Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 27, 2007
Brown's Frown

Emil Brown fights back against criticism of his defense:

Emil Brown glanced at the lineup card Sunday morning in the Royals' clubhouse, turned and observed to anyone within listening distance:

"I guess my defense is good enough for me to be in right field today."

The words came out as a challenge and borderline belligerent. The message was unmistakable. Brown has had it with those who label him "an adventure," or worse, in the outfield, on the bases or anywhere else.

His irritation centers on the media, first and foremost, but not exclusively. His fed-up list includes anyone trashing his skills, be they players or officials with other clubs -- or within the Royals' organization.

"I hear it all of the time," Brown said. "He's an adventure out there. Why? Because I'm actually trying to make plays happen?

"It isn't an adventure for (Twins outfielder) Torii Hunter when he dives for a ball and misses it. Then, it's, 'Oh, he just missed it.' He gets the benefit of the doubt because he's a Gold Glover. But it's an adventure when I do it."

Emil makes a good point. If you look at his defensive charts for 2006, Brown isn't a star defender, but he's basically making the plays. It doesn't matter how smooth you look catching the ball, as long as you make the catch.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:04 AM | Defense | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Emil-Yeah that Golden Glove DOES mean something and you don't have one. Nor are you likely to earn one.

Posted by: Interested Observer at March 27, 2007 11:01 AM

Er...no, that Gold Glove doesn't mean anything, IO. They hand those things out to just about anybody, and it rarely has anything to do with actual defensive ability.

Posted by: NoPepperGames at March 27, 2007 12:07 PM

i can end this debate with two words.

bobby abreu.

Posted by: Tim at March 27, 2007 12:36 PM

Big Royals fan here, and I'm constantly listening to others about how bad Brown is defensively.

He's certainly no gold glover, but he's extremely under-rated and I see where he's coming from in his frustration. I would be frustrated, too.

Also, he's got 19 outfield assists over the last two yaers. He's got a pretty good arm that gets overlooked because he looks "clumsy" at times.

But as the article mentions, who cares if you look "clumsy" as long as you make the plays. (which he normally does)

He also cut down on his errors significantly from '05 to '06.

Posted by: Wes at March 27, 2007 12:58 PM

Damn Tim, you stole my argument.

Posted by: robustyoungsoul at March 27, 2007 04:45 PM

As a Twins fan, I can vouch that Gold Gloves mean nothing. Throughout the years I've seen Doug Mientkiewicz not win them when he was clearly the best, and I've seen other AL Central great fielders not even considered because they're not in the spotlight. Also, Torii didn't deserve one this past year, but he got one because voters don't pay attention to who's actually the best; they just vote for a guy and never, ever change.

Posted by: Kelly Wells at April 1, 2007 12:32 AM
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