GIDP
Posted by Andy on July 10, 2009
Loyal reader and all-around genius Brian asked me to post about GIDPs over the last 10 years.
Let's start with the top 20 (actually 21) totals for grounded-into-double-plays over the last 10 seasons:
Cnt Player **GDP** From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Miguel Tejada 208 2000 2009 26-35 1505 6511 5964 923 1772 348 15 244 1006 409 59 728 83 4 51 60 21 .297 .348 .483 .831 *6/D OAK-BAL-HOU 2 Paul Konerko 189 2000 2009 24-33 1406 5790 5107 753 1430 262 2 283 905 564 50 833 65 0 54 6 1 .280 .356 .498 .854 *3/D5 CHW 3 Vladimir Guerrero 185 2000 2009 25-34 1378 5872 5208 892 1689 316 30 304 1008 557 212 639 63 0 44 147 67 .324 .393 .572 .965 *9D MON-ANA-LAA 4 Magglio Ordonez 168 2000 2009 26-35 1288 5466 4895 781 1537 320 13 224 930 488 29 627 34 0 49 68 33 .314 .377 .522 .899 *9/D8 CHW-DET 5 Albert Pujols 168 2001 2009 21-29 1324 5746 4865 1014 1626 362 13 350 1059 765 185 541 63 1 52 55 29 .334 .427 .630 1.057 *37/59D64 STL 6 Edgar Renteria 161 2000 2009 24-33 1385 5870 5265 794 1533 312 16 106 677 478 34 712 18 55 54 159 59 .291 .349 .417 .766 *6/D3 STL-BOS-ATL-DET-SFG 7 Ivan Rodriguez 153 2000 2009 28-37 1166 4747 4434 628 1330 273 30 158 626 242 31 767 24 12 35 64 33 .300 .337 .482 .819 *2/D34 TEX-FLA-DET-TOT-HOU 8 Derek Jeter 151 2000 2009 26-35 1425 6574 5812 1036 1830 305 26 153 696 579 24 944 105 55 23 206 45 .315 .386 .455 .841 *6/D NYY 9 Torii Hunter 146 2000 2009 24-33 1315 5385 4927 761 1356 297 27 221 817 374 40 951 52 1 31 148 61 .275 .331 .481 .812 *8/D7 MIN-LAA 10 Bengie Molina 146 2000 2009 25-34 1156 4417 4130 397 1143 191 5 128 633 168 20 398 41 22 56 3 6 .277 .308 .418 .726 *2/D ANA-LAA-TOR-SFG 11 Mike Lowell 144 2000 2009 26-35 1372 5693 5093 691 1431 355 7 199 845 480 42 685 47 1 72 28 14 .281 .344 .471 .815 *5/4D FLA-BOS 12 Manny Ramirez 143 2000 2009 28-37 1286 5580 4687 895 1496 313 9 337 1068 784 161 1023 63 0 46 10 8 .319 .420 .606 1.026 *7D9 CLE-BOS-TOT-LAD 13 Michael Young 143 2000 2009 23-32 1296 5756 5288 790 1591 302 42 125 686 385 8 854 16 25 42 73 22 .301 .348 .445 .793 *64/5D TEX 14 Alex Rodriguez 142 2000 2009 24-33 1454 6468 5471 1141 1658 274 15 419 1188 816 80 1178 122 0 59 167 35 .303 .401 .588 .989 *56/D SEA-TEX-NYY 15 Jeff Kent 142 2000 2008 32-40 1266 5377 4756 754 1429 327 29 216 850 504 39 752 63 0 54 45 29 .300 .371 .518 .889 *4/3D SFG-HOU-LAD 16 Carlos Lee 141 2000 2009 24-33 1436 6029 5451 842 1584 322 11 277 965 471 44 720 34 2 71 108 38 .291 .347 .506 .853 *7/D CHW-MIL-TOT-HOU 17 Orlando Cabrera 139 2000 2009 25-34 1456 6186 5638 735 1543 350 19 98 649 416 21 526 23 39 70 179 43 .274 .322 .395 .717 *6/D4 MON-TOT-LAA-CHW-OAK 18 Adrian Beltre 138 2000 2009 21-30 1414 5885 5400 708 1468 304 21 225 804 395 43 916 40 8 42 86 30 .272 .324 .461 .785 *5/D64 LAD-SEA 19 Derrek Lee 138 2000 2009 24-33 1378 5741 4994 801 1449 316 24 251 783 650 64 1112 51 2 44 93 41 .290 .375 .514 .889 *3/D FLA-CHC 20 Aramis Ramirez 138 2000 2009 22-31 1259 5228 4728 669 1364 295 14 247 866 377 39 684 65 1 57 13 12 .288 .346 .514 .860 *5/D PIT-TOT-CHC 21 Shawn Green 138 2000 2007 27-34 1235 5196 4569 727 1285 281 20 209 694 538 64 805 52 1 36 86 27 .281 .361 .489 .850 *93/8D LAD-ARI-TOT-NYM
To get a lot of GIDPs, I think there are several key factors:
- You have to play a lot. These guys are pretty much all superstars who rarely sit and therefore played a lot of games. More games means more opportunities to hit into double plays.
- You probably aren't very fast. The majority of the players on this list--Tejada, Konerko, Molina, Lowell, Kent, and Green come right to mind--are slow players. A few (Jeter and Hunter stick out) are fast, but we'll come back to them in a minute.
- You almost certainly don't bat leadoff, since leadoff hitters always get at least one plate appearance per game where they cannot possibly GIDP (the first one.) Nobody on the list above has spent significant time hitting leadoff except for Jeter, and most of the time since 2000 he's hit second.
- You probably play for a team that scores a lot of runs. More runs means more plate appearance, which means more opportunities to ground into double plays. Notice that most of these guys come from teams that made multiple playoff appearances over the last 10 years. If a team makes the playoffs, it probably scores more runs and therefore also grounds into more double plays.
You probably are starting to see the trouble with a list like this. There are lots of external factors that come into play when grounding into a double play and it would be a lot better if we could normalize the total by total possible "chances" for a double play, i.e. batting with a runner on first and less than 2 outs. Of course this normalization can be done, but not easily with the PI.
Even if we just normalized by plate appearances, you can see that catchers I-Rod and Molina would rank much higher. They've racked up their GIDPs in many fewer plate appearances.
So here is the list of fewest GIDPs over the last 10 years, minimum 4000 plate appearances:
Cnt Player **GDP** PA From To Ages G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Ichiro Suzuki 43 6286 2001 2009 27-35 1356 5797 927 1925 213 67 79 491 396 138 555 42 23 28 332 75 .332 .377 .433 .810 *98/D SEA 2 Barry Bonds 49 4072 2000 2007 35-42 986 2871 772 925 178 12 317 697 1128 390 427 53 0 20 54 9 .322 .517 .724 1.241 *7/D SFG 3 Carl Crawford 51 4427 2002 2009 20-27 1009 4127 616 1218 173 87 78 472 223 16 620 25 26 26 345 71 .295 .333 .436 .769 *7/8D TBD-TBR 4 Johnny Damon 53 6488 2000 2009 26-35 1423 5760 1069 1675 320 58 150 699 624 20 717 27 28 49 260 63 .291 .360 .445 .805 *87D/39 KCR-OAK-BOS-NYY 5 Craig Counsell 55 4054 2000 2009 29-38 1103 3511 496 904 162 28 32 269 444 24 494 40 32 27 95 43 .257 .345 .347 .692 645/3 ARI-MIL 6 Kenny Lofton 55 4237 2000 2007 33-40 1007 3741 676 1072 171 56 67 369 408 12 426 16 41 31 189 53 .287 .357 .416 .773 *8/79D CLE-TOT-NYY-PHI-LAD 7 Cliff Floyd 57 4232 2000 2009 27-36 1082 3682 598 1040 232 10 182 630 439 74 726 75 0 36 90 17 .282 .367 .499 .866 *79D FLA-TOT-NYM-CHC-TBR-SDP 8 Brian Roberts 59 4751 2001 2009 23-31 1059 4190 681 1186 290 33 69 404 474 21 620 8 42 37 243 62 .283 .354 .417 .771 *4/6D BAL 9 J.D. Drew 60 4612 2000 2009 24-33 1164 3841 735 1095 210 37 186 622 681 43 848 42 15 33 65 28 .285 .395 .504 .899 *98/7D STL-ATL-LAD-BOS 10 Adam Dunn 61 5105 2001 2009 21-29 1214 4160 738 1030 214 8 300 731 863 90 1351 58 2 22 59 20 .248 .382 .519 .901 *739/D CIN-TOT-WSN 11 Darin Erstad 61 4498 2000 2009 26-35 1146 4106 609 1158 211 20 71 461 311 28 632 26 27 28 120 34 .282 .334 .395 .729 837/D9 ANA-LAA-CHW-HOU 12 Rafael Furcal 61 5526 2000 2009 22-31 1226 4935 829 1404 241 54 86 437 501 17 706 15 45 30 264 79 .284 .350 .407 .757 *6/4 ATL-LAD 13 Alfonso Soriano 61 5686 2000 2009 24-33 1272 5252 842 1465 327 23 283 736 324 51 1146 65 8 37 255 70 .279 .327 .512 .839 *47/856D NYY-TEX-WSN-CHC 14 Steve Finley 61 4059 2000 2007 35-42 1045 3609 538 962 174 39 151 518 375 34 533 24 18 33 78 36 .267 .337 .462 .799 *8/D91 ARI-TOT-LAA-SFG-COL 15 Jose Cruz 63 4179 2000 2008 26-34 1073 3628 536 896 200 29 153 469 496 28 840 5 21 29 81 29 .247 .336 .445 .781 987/D TOR-SFG-TBD-TOT-LAD-SDP-HOU 16 Jeromy Burnitz 63 4011 2000 2006 31-37 1016 3527 536 867 171 12 192 575 409 47 825 47 2 26 32 30 .246 .330 .464 .794 *98/7D MIL-NYM-TOT-COL-CHC-PIT 17 Gary Matthews 68 4310 2000 2009 25-34 1167 3841 576 991 210 28 106 448 412 25 779 16 12 29 89 35 .258 .330 .410 .740 *897/D CHC-TOT-TEX-LAA 18 Juan Pierre 68 5924 2000 2009 22-31 1364 5409 785 1630 198 75 13 381 331 7 329 65 106 13 452 151 .301 .348 .373 .721 *87/D COL-FLA-CHC-LAD 19 Cristian Guzman 70 4686 2000 2009 22-31 1104 4363 599 1208 205 79 56 384 214 15 597 22 60 27 109 57 .277 .312 .399 .711 *6/D MIN-WSN 20 Jim Edmonds 71 4757 2000 2008 30-38 1216 3968 743 1113 253 13 261 768 700 69 1111 33 7 49 39 26 .280 .389 .548 .937 *8/3D7 STL-TOT
The list is pretty what we might have expected. Note that Ichiro has the lowest total but also has by far the most plate appearances of these guys.
Note the following trensd among these players:
- You're probably fast, which helps avoid grounding into double plays. (All the fastest guys are here...Ichiro, Damon, Crawford, Lofton, Furcal, Pierre, Guzman...)
- You probably bat leadoff, which really helps a lot inkeeping the GIDP total down.
- If you're not fast, you're probably a power hitter who hits lots of fly balls and strikes out a lot (Drew, Dunn, Edmonds, Burnitz).
- Your team is probably not one of the best. Fewer wins means fewer runs means fewer plate appearances means fewer GIDP opportunities.
And finally, if you're on the fewest GIDP list, there's a decent chance you're also on the most-SB list:
Cnt Player **SB** PA From To Ages G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+--------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Juan Pierre 452 5924 2000 2009 22-31 1364 5409 785 1630 198 75 13 381 331 7 329 65 106 13 68 151 .301 .348 .373 .721 *87/D COL-FLA-CHC-LAD 2 Carl Crawford 345 4427 2002 2009 20-27 1009 4127 616 1218 173 87 78 472 223 16 620 25 26 26 51 71 .295 .333 .436 .769 *7/8D TBD-TBR 3 Ichiro Suzuki 332 6286 2001 2009 27-35 1356 5797 927 1925 213 67 79 491 396 138 555 42 23 28 43 75 .332 .377 .433 .810 *98/D SEA 4 Jimmy Rollins 307 6150 2000 2009 21-30 1328 5604 893 1536 326 91 132 577 449 35 734 32 32 33 80 66 .274 .330 .435 .765 *6/4 PHI 5 Bobby Abreu 283 6600 2000 2009 26-35 1499 5520 1010 1642 395 36 207 942 994 80 1161 25 2 59 105 85 .297 .403 .495 .898 *9/8D7 PHI-TOT-NYY-LAA 6 Luis Castillo 266 5668 2000 2009 24-33 1276 4949 786 1466 150 49 25 349 601 12 568 10 89 19 98 105 .296 .372 .361 .733 *4 FLA-MIN-TOT-NYM 7 Rafael Furcal 264 5526 2000 2009 22-31 1226 4935 829 1404 241 54 86 437 501 17 706 15 45 30 61 79 .284 .350 .407 .757 *6/4 ATL-LAD 8 Johnny Damon 260 6488 2000 2009 26-35 1423 5760 1069 1675 320 58 150 699 624 20 717 27 28 49 53 63 .291 .360 .445 .805 *87D/39 KCR-OAK-BOS-NYY 9 Carlos Beltran 256 6014 2000 2009 23-32 1373 5239 951 1476 306 54 249 912 671 61 942 28 16 60 89 30 .282 .363 .503 .866 *8/D97 KCR-TOT-NYM 10 Alfonso Soriano 255 5686 2000 2009 24-33 1272 5252 842 1465 327 23 283 736 324 51 1146 65 8 37 61 70 .279 .327 .512 .839 *47/856D NYY-TEX-WSN-CHC 11 Brian Roberts 243 4751 2001 2009 23-31 1059 4190 681 1186 290 33 69 404 474 21 620 8 42 37 59 62 .283 .354 .417 .771 *4/6D BAL 12 Derek Jeter 206 6574 2000 2009 26-35 1425 5812 1036 1830 305 26 153 696 579 24 944 105 55 23 151 45 .315 .386 .455 .841 *6/D NYY 13 Mike Cameron 205 5552 2000 2009 27-36 1316 4805 759 1215 276 40 211 729 622 14 1351 64 18 43 80 54 .253 .344 .459 .803 *8/9D SEA-NYM-SDP-MIL 14 Kenny Lofton 189 4237 2000 2007 33-40 1007 3741 676 1072 171 56 67 369 408 12 426 16 41 31 55 53 .287 .357 .416 .773 *8/79D CLE-TOT-NYY-PHI-LAD 15 Julio Lugo 187 4856 2000 2009 24-33 1186 4325 635 1172 225 28 78 439 403 4 788 34 56 38 73 62 .271 .335 .390 .725 *6/457D98 HOU-TOT-TBD-BOS 16 Orlando Cabrera 179 6186 2000 2009 25-34 1456 5638 735 1543 350 19 98 649 416 21 526 23 39 70 139 43 .274 .322 .395 .717 *6/D4 MON-TOT-LAA-CHW-OAK 17 Alex Rodriguez 167 6468 2000 2009 24-33 1454 5471 1141 1658 274 15 419 1188 816 80 1178 122 0 59 142 35 .303 .401 .588 .989 *56/D SEA-TEX-NYY 18 Randy Winn 166 5681 2000 2009 26-35 1344 5108 723 1478 324 43 103 579 435 20 803 50 42 46 87 62 .289 .348 .430 .778 897/D5 TBD-SEA-TOT-SFG 19 Edgar Renteria 159 5870 2000 2009 24-33 1385 5265 794 1533 312 16 106 677 478 34 712 18 55 54 161 59 .291 .349 .417 .766 *6/D3 STL-BOS-ATL-DET-SFG 20 Omar Vizquel 151 5281 2000 2009 33-42 1246 4627 638 1251 208 40 43 450 476 21 483 28 111 39 98 65 .270 .339 .360 .699 *6/54 CLE-SFG-TEX
Note this list is also minimum 4000 (to limit to the same group of players). A few guys (Jose Reyes, Chone Figgins, Scott Podsednik, Dave Roberts, and Willy Taveras) would make the top 20 for SB if not for this requirement.
There are 8 names in common from the SB and fewest GIDP lists, while there are 4 names in common from the SB and most GIDP lists. So being fast doesn't ensure that you won't ground into a lot of DPs but I guess it helps some.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:30 am
What about lefty-righty splits? The conventional wisdom is that right-handed batters ground into more double plays because the 3-6-3 DP is more difficult for fielders to execute than the 5-4-3 DP (especially if the 1B is holding the runner and cannot cover as much ground).
I've also heard that power hitters ground into more DP's because they tend to hit the ball harder and hard-hit grounders are more likely to result in DP's than slow dribblers. That one I'm not so sure of though.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Oh that explains why Derrek Lee grounded into so many double plays last year. All the Cubs fans were giving him a hard time last year about it. But your explanations totally fit his situation.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Funny to hear Shawn Green labeled "slow". Though you are probably right. I guess I'm old.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
David's theory can be answered on the batting splits pages. In each of the last 7 years right handed batters hit into 14-15 DP per 650 PA and lefties 11-12 per 650 PA.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Ichiro's got everything going for him in terms of low-DP totals. Aside from being fast, batting leadoff, and hitting lefty, he's also got that sweeping sort of swing. At the point he makes contact with the ball, his body already has forward momentum heading out of the batter's box. I saw a video study done on this once--can't remember if it was ESPN, or a Mariners' local broadcast, or something else, but they said that his swing gave him a ridiculous edge of something like 0.4 seconds over an average left-handed batter and almost a full second over an average right-handed batter.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
They should force Ichiro to bat right to make it fair, jk.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Some players with a lot of SB also get a lot of GIDP (funny, I was just looking at this yesterday).
Here is a list of 200-GIDP, 300-SB players since 1954.
Many of them hit a lot of ground balls (especially the top two, with GO/FO over 1.3). Carew had GO/FO = 1.83. Mays and Dawson may have had a lot of runners on in front of them.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Lefty/righty batting makes a huge difference in this.
There is only one left handed batter on the first list (totals for grounded-into-double-plays over the last 10 seasons), Shawn Green, and only one right-handed batter on the 2nd list (fewest GIDPs over the last 10 years), Alfonso Soriano. Nicely done Alfonso!
The all-time GIDP leaders for left-handed hitters are Carl Yastrzemski (323), Harold Baines (298), Rusty Staub (297), Tony Gwynn (260), Al Oliver (254), Bill Buckner (247), Stan Musial (243), Wade Boggs (236), George Brett (235), John Olerud (232).
Single-season GIDP leaders for left-handed hitters are Ben Grieve (32), Carl Yastrzemski (30), Bruce Bochte (27), Sean Casey (27), A.J. Pierzynski (27), Rusty Staub (27), Carl Yastrzemski (27), Lyman Bostock (26), Shawn Green (26), Willie Montanez (26), Willie Montanez (26), Dave Parker (26).
July 10th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Good info, kingturtle. Those guys are all as slow as dirt.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Not all of them. Gwynn was fast as a young man. Musial and Brett could run. I think Yaz and Oliver moved pretty well. Green was athletic in his younger days, though he seemed immobile by the end.