Glove With A Bat

Gio Urshela

Look at this play.

https://twitter.com/deflategator/status/1146602625011507207

Ridiculous right? Gio does things like that every game. Defense is exciting as hell, but if you pay attention to sports media, you’d think nobody cared about defense. Clearly what people care about is launch angles. So often, the highlight players are hitters whose offense outweighs their average-to-bad defense. But I believe defensive magic is marketable, as long as the player can hit. A defender that can’t hit is so depressing.

And Gio can hit. Therefore, Gio is a Glove With A Bat, or a GWAB. He makes defense look simple and elegant. He’s smooth, he’s quick, and he’s cool. He makes plays to save games all the time. But again, Let the Kids Play doesn’t mesh with Gio’s personality or narrative.

Defense matters, but it can also genuinely be fun. The GWAB is a player who makes baseball magical. They make the expression “flash the leather” an understatement. There’s something appealing about someone who can do both. Even some pitchers can be put into this category–National League fans have their own similar archetype known as “Pitchers Who Rake”. Unfortunately, the Yankees are in the AL, so we don’t get to enjoy that archetype as much, but I should acknowledge the similarity.

Archetypal Hall of Famer

Ozzie Smith- “The Wizard”