Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 02, 2006
Gold Fingers

MLB announced the Gold Glove Awards today. It's pretty much the same as last year, except Ivan Rodriguez won at catcher and Mark Grudzielanek won at second.

Chavez, Hunter and Ichiro have now each won six consecutive Gold Gloves, while Jeter and Wells are three-time winners.

You know what? There are very few players who are great at something six years in a row. Is there really any reason to think that Ichrio, who's getting older, is really as good as he was in 2001? That some 24 year old right fielder isn't better? The voting process for the gold glove is bad. I believe it's one man one vote with a simple plurality winning. They really should make coaches and managers list a top three.

I hope to get my data for the Probabilistic Model of Range soon so we get a better idea of who really deserved the award.


Posted by David Pinto at 05:25 PM | Awards | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I'll kick off the Mike Lowell Should've Won bandwagon.

Eric Chavez is amazing. Absolulety. But Mike Lowell didn't miss time and played absolute golden glove defense on a new field.

Posted by: Cape Codder at November 2, 2006 06:11 PM

I agree with the previous poster and Dave. This system is BS. Given I watch my team more than the others, but I find it hard to believe that Derek Jeter was a better fielder than Alex Gonzalez.

The Sox had an an amazing defense this year. Specifically Gonzo and Lowell. They made so many difficult plays look routine. MLB needs to find a better method to award these. It is such a judgement call and if you give this responsibilities to writers who may or may not have an agenda, as well as the case of voting for the previous year (Palmerio) is just flawed.

I know this can easliy be chalked up to Red Sox love vs. Yankees Hate, but I look forward to Dave's stats to see if Jeter's range, specifically to his left is extremley average if not less than that.

There I said my piece

Posted by: JB at November 2, 2006 06:37 PM

Would you reject the flawed award process if Alex Gonzalez and Lowell won at their positions?

Posted by: Basura at November 2, 2006 08:49 PM

Can I kick off the "Grady Sizemore probably deserved it more than Torii Hunter" bandwagon?

Posted by: Adam B. at November 2, 2006 08:53 PM

Gary Matthews Jr. !!!

Posted by: tony at November 2, 2006 09:50 PM

It's hard to believe that anyone gets worked up in a lather over yet another year of poorly thought out Gold Glove winners. When was the last time that this award really meant anything? It has to be before Palmiero won the 1B award after playing 15 games in the field all year.

Posted by: sabernar at November 2, 2006 10:02 PM

I'm just wondering what exactly the vote is even based on. Take Chavez and Lowell, for instance. Lowell made one more error, but started 15 more games and had 72 more chances. He also had 33 more assists, 38 more PO, and both had the same .987 FPCT. And Lowell had 3.13 chances/game started, compared to Chavez's 2.94. So even looking at the numbers (I'm assuming) the voters are supposed to go on...where does Chavez have an edge? And it's not like Lowell hasn't made his share of spectacular plays this year, either...

So then A-Gon and Jeter. Jeter did start 39 more games, so I'll give him an edge there. Gonzalez's FPCT was 10 pts better, and he averaged 4.28 chances per game, compared to Jeter's 4.07.

Maybe a better candidate instead of Gonzalez is Juan Uribe. One metric I found declared Uribe the winner, with Gonzalez a close 2nd...and Jeter is 12th, behind Jhonny Peralta...(At 3rd base Lowell was 2nd, Inge 1st, Chavez 7th...)

Using traditional stats...Uribe's FPCT was .975 compared to Jeter's .972...not a big deal. Uribe had 14 errors in 604 TC, compared to Jeter's 15 in 610. Incidentally, though Juan played in fewer games, he was much busier, averaging 4.58 chances/game compared to Jeter's 4.07. Which is really another indictment of Jeter's range; you get fewer chances when you get to fewer balls.

So yeah, I agree with sabrenar that the GG's are pretty much a joke...but that still sucks. We recognize great hitting and pitching, and usually it's hard to completely disagree with whoever gets picked as a Silver Slugger or Cy Young...but GG's really don't mean anything, and that's sort of sad. (Oh, and in defense of at least one Boston infielder winning...they were the best defensive left side in baseball this season, and neither player gets a Glove? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.)

Posted by: the other josh at November 2, 2006 10:29 PM

"Would you reject the flawed award process if Alex Gonzalez and Lowell won at their positions?"

Yes, it'd still be flawed. Getting it right (Or, rightish...) once doesn't make it a great system. But I'd be less pissed off about the obvious mancrush every sportswriter in America seems to have on Derek Jeter.

Posted by: the other josh at November 2, 2006 10:32 PM

One more thing that needs clarification is that AL Managers and coaches did vote for this award. Which boggles my mind even more.

But I also 2nd (or 3rd) Sabenar's comment about this award know being a joke.

Josh nice work on the fielding analysis

Posted by: JB at November 3, 2006 07:48 AM

If there's a group of people less likely to rely on numbers than managers and coaches, show it to me.

The Gold Gloves are like the Golden Globes of baseball. Unfortunately there's no equivalent to the Oscar for fielding.

Posted by: Joe in Philly at November 3, 2006 08:42 AM

Isn't it ironic that the award for the Pitcher's position went to a Detroit Tiger Pitcher?

Posted by: Doug Purdie at November 3, 2006 10:25 AM

Yawn. I knew Jeter would win. Once he gets entrenched there, he will win for the foreseeable future, deserved or not. HE has his patented, spectacular-looking jump-throw and that's about it. He has improved over the tears, but I still think he's average at best.

Chavez was a "reputation lock" as well. Though Lowell, Crede and particularly Inge would have been deserving. I find it hard to believe that a guy who suffered all year with forearm problems wasn't impacted in the field.

I watched Inge all season, he has really developed into a great fielder. Incredibly quick. Gets to everything.

Posted by: Mr Furious at November 3, 2006 12:07 PM

At least Bernie Williams isn't winning anymore...

Posted by: Mr Furious at November 3, 2006 12:10 PM

What I hate is, now after 3 GG's, I will forever have to hear about what a great fielder Jeter is. PLEASE. He is absolutely the worst three-time GG winner ever. If he wins another GG, I will set myself on fire in protest. He's an average to below average shortstop. Why can't the voters see this?

Posted by: GEB4000 at November 3, 2006 12:13 PM

past a diving jeter. Past a diving jeter. Past a diving jeter.

I predict he gets a near miss dive at SS named after him by a savvy announcer in the near future. Either that, or the hop throw. Or both.

Isn't that contribution to baseball enough tro merit a GG? If not, what is?

Posted by: Tarik Saleh at November 3, 2006 01:15 PM

GEB4000, make sure you've got plenty of lighter fluid next November...unless Jeter gets hurt or somehow boots 20+ balls, he'll probably win it again.

The more I think about it, the more I think that there's not really anything we can do about this. I mean the coaches do an awful job, but who could do any better? The casual fan would look at errors, and MAYBE assists put outs...and that's pretty much it. And sportswriters are really only one level above casual fans, and in some cases, well below.

Maybe fielding awards will always be garbage popularity contests...

Posted by: the other josh at November 3, 2006 01:15 PM

I just can't see how Crede did not win the last two years.As for Jeter GERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OVER RATED.

Posted by: bar35 at November 3, 2006 02:47 PM
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