Gold Glove Awards Announced
Barndog
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Barndog
Posts: 20,492 ✭✭✭✭✭
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Shane
edit to add: MLB.com has the best coverage
2007 Gold Glove winners
AMERICAN LEAGUE
C Ivan Rodriguez, DET
1B Kevin Youkilis, BOS
2B Placido Polanco, DET
3B Adrian Beltre, SEA
SS Orlando Cabrera, LAA
OF Ichiro Suzuki, SEA
OF Torii Hunter, MIN
OF Grady Sizemore, CLE
P Johan Santana, MIN
NATIONAL LEAGUE
C Russell Martin, LAD
1B Derrek Lee, CHC
2B Orlando Hudson, ARI
3B David Wright, NYM
SS Jimmy Rollins, PHI
OF Carlos Beltran, NYM
OF Andruw Jones, ATL
OF Jeff Francoeur, ATL
OF Aaron Rowand, PHI
P Greg Maddux, SD
Forget blocking him; find out where he lives and go punch him in the nuts. --WalterSobchak 9/12/12
Looking for Al Hrabosky and any OPC Dave Campbells (the ESPN guy)
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>and yes, Youk won his first! >>
Shane
"If I ever decided to do a book, I've already got the title-The Bases Were Loaded and So Was I"-Jim Fregosi
Maybe they don't publish these #s.
http://sportsfansnews.com/author/andy-fischer/
huh.
simply stunned!
check some stats:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding?groupId=8&sortColumn=fieldingPct&sortOrder=true&split=81&qualified=null&season=2007&seasonType=2
<< <i>im amazed at the choices. they actually rewared 95% of the right people.
huh.
simply stunned! >>
I'm obviously biased, but the 5% they got wrong was not giving one to Coco Crisp this year. The only reason I can fathom that he didn't get one was that he doesn't have the arm that Sizemore, Hunter, and Ichiro all have. Still, Crisp played amazing defense all year in what has to be one of the toughest center fields in all of baseball and certainly the American League.
Overall, I think the Gold Glove awards are a sham. It seems like year after year the same guys get the awards and its based on reputation way more than merit. The only reason Youkilis got it this year was because Teixeira went to the NL and he had that glaring ZERO errors stat while playing 1B. I'm not implying that Youk didn't deserve it, I just don't think they would have given it to him if Teixeira had stayed with the Rangers because it's tradition.
A perfect example of this sort of voting behavior: 1999. Rafael Palmeiro won the Gold Glove at 1B in '97 and '98 . . . and '99 in spite of only having played 28 games at 1B that year.
Not only did Youkilis commit not one error all season, but I read Polanco at 2nd base also did this, which I think is much tougher to pull off than at first base.
I also agree that the whole process for picking the gold glove winners is questionable.
Gold Glove vote makes you wonder about managers
By Jeff Gordon
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
11/07/2007
So the National League managers and coaches don’t believe Yadier Molina is a Gold Glove catcher.
Interesting. These are the same men who won’t let their baserunners challenge Molina’s arm on the basepaths.
NL managers and coaches know if they give their runners the green light to run on Molina, bad things will happen. Runners get thrown out at second, runners get picked off first, potential big innings die . . . yes, it’s best not to run on Yadier.
And yet these same NL managers and coaches decided that Russell Martin is the best defensive catcher in the NL.
Interesting.
Around major league clubhouses, sportswriters take much criticism for their analysis and their award voting. Most sportswriters didn’t play the game at a high level, so why do they consider themselves experts?
And then you see how the men who actually run the games vote and, well, it gives sportswriters some self-esteem. It also explains why so many managers and coaches lose their jobs every year.
Molina only played in 107 games for the Cardinals last season, due to injuries. That is the only plausible reason for not voting him the Gold Glove -– because he is the league’s dominant defensive catcher, hands down.
(But can relative lack of activity really factor into voting? Rafael Palmeiro once earned a Gold Glove at first base after playing 28 games at that position. Twenty-eight! Palmeiro was a full-time designated hitter, yet American League managers and coaches chose to honor him for his defensive prowess. Idiots. Also, Mike Matheny won the 2004 Gold Glove after starting just 110 games for the Cards.)
Yadier threw out 54 percent of runners attempting to steal; Martin threw out just 29.7 percent.
Yadier allowed 23 stolen bases in 861 innings; Martin allowed 82 stolen bases in 1,254 innings.
Martin is a fine player. He allowed just five passed balls last season, albeit while working with an infinitely better pitching staff than Molina caught. He caught 145 games and was a steady presence for the contending Dodgers.
On the other hand, Martin’s overall fielding percentage wasn’t as good as Molina’s. And again, Martin didn’t force opponents out of their running game, as Molina did.
Martin is a solid defensive catcher. Molina is a shutdown catcher, one of the rarest commodities in Our National Pastime today.
There is an enormous difference between “solid” and “shutdown.”
Then there is the matter of calling pitches. Molina has proven himself at the highest level, helping shepherd a seemingly overmatched staff all the way to a World Championship.
Martin may be a fine pitch-caller in his own regard, but Molina has done an amazing job with the assortment of kids and reclamation projects the Cards have rolled out the last few seasons.
Without Molina’s leadership behind the plate, the Cards could not possibly have enjoyed their recent success.
ESPN.com's Rob Neyer raised plenty of objections with the Gold Glove voting, including Derrek Lee’s selection over Albert Pujols at first base. He suggested that Martin, an emerging star, got the nod over Molina because voters gravitate toward the stars of the game.
Neyer wrote: “(David) Wright's a Gold Glove because he's a good fielder and a great hitter, which would be fine except the voters are supposed to forget the hitting. Oh, and Russell Martin benefited from the same bias. He's not real strong against the running game, but otherwise he's solid. Still, if the evidence exists for his superiority to Yadier Molina, I've not yet seen it.”
What’s done is done. If NL managers and coaches believe in their vote, then they should have their teams run on Molina more than they run on the Gold Glove Martin.
The Cards would love to see them try.
Shane
Shane
<< <i>I am just wondering what Yadier Molina has to do to win a gold glove. I think I would take Molina over any catcher in the game. >>
What do you think the Gold Glove voters -- the coaches and the managers -- should do? What's their job?
If you think they're supposed to identify good defensive players, they do a pretty good job. With the occasional exception, Gold Glove winners generally are "plus" fielders. Better than average.
If you think they're supposed to identify great defensive players, the voters do a pretty lousy job. This year, there are 19 Gold Glove winners. By my count, four of them are truly outstanding defensive players: Orlando Hudson, Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, and Johan Santana.
This year, like every year, one can explain the voting results not by examining all the sophisticated fielding metrics with which we're now blessed. No, if you want to explain the Gold Glove you must turn to the Three Big Biases that show up year after year after year.
For example, the voters love to vote for the guy who won last year. Greg Maddux has now won his 17th, despite giving up an immense number of stolen bases. Granted, that was a team-wide issue; Chris Young gave up 44 steals without a single runner being caught. But Maddux has always given up a lot of steals, because he doesn't want to bother with holding runners close. I'm sure that's a defensible tactic, but I'm also sure that should disqualify a pitcher from being considered the best fielder.
There were only three other repeat winners in the National League: Orlando Hudson, Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran. No argument with Hudson. It's not clear that he was better than Chase Utley, but it's not clear that he wasn't. Jones and Beltran were, as usual, among the very best outfielders.
The selection of Derrek Lee over Albert Pujols is strange, unless you assume that the voters wanted to vote for Lee last year but couldn't, because he played only 50 games. Pujols is an outstanding first baseman -- his numbers are off the charts -- but Lee looks like a first baseman and the voters trust their eyes before anything else.
The selections of Jimmy Rollins and David Wright are emblematic, I think, of the voters' most obvious Big Bias: for the superstar. Rollins is a good fielder, but he's not great. Now, Troy Tulowitzki, he had a great year. OK, so he's a rookie and some of the voters have hardly seen him. Omar Vizquel -- and I can't believe I'm saying this, considering Vizquel's nearly 41 -- would have been a better choice, and Jose Reyes was solid this season, too. In fact, it's highly likely that if Reyes had been the MVP candidate instead of Rollins, it's Reyes who'd have won the Gold Glove.
Same thing with Wright. He's a good third baseman, and perhaps as good as Scott Rolen (who'd won seven of the last nine Gold Gloves). But Wright's not nearly as good as Pedro Feliz and he's probably not as good as Ryan Zimmerman. Wright's a Gold Glove because he's a good fielder and a great hitter, which would be fine except the voters are supposed to forget the hitting. Oh, and Russell Martin benefited from the same bias. He's not real strong against the running game, but otherwise he's solid. Still, if the evidence exists for his superiority to Yadier Molina, I've not yet seen it.
Aaron Rowand and Jeff Francouer, who tied for the third spot in the National League outfield, both seem like odd choices. They're fine, probably better than average. But outstanding? One can't help but think that Rowand won because he crashed into a wall last year, and that Francouer won because the voters are impressed with his throwing arm. It wasn't a great year for National League outfielders, once you get past Jones and Beltran, but Eric Byrnes had a great season in left field, and Nook Logan -- the epitomy of a guy the voters don't even consider -- was excellent in center (granted, he was not an everyday player).
So we've gone through the National League, and seen two of the Big Biases: for past winners, and for superstars (i.e. great hitters).
The third Big Bias is about fielding percentage. This shows up mostly with shortstops and second basemen, and goes a long way toward explaining how Placido Polanco won this year. Polanco didn't make many errors this season. Actually, he didn't make any errors this season. I'm as critical as anybody, but it's hard to fault the voters for rewarding a guy who made zero errors in six months. Realistically, though, does it necessarily follow that Polanco was the best second baseman? Another top candidate was (or should have been) Mark Ellis. Ellis, playing roughly 110 more innings than Polanco, recorded 110 more assists than Polanco. Aaron Hill (14 errors) and Robinson Cano (13 errors) both made more errors than Polanco, but both also made far, far more plays than Polanco.
Kevin Youkilis, same thing. In 135 games at first base, he didn't get charged with a single error. Casey Kotchman was charged with three errors in 130 games. And I can't help but wonder if those numbers were reversed, would Kotchman have won the thing? Is the difference between winning and not winning really just a few plays over the course of the long season? And should it be?
Frankly, the rest of the American League results are sort of a disaster. One can argue that Santana really was the best-fielding pitcher, though with pitchers it's hard to tell. The rest of them, though?
Ivan Rodriguez is clearly is well past his prime, yet won his 13th Gold Glove (repeater).
Adrian Beltre supplanted Eric Chavez at third base, which points to another phenomenon we've seen before: The voters are often behind the curve. Beltre was outstanding last year, and should have won the award. This year he wasn't as good, and it should have gone to Brandon Inge.
The voters finally stopped rewarding Derek Jeter for being Derek Jeter -- probably because he made a bunch of errors in the spring -- but they picked the wrong replacement. Orlando Cabrera led the American League in fielding percentage, which happens to be his only credential. Jason Bartlett, rookie Tony Pena and especially John McDonald all were more deserving.
And the outfield? It's another year, which means more awards for Ichiro and Torii Hunter. So they win as repeaters, and Grady Sizemore wins because he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It's a shame the voters didn't realize just how well Coco Crisp and Curtis Granderson were playing this year.
Some other nonsensical spoutings... about Maddux and his lack of holding baserunners on. Since when is that part of a pitcher's fielding game? Yeah, it may be important, but I just don't buy that this should be a major factor in considering gold glove awards. Maybe Neyer has a different opinion, but that hardly justifies him basically implying that the best fielding pitcher of all time hasn't deserved any of his gold gloves.
Now to 3rd base AL... sure, Beltre had a better year in '06 than this year, but at least the voters got it right... albeit a year late.
Anyway, of all the years to criticize this process, I think this year was a very bad choice. Look at all the first time winners? Kind of shatters his statements about repeaters and all. I do agree that it's way past time to get Jeter out of there... the guy hasn't been the best SS in years (if he ever was). Other than that though, I think Neyer needs to get a clue in some of these other areas. If you're goin to make statements like he does, at least have some data that supports your claims!
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