in veteran leadership.

The Orioles have a lot of deficits to overcome. Payroll limitations (as compared to the beasts of the east). A relentlessly competitive division. A bad owner. The landing of a new organization in the dc-bmore metro area. And 12 straight seasons of losing. Yes, 12. One-Two. The Pirates just set a sports record by nailing down 17 straight losing seasons. A laughable sight… but we are right on their hind-quarters. And we are picking up speed.

But, IMO, one of the biggest deficits on the Orioles isn’t a lack of young talent… it’s the lack of players that know how to PLAY to win. Lack of players with the baseball mojo. Players with grit. Outside of Greg Zaun, who is an old-school roll-up the sleeves blue-collar kind of player, there really is no veteran who “has it” that can pass it on to the younger kids. There is no “Ray Lewis” type of personality that forces it upon the newbies.

We need it so freak-in bad.

I normally charge for this, but you’ve given me a lot of material to work with so allow me to give you a freebie. Pseubermetrics’ position-by-position guide to grittifying the hell out of the Orioles’ lineup.

C – Give Greg Zaun the majority of the starts next year. Let Wieters learn the trade from one of the game’s grittiest backstops.
1B – Two words. Ty Wigginton. Ship Aubrey Huff to someone who wants a declining slugger with a girl’s name.
2B – Get rid of Roberts. He’s seriously dragging your team down. Stick Ryan Freel in there and watch that grit just pile up.
SS – Izturis and Andino are great here.
3B – Same goes for Mora. MacPhail knows what he’s doing on the left side of the infield.
LF – I like Felix Pie here. He’s been showing off some pop as of late, but I have a hunch that he’s just trying to impress Trembley. Give him some the assurance of playing over Reimold and I bet he’ll quit cutting corners.
CF – Not a lot of good options here. Like you said, Adam Jones just doesn’t have it. Figgins is on the market this year. He’d be a great choice. Willy Taveras might be worth a shot too.
RF – Go out and grab Milton Bradley from the Cubs. Like I mentioned earlier, if you want grit, you want Milton Bradley. The Cubs will probably pay the Orioles to take him off their hands.
DH – Designated hitters aren’t gritty. Let your pitchers hit, you pansy. Sacrifice. Steal bases. Hit behind runners. Small ball! That’s how baseball is supposed to be played.

The Orioles gracefully submit to the Red Sox and have done so on a yearly basis. The Red Sox, on the other hand, are like a wolf that stumbles across a wounded rabbit… and their players, despite their dominant record, are all too happy to roll up their sleeves, get down-and-dirty, and scrap/pound on the baseball diamond to pull out victories from an inferior opponent.

I just don’t see this ship righting itself until the Orioles “get it.” It just ain’t lookin’ good.

I couldn’t agree more, but I think we’ve made a lot of progress here. We learned a lot about the Orioles and maybe even a little bit about ourselves. Just follow that plan of action up there and with minimal shuffling of personnel, you can rest assured that the Orioles will have one of the grittiest lineups in baseball. While grit might not win you many games, it should make you popular with sportscasters and other knowledgeable baseball folk — and that’s what ultimately counts.

Of course, that’s just one person’s opinion. But it shows.

And how.

Well, it’s been way too long since we’ve made a post here. We’ve got a couple posts half finished that we’ve picked at and intended to finish up today, but then this came across the desk and jumped to the front of the queue. Without further ado, we present by way of Bleacher Report and J Panchina, baseball’s “10 Scrappiest Players“.

They may or may not play every day, but every time they step on the field you’re ensured that they’re giving it their all.

Whether it’s diving for out of reach grounders, running hard to first every time they make contact, or fearlessly tracking down flies headed straight toward the fence, these players make the most out of their time on the field.

Scrappiness and grittiness are pretty much interchangeable as far as baseball’s concerned, so we’re going to assume that J Panchina merely forgot about GRIT3, flipped a coin, and went with “scrappiest” in lieu of “grittiest.” Good to have you on board, J!

Although grinders usually go somewhat unnoticed not being as flashy and naturally talented as some of their teammates, these guys will always have a place in my heart. I love seeing players who maybe weren’t given the best physical attributes and natural talent (hey we weren’t all born with Mauer’s swing) who make the roster due to their sheer guts, determination, and effort.

Hear hear!

I also love watching players who aren’t very good at baseball. When I watch baseball, I pay attention to the worst player on the field. That way, I get to live vicariously through them and imagine what it’s like to be a real Major Leaguer.

Earlier this year, I saw the Twins play the Royals and had the complete and utter privilege to watch Nick Punto start at shortstop. Man, that guy is gritty! It was so great to watch him stumble around the baseball field on his undersized peg legs. He ended up going 0-4 (just like I would have done if nobody ever had the “good sense” to shatter my boyhood dreams at an early age).

After the game, I followed him back to the team’s hotel and watched him unload all of the Twins’ equipment from the bus.

What a life! He gets to handle Joe Mauer’s catching gear!

Later on, he sat in his hotel room and played Nintendo 64. He’s such a regular guy. Playing N64 is exactly what I would’ve been doing if I hadn’t been watching Nick Punto from a hotel fire escape at that moment.

Where were we?

So, here’s a list honoring the scrappiest players in the game.

Right. Let’s do it!

No. 10 Eric Byrnes, Diamondbacks

Byrnes can be found diving all around Chase Field, making spectacular plays. He’s fearless in the outfield, runs whenever he can, and slides hard every time there’s a close play.

Eric Byrnes gets a lot of acclaim as a gritty hustler extraordinaire. SportsCenter helps his cause because he falls around the outfield and makes shoestring catches. Baseball Reference even lists his nicknames as “Crash Test Dummy and Pigpen”.

Eric Byrnes is in the midst of his grittiest season since 2005. But this is because he’s never really been that gritty — at least not from an offensive standpoint. He hits for too much power and strikes out too often to really be gritty. And, he’s been hurt the last two years which is definitely not gritty. Gritty players play through injuries; they don’t succumb to them.

Eric Byrnes has shown time and time again, that he is talented enough to hit for extra bases. That’s not gritty.

No. 9 Nate McLouth, Braves

McLouth is always giving it his all. Even when he was on the Pirate’s he never seemed to care too much about the standings, he only cared about making the most of every at bat.

Okay, I have to take issue here again. Nate McLouth is also not gritty. Like Eric Byrnes, he gets mislabeled as “gritty” because he hustles. But a player who hustles successfully is simply talented. Look at McLouth’s stolen base numbers — the guy is 74 for 83 over his career. Last year, his GRIT3 was -15.69 and he’s shied away from stepping in to as many pitches this year.

Sorry, J, but you’re 0 for 2.

No. 8 Augie Ojeda, Diamondbacks

Listed at 5’8’’ 165, this little guy knows how to play the game. The scrappy shortstop can be seen hustling down the line on every ball he makes contact with. You gotta respect a player like that.

All right, now we’re talking!

This little bastard is most definitely gritty. He put up a very solid 8.05 GRIT3 last year and is above 5 on the current season. He’s a bit of a free swinger seeing only 3.72 pitches per PA over his career, but his short stature allows him to draw some walks. And his tiny frame keeps him from hitting for much power — only 7 home runs over his 1,115 lifetime PAs and a slugging average of .314.

Ojeda’s probably not someone I’d put in the top 10, but at least we’re headed in the right direction.

No. 7 Aaron Rowand, Giants

His face first catch into the fence was enough to get him on this list. Always putting the game first, and his body second, he’s as scrappy as outfielders come.

Like Ojeda, Rowand’s probably not someone I’d put in the top 10, but he deserves consideration. Since his coming out party with the White Sox’ championship team in 2005, Rowand has notched positive GRIT3 in each season no matter where he’s gone. His 2005 total of 17.13 was good for 7th in the Majors and he posted 8.56, 3.80, and 7.08 over the next three seasons with the Phillies and Giants. Rowand seems to get off on pain whether it’s at the plate, in the field, and probably off the field. As such, he’s consistently been among the league leaders in HBP.

Gritty? Oh yeah. Top 10 Gritty? Maybe.

No. 6 Reed Johnson, Cubs

Reed is one of my favorite players because he’s such a grinder. He struggles to find an outfield spot on the Cubs, but he really gives maximum effort when he’s on the field. He bunts, runs, and dives for balls. This all out effort has taken a toll on his body, and he’s had a few stints on the DL this season, but hopefully he’ll be healthy next year, and the Cubs can use him next season to bring a spark into their line up.

No arguments here. The man wears a merkin on his chin and was in gymnastics as a child. If you want to live a non-gritty life that’s free from childhood ridicule, participating in gymnastics as a kid is just about the worst way to go about making it happen.

His fearless catches are well-known, but he puts up very good GRIT3 numbers by showing the same fearlessness at the plate. Coming in to this season, Johnson was plunked once every 29.9 plate appearances. Among players to debut after 1900, only 6 have been plunked at a faster rate:

No. 5 David Eckstein, Padres

Back in his prime, the 2006 Wold Series MVP was the epitome of a scrappy player. The 5’7’’ second baseman-shortstop continues to make the most of his limited ability and physic. He’ll do anything to get on base, and he’s not afraid to lean into a pitch if necessary.

Lil’ Davey’s #1 in my book. He should be #1 in your book, too. Unless we’re reading different books. I’m reading George Will’s Bunts; is that what you’re reading?

Whatever. Eckstein’s number one. End of story. I don’t care if he sucks at the hard sciences.

No. 4 Chone Figgins, Angels

The 5’8’’ utility man will play whenever and where ever he can. He’s extremely scrappy and truly makes the most out of his limited physique.

I’m not going to argue this. J’s clearly done his homework. After coming on strong with a 2008 GRITTY earning 8.46, Figgins has continued to hang near the top of the GRIT3 leaderboard in 2009. He’s currently sitting at 8.11 which puts him at 17th in the Majors.

What’s his secret? A complete and total revulsion to the idea of hitting for extra-bases. His career ISO of .096 and OMS of -0.025 prove that Chone knows that, to be truly gritty, you should earn each and every base one at a time.

No. 3 Brett Gardner, Yankees

It’s got to be tough when you’re on arguably the most talented team in baseball, full of sluggers, and you’ve got to prove yourself with your wheels and defense. That is just what Gardner is doing. Every day he’s playing he’s legging out hits, laying down bunts, and improving the team.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the author is being victimized by the cognitive bias known as the “Contrast effect“. With GRIT3 totals of 0.43 and 0.68 during 2008 and 2009 respectively, Gardner is barely above average in terms of his grittiness.

Gardner’s probably viewed as being “very gritty” for two reasons. First, nobody else on the Yankees is gritty. Only Jose Molina (0.79) has a higher GRIT3 during this year for New York. Combine that with the fact that New York is neck-and-neck with Texas for the least grittiest of all teams, and Gardner comes across as gritty. This unwarranted praise is likely multiplied by the extensive media coverage which the Yankees receive.

If you assert that Mark Teixeira is gritty frequently enough, it will eventually become gospel. Mark Teixeira isn’t gritty, and neither is Brett Gardner.

No. 2 Shane Victorino, Phillies

This guy is amazing. He was an integral player on last year’s World Championship Phillies team. This guy does it all; he sprints down the line, he takes great routes, hustles in the outfield, and can lay down a bunt. If you want a championship team, you need at least one player like Victorino on the roster.

You’re totally right. Shane Victorino runs well. And he can bunt. That makes him invaluable. And gritty!

Seriously, Victorino’s gritty. He’s far from being the second grittiest, but at this point I think it’s apparent that J’s not ordering these correctly.

NEEEEEEXT

No. 1 Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox

Dustin Pedroia is the definition of a grinder. The little second baseman does whatever he can to improve the team, and he’s the reason for much of the Sox’s success over the last few years. He certainly brings a fire to the lineup, and invigorates his teammates.

I’m a bit conflicted here. In 2007, Pedroia put up a healthy GRIT3 of 8.31 on his way to winning the AL ROY on Boston’s championship squad. That was solid enough to land him 18th place in the Majors despite seeing less action than many of those ahead of him. However, last year, Pedroia’s grittiness took a nosedive to -3.01 — 904th out of 1026 players. Pedroia’s not the grittiest player in the Majors.

Whether or not he merits consideration for a top 10 list depends on which is the real Dustin Pedroia.

That’s all for this week. Make sure to check back in a few for some more PDG and our next Hall of GRIT induction.

You invest your hopes. You invest your dreams. You invest your $5 hot dog habit.

And then, what do those good-for-nothings do in return? They piss it all away. Lose two of three to a bunch of bums from some third world country that make a fraction of what your guys make. It’s an unhealthy relationship dynamic, but what are you going to do? These are the Mets. You can’t outsource the Mets!

We digress from that digression.

Each week we send out the Pseubermetrics web crawler. He’s a cute little guy that looks for “grit.” Well, we sent him out earlier this week and he comes waddling up to the door with this Crabapple post in his mouth. He dropped it on our doorstep like a present. Sometimes he thinks he’s people. It’s adorable. What got his attention?

Hitters…ugh. They need a new 1st baseman, a new catcher, a new left fielder, and maybe even trade Carlos Beltran. The Mets have always worked best with grit. Beltran has no grit. Reyes has grit. Can’t wait for that guy to return to form next season.

Well, the writer is technically correct in that the Mets have very little grit this year. As of August 21st, the Mets had a team GRIT3 total of 0.82. However, 0.82 is actually a pretty sizable amount as far as team GRIT3 totals go. So sizable, in fact, that the Mets are actually third at present.

Regarding Reyes and Beltran, Crabapple has the basic ontology correct, but they forget that GRIT3 can also be negative. Consequently, Beltran doesn’t have “no grit.” He has negative grit. Per the Ongoing Player Totals table, Beltran is the most non-gritty player on the team this year with a GRIT3 of -7.83. A cursory glance at the same table shows that Reyes only “has grit” when compared relative to Beltran’s negative grit. Since going down with injury in May, Reyes has hovered right around 0 for a good part of this season, finding himself with a GRIT3 of -0.44 as of our latest calculation.

So, who does have grit?

For starters, the loss of Reyes provided the Mets with a 2009 NL All-Gritter at shortstop in Alex Cora. He’s sporting a very solid 6.16 as of August 21st. On the flipside of the keystone, Luis Castillo (5.17) has enjoyed a very gritty season in his own right and his pairing with Cora gives the Mets one of the grittier double-play duos in all of baseball.

When you throw in Fernando Tatis (2.96), Daniel Murphy (.85), and Brian Schneider (.59) the Mets — as they did as recently as August 11 — can field an infield entirely of plus-gritty players.

As for the assertion that the Mets “always worked best with grit,” well we checked that out as well. If “worked best” is meant to be interpreted as “won a lot of baseball games”, then the evidence isn’t there to support the conclusion. The Mets haven’t always worked best with grit. In fact, they’ve worked pretty damn awfully when they’ve had grit. Data?

Here’s a table of every Mets season since 1962

As you can see, the more successful years have almost exclusively occurred when the Mets have been non-gritty. This table of summary statistics best illustrates the point.

During “gritty” seasons, the Mets would have averaged a record of 64-98 over 162 games. Even during seasons when their grittiness ran from moderately gritty to moderately non-gritty, the Mets didn’t fare much better, averaging a record of 70-92. However, in the years when the Mets showed signs of serious non-grittiness, they flashed an average record of 84-78. If you were to drill down and divide the seasons into quartiles, you’d find an even more discernible pattern as the least gritty seasons intersect with some of the most successful. And before you go and argue that the 1969 Miracle Mets won a World Series in spite of their grittiness, keep in mind that that team wasn’t winning games thanks to its high-powered offense. A bigger portion of that team’s success was due to its lights-out pitching staff.

The lesson here? Grittiness doesn’t pay. At least not in terms of baseball success. For that, you’d be better served getting some honest to goodness talent. Or pitching.

First, the home office was moved from the sabermetric hotbed of Iowa City to Madison, Wisconsin. While Iowa City was home to Sean Forman (baseballreference) and Dan Brooks (Brooks Baseball PitchFX tool) among others, it was time to venture out in to the brutal winter abyss of the north for an intense Rocky IV-esque training montage. Actually, this move is intended to reduce the costs of providing comprehensive coverage of Jason Kendall. Actually, that’s a lie too. Whatever the reason, transporting the GRIT mainframes, slide rules, and laptop baseball simulators in to Wisconsin came with the unfortunate side effect of preventing our staff from providing you, our reader, with the gritty updates you know and love. We got drunk on beer, ate a bunch of deep-fried cheese curds, and got lazy for a week. For that, we’re sorry. No we’re not. Those curds were delicious. But, we’re back and more Wisconsinny than ever. To prove it: “Fuck Brett.” That’s Wisconsinese for “hello again, good sir.”

But, like we said, there are lots of changes underway. With all of the changes, we’ve taken the opportunity to set up a satellite office in Kansas City. What, you might be asking, is the purpose of a satellite office in Kansas City? To research pitching, obviously. It also provides a solid hookup for delicious barbecue sauce to go along with our new stockade of cheese and beer. We’re venturing forward in an effort to analyze pitching as well as hitting. How awesome is that? If hunger was a game of Risk, we just surged outward from Australia and ran roughshod across Asia. Yes, that’s right. The establishment of the Grit Baseball Pitching Research Arm will hopefully provide Grit Baseball’s readership with the absolute best quality of baseball analysis. We’ve hired a director for this satellite office. We’re not ready to reveal his identity, but you’ll be hearing from him in the near future.

And while we’re on the subject of the Grit Baseball Pitching Research Arm. About that name. That’s also probably going to have to go. Since GRIT is exclusively concerned with offensive production, there’s little sense in throwing our pitching research under one poor fitting mantle of “Grit Baseball.” So, we’re proud to announce that, after careful deliberation, Grit Baseball is officially changing its name to “Pseübermetrics“. the gritbaseball.com domain will still work, we’re just going by a different, more awesome name.

What does Pseübermetrics mean? Well, Pseübermetrics is that valuable piece of real estate that lies at the nexus of pseudoscience, sabermetrics, and über-awesomeness. To go back to that poorly envisioned Risk analogy, Pseübermetrics is akin to the unholy trifecta of strategic Eurasian choke points: the Middle East, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.

That’s right. We’ve got those. All three of them. And we’ve got a set of cards. And, since we’re being nice, we’ll just tell you right now that we’re going to cash those cards in to fortify Ukraine for the impending European invasion.

So, hold on to your hats. And while you’re at it, update your bookmarks.

The world we live in is full of quick fixes. You know what quick fixes are? They’re loser talk for cheating. We should not tolerate the use of said fixes in our national pastime, Major League Baseball. The severity of crimes these dirty, stinky cheaters perpetrated on fans and American society cannot be overstated.

It has been shown to the people time and time again that baseball has been corrupted for years. We know this from players making statements, Congressional testimony, personal stories, checks and orders for supplements. For years we have heard Bud Selig insist there is not a drug problem in baseball, only to have George Mitchell come out with a report that essentially calls him a douche, a liar, and a big, dumb nerd. We have the evidence we need. We know people have tested positive for steroids. Alex Rodriguez hits a bunch of home runs but we all know they come in a needle package, wrapped in cheater wrapping paper and topped with a bow of disrespect for the game.

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves if we had deep-fried our keyboard in readability oil. For this, Aaron Castellan just earned himself one golden star sticker and the respect of everybody here at Grit Baseball.

This magazine was apparently issued shortly after Fox's Bar Mitzvah.

Last week, we unveiled Ron Hunt as the charter member of the Hall of GRIT. This week, we turn our attention to another deserving player: Nellie Fox (BBREF | FanGraphs | Wiki).

Over his 19 seasons in the Majors, Fox amassed a reputation for being one of, if not, the best defensive second basemen in the league. Paired with the gifted defensive stylings of shortstops Chico Carrasquel and Luis Aparicio for much of his career, Fox formed the backbone of the White Sox middle infield in the 1950s and early ’60s.

Like many of history’s grittiest, Fox was as short on power as he was on height. But striking out is for those weak in constitution — and weakness, aside from his lack of muscle mass, wasn’t part of Nellie’s repertoire.

Built from bits of rusted metal pulled from a Pennsylvania scrap heap, Nellie stood in the box at 5′9″ and 150 pounds of guts and hustle. Lil’ Nell, as he was called by people standing over 69 inches in height, choked up on his big boy bat and frustrated pitchers and infielders alike, slapping pitches left and right like a strung-out Ike Turner. And, while few of the balls he put in play were hit far enough to be played by outfielders, Nellie only struck out once every 43 at-bats or so, the fourth highest AB/SO ratio of all time.

You want a first hand account? Here’s what Sports Illustrated had to say about Nellie in a preview of the 1959 World Series.

There is Nellie Fox, short and aggressive, the senior man on the team. If you are a betting man and your favorite cousin is watching a game with you, bet him that Fox hits the ball every time he swings at it. Fox bats left-handed, crouches over the plate and chokes up at least an inch on his very thick bat. His swing is short, more of a chopping motion, so most of his hits are singles. Outside pitches are blocked into left field. Pitches down the middle are stroked through the pitcher’s mound. Inside pitches are pulled to right. Fox is also a very good bunter, and it is certain he will try to lay one down at least once during the Series. When Fox is standing out at second base and there is a lull between pitches you may get a chance to see him reach into his hip pocket and mop his brow with the brightest red handkerchief in the major leagues.

Fox is an odd case in that he’s not only among the career leaders in GRIT — in fact, if comprehensive statistics were available prior to 1955, he might be the all-time leader — but also a member of the Hall of Fame.

Although baseball writers are generally big, big fans of gritty play, they’re a bit more hesitant to put the all-time grittiest players in to the Hall of Fame. Of history’s 100 grittiest, 72 have met the eligibility requirements for induction. 40 of those players, including gritty luminaries such as Ron Hunt, Jim Gilliam, and Cesar Tovar, never received a spot on the ballot. Twenty-one of the 32 players who did make it on to the ballot never survived to see a second.

So, how many gritty players have gained entrance to the Hall of Fame?

Four. Fox, Aparicio, Ozzie Smith, and Richie Ashburn.

Four inductees out of 32 possible works out to a 12.5% induction rate. This is substantially lower than the rate among all other players of 27.1% (224 out of 827). Granted, the number of gritsters in the HOF is likely to increase in years to come. Craig Biggio has earned a spot. Baseball writers love his pine tar encrusted batting helmet. We love his beady eyes, musky scent, and what he’s done to inspire advancements in the statistical scrutiny of the plunking. Omar Vizquel will get a little consideration because he caught pop-ups backwards or something.

This simply confirms what we all assumed: grittiness is a complete and utter act of selflessness. One does not pursue fame and fortune by being gritty. No, no. An excess of grit rarely results in anything more than bad knees and an early death.

Nellie Fox's stint with the Pirates in the early '80s was crucial to his bump in support among the BBWAA.

Which brings us back to Nellie Fox. A lifelong user of tobacco, Fox died of cancer in 1975. As is the case with almost anything a gritster will do, Fox didn’t get in to Cooperstown the easy way. While he received a substantial bump in votes after his death (from 21% in 1975 up to 45% in 1976), Fox’s vote share dropped to about 30% by his twelfth year on the ballot 1982.

Not one to be easily dissuaded, Nellie had an ace up his sleeve. With baseball writers defecting from his side in droves, he was forced to play it. And play it he did.

During late 1981, Fox came back from the dead in the form of “Johnny Ray,” a second baseman for the Pirates. Between 1982 and ‘83, Johnny Ray né Nellie Fox (Fox) put together some solid performances, nearly winning the ROY award and becoming the first person to ever qualify for the award twice.

Fox’s reanimation stunt apparently impressed BBWAA voters. Following 15% bumps in both 1983 and ‘84, Fox was in prime position for induction. After languishing on the ballot for 14 years, 1985 was sure to be his year. However, despite a very productive 1984, Fox received 295 votes out of 396 — 74.7%, barely missing election by two votes. Fox would wait another 12 years before the Veterans’ Committee finally called him to join the ranks of the baseball elite in 1997.

Gritty bona fides:

• 3rd all-time in career GRIT3
• 4th all-time in career DIRT3
• 60th all-time in career DTRM3
• 4th all-time in AB/SO
• League leader in GRIT3: 1955-8, 1960-2
• League leader in DIRT3: 1955, 1958, 1960, 1964
• League leader in DTRM3: 1956, 1958-9, 1961
• League leader in AB/SO: 1951, 1954-64
• League leader in SH: 1961, 1964
• League leader in HBP: 1951
• League leader in Singles: 1952, 1954-60
• League leader in CS: 1951

While Nellie had to wait 27 years before induction in to the Hall of Fame, we here at Grit Baseball are proud to announce Nellie Fox is a charter member of the Hall of GRIT. Receiving a unanimous vote, Fox joins Hunt as a member of the Hall of GRIT’s Inaugural Class of 2009.

Congratulations, Nellie.

Each Friday or thereabout, we hope to recap some highlights from the previous week. This is all a part of our efforts to be the Internet’s number one source of grit-related baseball information as well as baseball-related grit information.

Well, the leader boards have been updated (players | teams) for the week of August 1-7, so let’s get right to it.

Biggest Gainers

2.87: Marlon Byrd

2.50: Paul Konerko

Although he’s at the top of our list, Marlon Byrd put together a fairly average week, most things considered. Sporting a line of .308/.367/.385, Byrd’s OPS was right around league average at .750. While his OMS of .018 was on the gritty side of things, his jump in GRIT3 was largely the cause of his 3 HBP and limited run production (1 run and 2 RBI). Like Byrd, Konerko also experienced a spike in GRIT3 during the past week due to 3 aberrant plunkings. Long term, look for the GRIT3 of both Byrd and Konerko to stay on the negative end of the spectrum as their HBP numbers return to norm.

2.42: Chase Utley

Another surprising name at the top of the TWIG Leaderboard, Utley’s ongoing slump caused him to register a pretty substantial gain in GRIT3. Since the beginning of the month, Utley’s production has stalled with a line of .150/.250/.200. He’s managed to reach base safely six times, two of which were due to the always gritty HBP. Over his career, Utley’s a bit of a strange case. Since debuting in 2003, his GRIT3 has fluctuated quite a bit. Generally, he’s proven to be non-gritty, although his consistently high HBP totals have prevented him from straying too far away from the Bob Johnson Bifurcation. Nonetheless, his 2007 campaign registered as the seventh grittiest of the year. Considering Utley posted an OPS+ of 145 that year, this is solid evidence that GRIT is due for a revision.

2.17: David DeJesus

Among the week’s biggest gainers, DeJesus is the only true gritster of the bunch. Oddly enough, DeJesus’ week of production was actually a lot better than his season-to-date. His numbers of .280/.387/.520 were all above what he’s posted thus far. While his TLNT score no doubt jumped, DeJesus can thank two HBP (he had only four prior to August 1) for his sizeable bump in GRIT. As Jason Kendall dropped .09 points, DeJesus finds himself in second place and only a half of a point back of David Eckstein.

3.04: Kansas City Royals

Kansas City benefited from DeJesus and Mark Teahen (+1.20) to make a move up the leader board. Thanks to the jump, the Royals find themselves in third place, having overtaken the Pirates.

Slippin’ and Slidin’

6.68: Adam Dunn

The Big Donkey had a big donkin’ week, going 8 for 21 with 3 decidedly non-gritty dingers and intentional passes. Dunn went down on strikes 10 out of the 13 times he didn’t reach base safely. While he’s not a strong contender to best Albert Pujols (-1.81 this week), Dunn is currently second to Uncle Albert and is a lock to remain among the ranks of the non-gritty elite.

5.63: Mark Reynolds

Reynolds continued his torrid pace and further validated his claim to throne of all-or-nothing slugger vacated by Dunn. Reynolds slugged a five home runs (35 on the year) and struck out 10 times (a league-leading 151 on the year). According to HitTracker data, the five home runs Reynolds jacked over the first week of August had an average standard distance (corrected for wind and field level) of 429 feet. While power may be impressive to some, it’s narcissistic at best and most definitely not gritty. With this week’s drop, Reynolds’ GRIT3 passed the -25 threshold. Barring an accident, Reynolds is a safe bet to remain among the lowest GRIT scorers for years to come.

10.02: Arizona Diamondbacks

Reynolds’ non-gritty performance almost single-handedly propelled the Diamondbacks’ drop in GRIT3. Arizona retained their position as fifth from the bottom among Major League teams–thanks to Albert Pujols’ continued display of tangible talent, only St. Louis is less gritty in the National League.

8.37: New York Yankees

The Yankee’s drop in GRIT was more of a team effort than that of Arizona. Johnny Damon (-2.34), Mark Teixeira (-2.21), Alex Rodriguez (-1.86), and Melky Cabrera (-1.35) were the teams biggest contributors.

Other News

We added the beginnings of a “Glossary” section to help provide some clarification for confused readers. We’ll continue to expand on it as time allows. We love to hear from our readers. So, if you come across some term that you think needs a definition and you don’t see it in the glossary, feel free to drop us a line and we’ll be glad to set it straight.

In fact, get in touch with us for all of your grit-related questions. Have a burning desire to know who had the grittiest careers among players named “Terry”? Drop us a line and we’ll let you know that it’s Terry Puhl (17.08), Terry Harmon (14.52), and Terry Humphrey (12.35). Need to know the grittiest player on the 1986 Royals to settle a drunken bet with your cousin Roy? No problem, just drop us a line and you’ll know that Roy is correct: Lonnie Smith (9.47).

It’s no secret around these parts that we love ourselves some Ron Hunt. Indeed, Hunt is the posterchild for gritty baseball and the trailblazer who made the careers of other gritty luminaries possible. Ever self-aware, Hunt famously stated “Some people give their body to science. I gave mine to baseball.”

With that in mind, we are pleased to induct Ron Hunt as the first addition to the Hall of GRIT’s ranks. Since there’s not really a Hall of GRIT (HOG) building, we can’t offer Ron a formal induction ceremony. But that’s alright because we’re about 99% certain that he would decline our invitation, tell us to shove our imaginary HOG plaque up our ass and get the hell off his lawn (more on that in a bit).

So, who was Ron Hunt and why is he deserving of enshrinement in the newly-created Hall of GRIT? Well, for starters, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract had these laudatory words for Hunt:

Ron Hunt was about as bad a player as you can be with a .400 on-base percentage. He couldn’t run and he had no power … He was an arthritic second baseman with a poor arm … Hunt was not well liked by fans or by other players … He rarely struck out, but almost never hit the ball hard.

Nevertheless, Ron’s career wasn’t without accolades. Check out the resume:

• Second in the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year voting to Pete Rose.
• 25th place in the 1963 NL MVP race (one vote).
• All-Star selection (1964)
• All-Star selection (1966)
• 15th place in the 1969 NL MVP race (eight votes).
• 26th place in the 1973 NL MVP race (one vote).
• Second prize in a beauty pageant during a hotly-contested Monopoly game with Cleon Jones.

We made up that last one to fill out the list. According this 1964 Sports Illustrated article titled “The Mets’ Throwback To Cobb”, Ron actually hated interacting with people.

Nothing on or off the field ignites a display of emotion in him, and his sad, frozen expression and his somnolent eyes ( Roger Craig used to call him Nap Time) have a way of making a visitor feel uneasy. He makes it plain that it is an imposition to try to open a conversation with him. Talking breeds familiarity, and Hunt does not like to be familiar with people.

“I’m very moody,” he says. “I don’t like people around me. I just don’t have anything to say to them. No, Casey and I don’t talk much. I sit a good distance away from him in the dugout, and I like it that way.”

Holding both the single-season and career records for GRIT3, Hunt’s career statistics are inarguable proof that during the 1960s and 70s, Ron Hunt played Major League baseball. And “Pigpen” didn’t just play the game. He played it the “right way”–as inefficiently as humanly possible.

Offensively, Hunt wasn’t a slugger by any means. Not even the pitching-dominated era (career AIR of 92) during which he played can justify his .347 slugging percentage. But that’s not to say he was particularly good at hitting for average. A career .273 hitter, he managed a .300+ line just twice: .303 for the Mets in 1964, and .309 for the Expos in 1973. He wasn’t very fast. With a four-factor speed score of 4.0 (a loose estimate of speed), Hunt ranks in the bottom half of all players.

Fielding wasn’t really his strong suit either. According to Baseball-Reference, he was worth about 5 runs below average as a second baseman over his career.

So, if not offense and if not defense, what was Pigpen’s value to a baseball team? In short, his abnormally high threshold for pain.

Mets coach Don Heffner assessed Hunt’s game in 1964 for the Sports Illustrated article:

If he has a failing, I’d say it’s the way he makes the double play. He doesn’t do anything mechanically wrong. He has a good arm, and he gets the ball away quickly, but he never tries to avoid the runner. He just stays in there, and he is taking a lot of physical abuse he doesn’t have to take.

Hunt’s masochism wasn’t limited to defense. If there was one area of the game at which he excelled, it was stepping into an inside fastball. During his twelve year career, Hunt racked up a then-record 243 plunkings. During the 1971 season, Hunt made 638 plate appearances–fifty times, he ended up on first due to a HBP. This supernatural talent for baseball magnetism allowed Hunt to extend his career when, by any rational appraisal, he should have been put out to pasture. Hunt’s 50 HBP in 1971 is a modern baseball record, second only to Hughie Jennings’ 51 HBP in 1896.

But Ron wasn’t just a glutton for punishment. The scrappy-go-gutsy second sacker also knew how to use his head. Again, Heffner describes the cerebral secret weapon in Hunt’s gritty arsenal.

“Thinking plays, I call them. Bunting with two strikes. Diving into first. Stealing home at just the right time. That’s the kind of baseball he plays.”

With this unabashed mancrush for gritty baseball, it’s strange that the Mets languished during the mid-1960s. And, while the Mets earned a World Series victory in 1969, Hunt wasn’t a part of the celebration. The Mets shipped Hunt to the Dodgers after the 1966 season. Hunt spent one season in Los Angeles before being shipped to the San Francisco Giants. It was San Francisco where Hunt (probably) got in with the wrong crowd, discovered hallucinogenics and made up his mind to unite his human flesh in eternal matrimony to horse flesh. From 1968 until his retirement in 1974, Hunt lead the NL in HBP.

Toward the end of his career, when asked about his records for being hit by pitches, Ron offered perchance the grittiest words ever uttered: “They may be dumb records, but they’re the only ones I got.”

Congratulations, Ron.

Each Friday or thereabout, we hope to recap the previous week’s gritty highlights. This is all a part of our efforts to be the Internet’s number one source of grit-related baseball information as well as baseball-related grit information.

Coming off the Grit-Summer Classic, the competition for the 2009 GRIT crown is heating up. In this first installment of TWIG, we’ll check out some notably gritty (and non-gritty) performances and find out how the leaderboard is shaping up for the second half. Let’s get right to it.

Movers

1.10: Jason Kendall, MIL

0.73: David Eckstein, SDP

Jason Kendall took a chainsaw to David Eckstein’s 3.5 point lead with a performance gritty enough to bump his season total to 10.11.

Although Kendall hit .364 on the week, the notorious serial muderer showed his usual lack of power, posting an OMS of -.009. Eckstein lost ground, dropping three-fourths of a point as he remained on the shelf (the one for injured players, not the one where he usually nests) with a strained right hamstring.

A relative stranger to the disabled list, Lil’ Davey is learning quickly that a pile of GRIT can’t earn you more GRIT like interest in a savings account or ants in an ant farm or cabbages in a cabbage patch. GRIT must be paid for. And in the gritconomy, the only acceptable forms of payment are blood, pain and tears (of pain). However, if the previous three years are any indicator, Eckstein’s current stint on the DL should be his only one of the season.

3.11: Shane Victorino, PHI

The winner of the Final Man vote for the NL All-Star team, Victorino headed home from St. Louis jonesing for an opportunity to show off his gritty bona fides. Show them off he did. Over the past week, Victorino put up this undeniably gritty line:

You see that .059 OMS? Those two caught steals on two attempts? A HBP and a SH? That line is grittier than one-finger poi. Between Victorino and Jimmy Rollins, the top of the Phillies’ lineup possesses two of the only five players with DTRM3 scores above 10.

3.88: Albert Pujols, STL

Uncle Albert continues his assault on the bottom-end of the record book. With a GRIT3 of -53.40, Albert has an opportunity to put together one of the most non-gritty seasons ever.

Holding everything equal, if Pujols gets 650 PA this season he would finish with a final GRIT3 score of -84.45. That would place his 2009 season second only to Barry Bonds’ unholy 2004 campaign where the macrocephalic slugger drew 120 intentional passes.

6.79: Atlanta Braves

Over the past week, the Braves went 6-1 while outscoring their opponents 47 to 15. Depending heavily on the long ball for the offensive outburst, the Braves’ team GRIT total plummeted owing to the contributions of Garrett Anderson ( 1.27), Yunel Escobar ( 1.69), Chipper Jones ( 1.82), and Brian McCann ( 2.05).

MILWAUKEE – In an act of selflessness not often seen amongst ego-driven American athletes, who typically look only to further their own personal agendas, hero Milwaukee Brewers player Jason Kendall placed a bunted ball back to the pitcher Tuesday with full knowledge that he himself would be eliminated from scoring contention for the duration of the contest’s fifth inning. Receiving upon his return to the dugout a mere smattering of high fives from his ignorant teammates and but one hand-clap from the staff of coaching elders, Kendall was not properly greeted as a hero responsible for the very 90-foot advancement of teammates Mat Gamel and J.J. Hardy to second and third base respectively. Due to his undying devotion to the singular cause of winning, even at the cost of his own personal downfall, Jason Kendall is the greatest player to ever play the game of baseball.