At Least He Can Field

On his twitter page, <a href="http://twitter.com/toddzolecki" >Todd Zolecki </a> reports that Wilson Valdez is sixth in the league in GIDPs with 14, but that he has done it in 149 plate appearances while the players ahead of him have a range of 200-316 at bats. Well, this got me thinking... if we were to break down grounding into double plays into a percentage of total at bats, where would Wilson "Exxon" Valdez fall?

Now much like RBI, it is true that GiDP is in part a bad luck statistic-- after all, in order for one to ground into a double play, one must come up to bat with a runner on (usually) first, with less than two outs, factors that are likely to reduce jthe chances of grounding into double plays for players batting in certain positions in the lineup where they are more likely to lead off or end an inning, or following power hitters, who are more likely to get GIDP preventing extra base hits. But, the percentage is still important, as getting two outs for the price of one is likely to destroy any momentum that has been built in the inning.

So I pulled up the top 26 hitters for GiDP, and calculated their GiDP Percentage:

By percentage Exxon is by and away the GiDP leader, having grounded into double plays an astonishing 8.8% of the time-- this is over a full percentage point higher than Ivan Rodriguez who grounded into double plays "only" 7.3% of the time. With half a season in the books, Exxon is working hard at meeting the infamous mark of being best in the worst category to be so... as it is hard to hit worse than 2 outs for the price of one!