Here at Pseubermetrics, we might use some terms that are a bit confusing to the uneducated sabermetrician. In an attempt to meet our principle goal of providing enlightenment on all things gritty while ripping off FireJoeMorgan, we provide the following glossary of terms in hopes of sparing our inbox from our hordes of perplexed readers.
The Bob Johnson Bifurcation
Named for Bob Johnson, the Bob Johnson Bifurcation represents a GRIT score of 0.00. Over 11 seasons, 14 ballclubs, and 2,508 plate appearances, Bob Johnson forged the gold standard for the league average level of grit. Sure, you might be saying to yourself, “Mike Hagen was technically a better choice from a statistical point of view” and you would be correct. But the fact of the matter is, Johnson was so “league average it’s almost scary. Not “scary” like Freddy Kruger scary. More like that guy whose lived down the street from you with his wife and 2.5 kids for 20 years. That guy that smiles when you drive by while he mows the lawn and drives a Camry to his 9-5 as an insurance salesman. You know that guy. That same guy that hacks up homeless people on the weekend with a chainsaw in his secret cabin in the woods. Yeah, that
Between 1960 and 1970, baseball followers could always rely on Bob Johnson to post a GRIT score as nondescript as one might expect from someone named “Bob Johnson.” Johnson’s GRIT3 scores ranged from a low -1.94 in 1962 to a high of 1.57 in 1966, with an average of -.34. Prior to lending the eponym to the Bob Johnson Bifurcation, Johnson was distinguished only by his indistinguishability. Born in Omaha, Nebraska–about 200 miles from the geographic center of the United States–Johnson stood 5′10″ and weighed 175 pounds. Bob is currently living somewhere in the United States (probably, we guess). Efforts to get in contact with him and notify him about this honor were deemed futile.
GRIT
The proprietary metric developed by our research laboratory in an attempt to quantify the intangible value of a given baseball player. GRIT is comprised of three main components: DIRT, DTRM, and TLNT. As hypothesized in our seminal work on the subject:
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.
GRIT is a dynamic statistic that is constantly being tweaked to ensure this intangible value is being tangibilized in the most effective manner as possible. Consequently, GRIT is on its third version (GRIT3).
The basic formula to calculate GRIT is:
GRIT = DIRT + DTRM – TLNT
DIRT
One of the three main components of the GRIT formula, the DIRT formula attempts to quantify the propensity for a baseball player to collect dirt on his uniform. The raw DIRT formula is:
DIRT = HBP – IBB – (HR/2) + [(SB * -0.3) + (CS * 0.6)]
This raw value is then normalized against all other DIRT values (AOV) for the season in question:
DIRT3 = (DIRT – avg(AOV)) / stdev(AOV)
DTRM
One of the three main components of the GRIT formula, the DTRM formula attempts to quantify the determination that drives a player to attempt to succeed at baseball.
TLNT
One of the three main components of the GRIT formula, the TLNT formula attempts to provide a rough estimation of “tangible talent.”