SMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
	Is SMS a good measure of overall performance? No, SMS does not incorporate enough important factors, such as home run power, walks and singles, to serve as an effective measure of overall performance. SMS measures one specific skill—the ability to take an extra base after hitting a fair ball that stays in the park—a skill that Musial showcased throughout his career. How well does SMS measure hustle? Although hustle contributes greatly to achieving a high SMS total, SMS does not measure hustle alone. Other important factors include alert base running, foot speed and line drive power. Also, ballpark configurations dramatically affect SMS. But given two players with equivalent foot speed and line drive power who play in the same ballpark, the player who hustles more and stays more alert on the bases will achieve a higher SMS total. Doesn’t SMS just measure the combination of power and speed? Line drive power (not home run power) and speed both influence SMS, but so do other factors. (See the answer to the previous question.) I believe that in order to win an SMS award, you need to reach certain thresholds for both line drive power and speed, but beyond those thresholds, hustle and alert base running make the real difference. Consider, for example, two perennial all-stars for the San Francisco Giants: Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds. Bonds has both more power (although not necessarily more line drive power) and more speed than Kent, and from 1997 through 2001 they played in the same home ball parks (Candlestick and Pac Bell), yet during those five years Kent has a significantly higher SMS than Bonds (245 to 190). This happened almost entirely because Bonds leaves the batters box admiring his hits while Kent hustles and stays alert on the bases. Of course, if forced to choose between the two, I’d still take Bonds over Kent, especially after his remarkable season in 2001, but as a lifelong Giants fan, I often find myself wishing I could light a fire under Bonds’ [rear end]. Shouldn’t ground rule doubles be excluded from SMS? My brother Peter first raised the objection to including ground rule doubles in the SMS calculation. “In theory”, he said, one could win an SMS award hitting only ground rule doubles without ever hustling or staying alert on the bases. I uncharitably responded that “in theory” the molecules of my PC workstation could spontaneously rearrange themselves into a box of Legos®, but having acknowledged both possibilities I would henceforth ignore them. I still disagree with Peter’s objection, but in retrospect I should have given a more thoughtful and less flippant reply, so I will attempt to do so now. Peter’s objection arises out of the way we treat outside-the-park home runs when calculating SMS. If we exclude outside-the-park home runs, he argues, should we not exclude ground rule doubles for the same reason? At first, the argument seems to have some merit, but after examining the issue more critically, I decided to reject it for the following reason. With hustle, speed and alert base running, a player could conceivably have extended a ground rule double into a triple had the ball remained in play. Furthermore, it almost never happens that the fielding team could have held the player who hit a ground rule double to a single if the ball had remained in play. Thus, since the player would have had a double anyway, and could have conceivably turned it into a triple, I think it fairer to include it in the SMS calculation as any other double. The Retrosheet Web Site has data on ground rule doubles, so at some point I hope to study the issue more thoroughly and determine the actual impact of including ground rule doubles in SMS. Shouldn’t infield hits be included in SMS? I simply overlooked infield hits at first, and since I didn’t have access to data on infield hits, I never bothered incorporating them into the formula. Since the Retrosheet Web Site has data on infield hits, I may in the future attempt to modify the SMS formula to include them. Why isn’t it called the Ty Cobb statistic? Ty Cobb has the highest career SMS total (in fact Tris Speaker and Honus Wagner also have higher career SMS totals than Musial), so some may wonder why I named the statistic after Musial. I did so because Musial inspired the formula’s development. After reading about Musial’s hustling, heads-up style of play and looking at his statistics that reflected this style of play, I developed the formula I now call SMS. I believe that with appropriate era adjustments, Musial would rank ahead of both Speaker and Wagner. I don’t know if he would still rank ahead of Cobb, but it would be close either way.
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