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Brewers KUG Leaders (UPDATE: All-Grit Team KUG)

Ever since the Kendall Unit of Grit was originated, we've been trying to quantify what makes a gritty player. It has been done once already. We also have the Unified Theory of Grit, which attempts to determine the effects of GRIT on players and their teams.

So, today, in attempting to quantify the seemingly unquantifiable, I developed a spreadsheet of the Brewers current stats and came up with a formula for the Greater Rankings of Individual Tenacity, or GRIT for short. Here's the basis for the formula... not the whole thing, just the basis for raw GRIT number:

SF + SH + HBP

minus

HR + IBB + GIDP + SO

The counting stats listed on the top are things that gritty players do. They lack talent and instead of doing productive, efficient things like getting extra base hits or drawing intentional walks, they prefer to sacrifice themself or risk injury by allowing themselves to be hit by a pitch to reach first base.

The other two factors in the raw GRIT Number are GIDP and strikeouts. Gritty players rarely hit the ball hard enough to have a double play turned on them, and they hustle down the line hard enough to avoid most double plays as well. They also aren't apt to strike out, as they would prefer to hit the ball softly than swing hard and risk missing.

The raw GRIT number, however, is not a very effective way to determine GRIT. For one thing, every player's raw GRIT number was in the negatives. Therefore, I added adjusted GRIT (or GRIT+) by adding 100 to each player's total.

The process is far from complete, there are two more factors that go into the final Kendall Units of GRIT.

The first will be called inefficiency rate. The formula is (2B+3B+HR) / (Total hits). This penalizes players who are efficient by getting extra base hits and rewards players who inefficiently get mostly singles. 

I wanted to multiply the inefficiency rate by the Raw GRIT+, but the numbers were backwards! Therefore I inverted the inefficiency rate by the formula (1- inefficiency rate). Then I multiplied the Raw GRIT+ by inefficiency rate.

But the process is not quite done. A final factor to be considered: gritty players lack the strength to hit the ball in the air, so they often hit it on the ground. So the final step is to multiply inefficiency-adjusted Raw GRIT+ by the player's ground ball rate.

Both percentages lowered the raw GRIT+ by a fraction, and the end results gave each player a number, their official Kendall Units of Grit. I know the anticipation is killing whoever is reading this, so here's the first half KUG leaderboard:

2008 Brewers KUG GRIT Leaders

 

Position Player KUG



C Jason Kendall 30
IF Craig Counsell 27.72
OF Gabe Kapler 19.5
2B Rickie Weeks 9.89
SS J.J. Hardy 8.62
3B Russell Branyan 4.94
RF Corey Hart 4.49
3B Bill Hall 2.93
CF Mike Cameron 2.49
1B Prince Fielder 1.31
LF Ryan Braun -0.2

 

Unsurprisingly, Kendall, Counsell, and Kapler lead the GRIT leaderboard. Good players are clustered near the bottom; Ryan Braun comes in with a stunning negative KUG number.

Rickie Weeks makes a surprising showing, but when you consider his unusual ability to get hit by pitches and high GB%, it makes sense. Russell Branyan has a ridiculously low 25% GB rate, but he is hurt by his lack of plate appearances in which to hit home runs in.

By the way, I did not just make these numbers up, I have a 50 row spreadsheet file to prove it! It's set up so I can update the KUG rates in a month or two to see how GRIT progresses throughout the season.

Greater Rankings of Individual Tenacity Update!

I decided to run the numbers on the Brew Crew Ball All-Grit Team, to compare Brewers to the rest of the league and see if any members of the All-Grit team are actually not that gritty. Here are the results:

GRIT+ KUG 
3B Freel 83 36.95
LF Podsednik 79 35.35
SS Eckstein 86 33.53
C Kendall 84 30.00
2B Grudz 66 22.56
1B  Mientkiewitcz 79 21.45
RF Byrnes 55 11.41
CF Rowand 15 4.63

Byrnes and Rowand are clearly the outliers on the squad. Rowand's gritty running-into-walls catches aren't captured in the Greater Rankings of Individual Tenacity because these are immesaurable.

8 recs | Comment 34 comments

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Impressive

I’m looking forward to seeing the grittiness rates at the end of the season.

by NoahJ on Jul 17, 2008 10:34 PM CDT   0 recs

Fantastic work, jihad

I say you submit it to Science.

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Jul 17, 2008 11:22 PM CDT   0 recs

Very impressive post

I’m not surprised Braun has a negative number

"Brett Favre looks like a man in a parking lot playing with boys." - John Madden
"Pujols just unloaded." - Bob Uecker

by kirbir on Jul 18, 2008 8:49 AM CDT   0 recs

you need

a way to add in dirt on the uniforms after trying to make a play

by OAVIP on Jul 18, 2008 11:54 AM CDT   0 recs

what about

accidental infield hits?

by Wayfaerer on Jul 18, 2008 1:12 PM CDT   0 recs

I think you should include catcher's interference, too

How about ROEs?

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Jul 18, 2008 1:19 PM CDT   0 recs

Pitcher KUG

Any idea on how to rate the grit of pitchers?

by SgtClueLs on Jul 18, 2008 1:27 PM CDT   0 recs

I think

High average fastball velocity would count against a pitcher, and lower K/9 rates would increase KUGs.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 18, 2008 1:59 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Pitchers?

That’d be a ton of work…since I don’t think it’s really quantifiable with stats, you’d have to watch every game and tally certain things.

I think Suppan would top this one for every walk he gives up while “not giving in to a hitter” and “making them hit his pitch”. Bonus points for announcers lauding the way you ‘battle’ or how much of a ‘competitor you are’.

Might have to dig deep for stats, like IP after giving up X amount of runs, games with >120 pitches, subtract IBB and K…I dunno, these seem to make sense

by Wayfaerer on Jul 18, 2008 1:40 PM CDT   0 recs

awesome logical stat;)

how about rewarding forceouts (as that’s actually beating out the DP ball). Like doing a factor like GIDP/(FO[with fewer than 2 outs]+GIDP) that counts against in the current GIDP slot.

Maybe reward when THEY get forced out, but break up DPs too, but punish when they try to stretch a single into a double but fail.

by PagsBrewCrew on Jul 18, 2008 3:41 PM CDT   0 recs

hmmm...one modification

it doesn’t seem to take into account the number of opportunities one has. In other words, as a player has more and more appearances and presumably gets a lower and lower grit, adding 100 will no longer do as much “good.” Ie, Kendall, doing the same rate of Gritty things will have a lower and lower KUG. So, somewhere you need to factor in (by division) the number of plate appearances, games played, % of season played or some other “event.”

After doing this, Counsell will likely have a higher KUG than Kendall, as he’s played in fewer games and has fewer ABs.

by PagsBrewCrew on Jul 18, 2008 4:06 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Interesting point

first, the +100 was just to get the numbers in the positives so I could multiply the GB rate and Inefficiency rate to come up with a final number in the positives.

I see your point, and it makes sense. But getting more plate appearances allows the player to do things that count against their GRIT like hit home runs or strike out as well as accumulate sacrifices and HBP.

Ideally, you’d do the whole thing based on rates like AB/HR and SO/HR, but it’s pretty clumsy that way.

And besides, I think GRIT is something that is accumulated. You don’t just get some, it kinda builds up over the course of the year. Only the grittiest are able to maintain a high GRIT over a full season.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 18, 2008 7:47 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

You could just publish two lists, KUG and KUGr (KUG rate)

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Jul 18, 2008 7:54 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Sure

it’d be like accumulating home runs vs. having the highest AB/HR. I’ll see if I can work something out like that.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 18, 2008 8:29 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

We should probably take off points for being tall, too

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Jul 18, 2008 3:49 PM CDT   0 recs

too far from the dirt?

but if tall guys get dirty, doesn’t that mean they had to try harder, ergo are more gritty?

by PagsBrewCrew on Jul 18, 2008 3:57 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

That was in the list of things I wanted to put in

I was also trying to add in a variable of age- the older you are, the more KUG’s you produce. Maybe I’ll add it into the (HR+ IBB+ GIDP+ SO) part, + (.2*AGE) to lower its impact. I could do the same thing for height in inches. So far, however, the KUG formula seems to be producing logical results of gritty players.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 18, 2008 5:21 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

cardinals & grit

after reading these excellent posts on an overlooked statistical category, i decided to check on the person who (over at vivaelbirdos) defines grit-just to see how he stacked up to the the brewers “mr. grit” so i took a look at aaron miles. after the exit of eckstein, miles has become the cards gritty player-he even has the facial hair. i crunched the numbers and followed the formula to the best of my ability and came up with a secondbasemen for the KUG all stars. miles came in with a KUG of 32.135. his GRIT+ was 73. plus, he is short!

"I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.’" ~Shannon

by sprfldcard on Jul 21, 2008 9:50 AM CDT   0 recs

that's clever--

height, obviously, can be quantified—maybe one or two points per inch under six feet.

Also, cheese.

by Jeff Sackmann on Jul 21, 2008 10:39 AM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Ooh

he has a sick 53.1 GB%, and 13/76 hits are for extra bases! That’s an incredible inefficiency rate. I also got 32.13 KUG, which is a little behind Eckstein’s 33.53.

And height will probably be added into the GRIT2 formula.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 21, 2008 11:45 AM CDT to parent up   0 recs

this one is going to blow you away . . .

a GRIT+ of 78 and a 55.575 KUG—thats right 55.575. this ball player has 60 hits and 5 of them are singles. of those 57, 15 of them are bunt singles . . . who is he? i like to refer to him as the sandman (what could be grittier?) JOEY GATHRIGHT of the Royals

"I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.’" ~Shannon

by sprfldcard on Jul 21, 2008 12:13 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

That is impressive.

He might just be the league leader.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 21, 2008 12:22 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

i'm assuming

you mean all but 5 were singles

by PagsBrewCrew on Jul 21, 2008 12:36 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

actually,

i have a sticky 7 key on my computer—it should be 57 of them are singles

"I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.’" ~Shannon

by sprfldcard on Jul 21, 2008 12:44 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Quick hide Gamel

I think Doug and Ned want to make this team the grittiest team ever. I expect to hear Gamel for Gathright rumors abound.

by SgtClueLs on Jul 21, 2008 2:32 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

I think you have found an issue with the grit formula

Gathright isn’t gritty…..he’s really, really fast. If miles was one of the fastest guys in the league that would really drop his grit ratio.

Miles, Eckstein et al. are super gritty because they have at most 1 average tool.

by ZiggyG on Jul 21, 2008 3:49 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Maybe you should lose grittiness for stolen bases

to correct for the lightning fast aspect of grittiness.

by ZiggyG on Jul 21, 2008 3:54 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Good point

stolen bases require talent, which gritty players don’t have. It’s a very good point.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 21, 2008 5:50 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Should caught stealings be a positive though?

Since the player would get dirty sliding in and they’d presumably have to have a high grit factor to continue to get the green light to steal despite their inability to actually complete the task.

Obscure baseball records and more at my blog, Recondite Baseball.

by TheJay on Jul 21, 2008 7:53 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

i think that just morphs KUG into "sucks the most, but still gets playing time"

I think steals are gritty. CS is definitely anti-gritty. it’s just dumb

by PagsBrewCrew on Jul 21, 2008 8:21 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Delayed steals!

There’s not a whole lot of data, but I know Kendall has one because Rock talked about it for half the game.

And neck size to baby eating ratio.

by jihad on Jul 21, 2008 9:39 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

This is what makes Aaron Miles so gritty

Diapers!

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Jul 21, 2008 9:03 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Oh my

"Brett Favre looks like a man in a parking lot playing with boys." - John Madden
"Pujols just unloaded." - Bob Uecker

by kirbir on Jul 21, 2008 10:08 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Greetings from VivaElBirdos

This is a wonderful, wonderful post. Surely Miles will get some sort of bonus for being in a hostage situations, wrestling a gunman to the ground while his hands were zip-chorded together, getting a chunk bitten out of his back by the gunman, and then having the police shoot the gunman while Miles was struggling with him.

I also wanted to alert you to a few more of our GRIT Miles photos, which we post at particularly gritty points in a ballgame, or discussion.

There is plain ol’ “GRIT!”



And then there is “Break It Up! Grit!”

Lastly, “Head First Grit!”

by bgh on Jul 22, 2008 5:52 PM CDT   0 recs

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