That did NOT sound right.
Before I get to the meat of the post, don't forget to enter the November contest!
I have lots of MLB players that are followers (no I don't) so I wanted to say congrats to the 2011 MLB Gold Glove Award winners:
American League
C: Matt Wieters, BAL--first
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, BOS--third
2B: Dustin Pedroia, BOS--second
3B: Adrian Beltre, TEX--third
SS: Erick Aybar, LAA--first
LF: Alex Gordon, KC--first
CF: Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS--first
RF: Nick Markakis, BAL--first
P: Mark Buehrle, CWS--third
National League
C: No one--for the fouth time
1B: Joey Votto, CIN--first
2B: Brandon Phillips, CIN--third
3B: Placido Polanco, PHI--third
SS: Troy Tulowitzki, COL--second
LF: Gerardo Parra, ARI--first
CF: Matt Kemp, LAD--second
RF: Andre Ethier, LAD--first
P: Clayton Kershaw, LAD--first
I kid, I kid. Yadier Molina of the Cardinals won the NL Catcher Gold Glove Award. Congratulations are certainly in order to the 9 first time winners and it's nice to see the Rangers get back in the action with Adrian Beltre winning the award for third base. The last time a Texas Ranger won a Gold Glove was back in 2008, when Michael Young won the award for shortstop.
Michael Young is my favorite current Ranger and I was a little perturbed at upper management for replacing him at third in 2011, but I don't think I've ever seen Michael make some of the plays Adrian makes on a regular basis. Adrian's numbers this year look pretty solid. In 112 games at third, he had 312 total chances and made 11 errors for a .965 fielding percentage. Those numbers combined with a number of highlight plays earned Adrian his third Gold Glove (the first two coming with Seattle in 2007 and 2008.
I had to look to see who was the last Ranger third baseman to win the Gold Glove. I wasn't surprised by what I discovered.
The last time a Ranger won at third base was in 1984 when Buddy Bell won his 6th consecutive Gold Glove at that position. Buddy Bell won the A.L. Gold Glove for third basemen every year from 1979 to 1984. Here is a quick breakdown of his defensive numbers:
Year/Games/Total Chances/Errors/Fielding Percentage
1979/147/491/15/.970
1980/120/413/8/.981
1981/96/361/14/.961
1982/145/540/13/.976
1983/154/523/17/.967
1984/147/472/20/.958
One of the issues I have with the Gold Glove Award is that sometimes it seems like a player will win because he's won before. In a way, it reminds me a little bit of the All-Star voting where a guy will be elected year after year, even after his skills have dimished to a point where he doesn't really deserve the honor anymore.
Take Buddy's 1984 season for example. I'm not saying he didn't deserve the Gold Glove that year, but here are 4 other players with very similar seasons who could have won the award.
Player/Team/Games/Total Chances/Errors/Fielding Percentage
Wade Boggs/Red Sox/156/491/20/.959
Doug DeCinces/Angels/140/387/14/.964
Gary Gaetti/Twins/154/496/20/.960
Carney Lansford/A's/151/423/18/.959
All four of those guys had numbers similar to Bell, yet Bell won the award. I'm glad for Bell and the Rangers, I just think it illustrates my point that a previous winner might be given some extra weight when the voting takes place.
Anyone agree or disagree with that opinon?
I agree. The best comparison I can come up with is offensive linemen being voted to the Pro Bowl. Once you are in you can pretty much chalk it up for the next ten years.
ReplyDeleteGold gloves haven't meant nearly as much to me since Raffy Palmeiro got one for 25 or so games several years back.
I agree to a point. Buddy was noted as probably the best fielding third baseman during that area, and probably won because nobody really had a season that was head and shoulders above him (DeCinces was 5 points ahead on fielding percentage, but had almost 100 fewer chances). The other three were noted more for their bats than their gloves as well.
ReplyDelete