Troy God-lowitzki: The National League Leader in Intangibles

So, I recently read the Tom Verducci feature on Troy Tulowitzki in Sports Illustrated. Allow me to preface this by saying that Tulo (for brevity’s sake—holy shit I personified brevity) is a great player in every facet of the game, and is hugely valuable to the Rockies. That said, I’m getting tired of all the credit baseball players get for intangibles, specifically “playing the game the right way” and the ethereal, magical, Bill Pullman in Independence Day-esque skill of leadership, which somehow makes your teammates better at a 162 game-a-year sport, or aides in defeating billions of aliens with superior technological abilities. Intangibles are fun right? We like watching players get their uniforms dirty and inspire their teammates to play with more heart. We like watching Jake Taylor know just what to say to get Rick Vaughn to strike someone out. It makes it more fun, inspirational, fantastical and less real.

In reality, we’re talking about baseball. Of all “team” sports, baseball is the most individual. After all, that’s why it is the most stat driven. Ok, yeah, we have stats in, basically, every sport. But does Tim Duncan have great stats? Does Tom Brady have great stats (outside of last year)? They just play, and win, for their team, because they play team sports. Baseball is batter vs. pitcher. It’s get out or get on base. Yet, almost every game I watch or every article I read, it is always about these “true” baseball players, who are much more basebally than the rest of the non-baseball baseball players, in other words they are leaders. David Eckstein hustles, has no talent and is white; therefore he makes his teammates better! Troy Tulowitzki yells at his teammates once in the locker room and they decide not to suck anymore! They didn’t go from 18-27 to 90-73 because Tulo and Atkins started raking, or because the Rockies had the best team ERA (I know sketchy stat) in the NL after the All-Star break. They did it because a 22-year-old yelled and threw shit around the locker room. That’s right, it was Tulo’s leadership and ability to play the game the “right way” that got the Rockies to the World Series. He lead the NL in games played the right way with 150, had a dirtbag hustle percentage of 99.9% (100% requires a backwards cap, a goatee and a pocketful of roofies), and Jamey Carroll put a fake “C” for captain on Tulo’s jersey one time before a game!

Though baseball does consist of teams, it is really rooted in individual performance. I’m sure it helps to have a loose clubhouse with players that like each other, but really how large of an impact will that have in 162(!) games? Do Derek Jeter’s amazing intangibles win more games? Or does A-Rod’s incredible-hitting, “not clutch,” douchebag-ness? How about one more example, just for the hell of it… Would you rather have Manny Ramirez or David Eckstein? Manny Ramirez disrespects the game like post “Ice Ice Baby” Vanilla Ice. David Eckstein runs his midget ass off every play. Manny Ramirez is one of the best hitters in the last twenty years, if not ever (career OPS+ of 154, 25^th all-time). David Eckstein is incredibly average at everything (career OPS+ 89, and a career FRAA of 14 over 6 seasons). Which would you rather have on your team? If you said Eckstein, you might consider another sport. Perhaps cricket or something better suited for albinos?

Alright, enough shit talk about intangibles. How about the tangible things Tulo did? He had a FRAA of 25, as a rookie. Ozzie Smith, a hall-of-famer merely because of glovework, had an FRAA above that three times—27,27,26—in a 19 year career. We could also discuss Tulo’s WARP3 of 10.8 as a ROOKIE. David Wright’s (the real MVP) WARP3—13.00. Matt Holliday’s WARP3—11.3. . Jimmy Rollins’ WARP3—11.2. Prince Fielder’s WARP3—8.4. Any other MVP or Rookie of the Year candidates? Ryan Braun’s WARP3 of 5.0? (Sorry, I’m just embarrassed for baseball that Braun beat Tulo in ROY voting). Either way, the point is that Tulo didn’t “lead” or “play the game the right way” to get the Rockies to the World Series. Actually, he fielded about as well as any shortstop in the history of the sport, perhaps better, had negligible base-running skills (-0.2 EqBRR), and was above average at the plate (108 OPS+). In addition to that, he had some decent teammates (Atkins, Corpas, Francis, Hawpe, Helton, Holliday maybe?) and, obviously, some luck.

Intangibles are fun and all, but they are intangibles for a reason. They are not fact; they are beyond perception. Tulo did some things capable of being perceived that deserve recognition, and a lot of it. Though, in the end, I suppose people like baseball to have some mystical quality, I just think baseball experts and hardcore fans should be taking this fantasy with a grain of salt, or at least saving it for the movies.