Earlier today, my esteemed colleague, Mr. HoJo’s Mojo wrote about this year’s National League Gold Glove recipients. As he reported, no Mets players had their gloves touched by King Midas. That means the picture to the left will not be repeated at Citi Field next season. Carlos Beltran was not expected to win the Gold Glove because he missed half of the 2009 season. But what about David Wright? Didn’t he hit well enough to win it?
Before you think I’ve forgotten that the Gold Glove is for defensive excellence and is not supposed to have anything to do with a player’s hitting prowess, let me explain what I mean about Wright not hitting well enough to win the Gold Glove.
Last year, Derek Jeter was voted the worst fielder in the American League by the Fielding Bible, which consists of the godfather of stats, Bill James, and nine other panelists. Although I don’t believe he’s the worst fielder, I also don’t think he’s the best. However, he won the Gold Glove this year despite what all the “experts” said about his defensive ability. Let’s look at the stat sheet to see what Jeter did offensively this year.
He hit .334, which was his highest average since 2006 (he won the Gold Glove in 2006). He hit 18 HR, which was his greatest home run output since 2005 (he won the Gold Glove in 2005). He scored 107 runs, which was also his highest total since the Gold Glove season of 2005. He stole 30 bases, which was more than he had stolen in his two previous seasons combined. He did not win the Gold Glove in either of those two seasons (2007 and 2008).
As 1970s comedic icon Arte Johnson would say, that bit of news is “very interesting”. In the two years that he did not win the Gold Glove Award, Jeter never surpassed 15 HR or 15 SB. He also did not hit for as high a batting average or score as many runs. But what do you know? This year, he raised his batting average to .334, had an 18/30 split in the HR and SB department and voila! His glove automatically became golden!
Similarly, Seattle’s center fielder, Franklin Gutierrez had an ultimate zone rating (UZR) of 29.1, while Los Angeles’ center fielder, Torii Hunter had a UZR of -1.4. Gutierrez was much more effective at preventing runs from scoring than Hunter was in 2009, but Hunter was awarded a Gold Glove while Gutierrez was not. It should be noted that Gutierrez hit .283 with 18 HR and 70 RBI, while Hunter hit .299, adding 22 HR and 90 RBI despite missing six weeks due to a strained adductor muscle. Hunter has always been an excellent defensive player, but this year Gutierrez was better defensively and deserved the award.
Jeter and Hunter are two examples of players who may have gotten a few extra votes for the Gold Glove Award because of a fine offensive season. However, there was an even more glaring example of a Gold Glove winner taking the award in a season where his offensive output might have swayed a few voters. Does anyone remember Rafael Palmeiro’s Gold Glove Award from the 1999 season?
Ten years ago, Rafael Palmeiro played primarily as a designated hitter, needing only to dust off his first baseman’s mitt for 28 games. Despite playing less than 20% of the season at first base, he was still awarded a Gold Glove for his defensive excellence. However, he did hit .324 with 47 HR and 148 RBI for the Texas Rangers that year, all of which were career highs and all of which were done while he was not doing steroids…period.
So that brings us to David Wright. This year, Ryan Zimmerman replaced David Wright as the National League Gold Glove winner at third base. Wright had been bestowed the prestigious award each of the last two seasons. In both seasons, he was a member of the 30 HR, 100 RBI club.
Zimmerman has always been very good defensively. Some might argue that he was a better defensive player than Wright was during the 2007 and 2008 seasons and they may be right. However, Zimmerman only averaged 19 HR and 71 RBI during the two seasons that Wright won the Gold Glove Award.
In 2009, Zimmerman established career highs with a .292 average and 33 HR. He also added 106 RBI, which was just four shy of his career high. On the other hand, Wright had the worst power season of his career, finishing with only 10 HR and 72 RBI. Of course, Zimmerman won the Gold Glove this season.
If the Mets are going to remain competitive with the Phillies, Marlins and Braves in the National League East next season, they will need bounceback seasons from numerous players. A return to form for David Wright in the power department will go a long way towards bringing the Mets back to respectability. Not only will a power surge help the Mets score more runs, but it might be enough for David Wright to wrest the Gold Glove away from Ryan Zimmerman. After all, pitching wins championships, but sluggers win Gold Gloves, right?
Please note: The point of this blog was to say how silly the voting for the Gold Glove Award can be. How a player performs at the plate has nothing to do with his defensive excellence or lack thereof. If the voters could get this through their heads, perhaps they wouldn’t make fools of themselves as they did in 1999 when they gave the Gold Glove Award to Rafael Palmeiro. Imagine if a player had a clause in his contract that year saying that he would receive a bonus if he won the Gold Glove Award and then had to watch a DH take it from him. I wouldn’t be too thrilled at that situation. For the record, I think Zimmerman should have won the Gold Glove Award each of the last two seasons over David Wright, but I’m not a voter. I’m just a blogger with an opinion.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
Here we go!
Ed Leyro breaks out his David Wright Pom Poms! And man, they are a-waving!!
First of all your scientific analysis of Derek Jeter is way off. The Yankees made some adjustments to the position of Rodriguez and Jeter in spring training and he had a very good year in the field. I don’t need stats to tell me that, anyone simply following the game knows that this was an outstanding year for Jeter in the field (don’t sweat the couple of mishaps in the playoffs)
Wright did not have a good year in the field, if anything he was worse than I’ve ever seen him. Why? I do not know.
He sure was full of vigor and vitality during the WBC and was even very vocal about it.
But just knock it off with the DW Pom Poms and be objective. I just gleaned quickly through your article and got the gist of it. It reads like one of those Oliver Stone conspiracy theories.
Fact is, Wright had a lousy year in the field. Hopefully he’ll be better next year.
Hee hee. I knew you would be the first to comment. I’ve actually been looking for David Wright Pom Poms on eBay. No luck yet.
I did put the little note at the end stating the point of the blog. I also mentioned that I did not think Wright should have won any Gold Gloves at all. Zimmerman should have won it in 2007 and 2008. I was just writing about the absurdity of players with greater offensive seasons being rewarded with defensive awards over players who had better defensive seasons.
Barring injury, I expect Zimmerman to win a few more Gold Gloves. Of course, if I could wave my Pom Poms in the air to distract him, maybe he could throw a few balls away…
GREAT POST:
you make some excellent points and u are definately correct.
i have also noticed that trend in the baseball awards over the last couple of years….and my best guess is that they give the gold glove to the best offensive players with good defense than to the worst offensive player with great defense because it looks better when the best offensive ones get all of the hardware….
oh and one question: WHY DID DEREK JETER WIN THE HANK AARON AWARD THIS YEAR???????? joe mauer should have won that. doesnt make any sense.
No offense but, if you didn’t read the article thoroughly then, you shouldn’t comment, it’s akin to racial profiling. I found this article to be a great tongue-in-cheek reference to a voter’s mindset and I agree that the award has been relegated to support for a player’s offensive stats rather than it’s intended purpose.
Maybe….just maybe it’s possible that Zimmerman had a good year in the field at the same time Wright had his worse year? Ever think of that?
Ed is a nice man but he loooovesss his Davey W.
This was a wonderful post and clearly illustrates how flawed the whole gold glove voting is. Rawlings should just do away with the damned thing because gold glove is not proof of defensive greatness.
As for the comment by Bayonne, I dont know what he read to cause him to go ballistic on an accurate post that points out the flaws of this annual farce.
But what does the title mean then?
Even if Wright hit 30 HRs his fielding was still lousy.
The title was supposed to be dripping in sarcasm. It was meant to set up the reader for my point that offensive stats tend to influence who wins awards that should not consider offensive numbers.
I could have used Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana instead of Wright in the title since they were previous Gold Glove winners, but Beltran missed half the season and Santana isn’t a hitter. I needed to use Wright to make my point since he played the whole season (minus two weeks).
Zimmerman deserved the award but had Wright had another 30 HR, 100 RBI season, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the voters would have given him the Gold Glove again.
Good post except the points about Jeter – I’m not sure what his defensive performance in 2008 has to do with winning the 2009 GG Award. He was above average in 2009 and isn’t an awful selection, although I certainly would’ve given it to someone else.
Also, UZR on Metsmerized? Do my eyes deceive me? What’s happening?!?
Every once in a while, I have to go to the UZR. Of course, this was my “once” and it may be a “while” before I need it again.
I think I only mentioned his 2008 defensive performance in relation to him being named the worst fielder by Bill James and the other panelists for the Fielding Bible. I used that to make the point that he has never been a Gold Glove quality shortstop, but of course, this year his offense improved and apparently, his defense did as well. The mighty voters have spoken!
I gotcha, Jeter’s first few Gold Gloves were total jokes. He was among the worst, if not the worst, defensive shortstop those years. Stick with UZR it’s not too scary! And you’ll generally find that guys who appear to be good fielders (according to your eyes) are also good per UZR.
I’ve actually been seeing UZR and UZR/150 referenced quite often in the last few weeks by a few writers on this site. It sure did take a long time for them to come along though. However, Bayonne is right and there is way too much pompom waving on here which is fine as long as you balance it with something based on a careful statistical analysis from time to time. I do like the site and make a trek here once or twice a day.
That year that Rafael Palmeiro won the Gold Glove was an absolute joke!!!
A lot of awards that are given out don’t always seem fair and just. I think we often question who wins the MVP and All Star voting as well. If only the world was always fair and the best man always won.
I don’t know that David earned a Gold Glove this year, but I understand your point and agree with you.
Is it 2010 yet? Nice post Ed!
NOTE: Palmeiro was not on steroids, it was VIAGRA!!!!!!!
A bunch of nonsense. David Wright stunk it up in the field this season and would have been undeserving had he hit 100 homers.
Perhaps you could have made additional use of your time determining what is gold glove standard. I suspect there is no defined terms and involves observation and whatever stats one swears by – or dismisses as nonsense. Who is more deserving – a steady Eddie or someone who wows both fans and players alike with a propensity for the spectacular? David was highlight reel material throughout 2008, and was largely its polar opposite in 2009, and wasn’t even steady Eddie.
I submit to you than Brandon Phillips had a far better year with the bat than Orlando Hudson who won the award again after a brief absence.
I submit to you that Jayson Werth had a far better season offensively than Michael Bourn, that Albert Pujols bat was better than Adrian Gonzalez’s, so too Troy Tululowski…or however his name is spelled…over Jimmmy Rollins, and many over Placido Polanco and his 2 lone errors. Carlos Lee did not best Matt Kemp, nor Dan Uggla over Orlando Hudson. AROD did not best Evan Longoria. Angel Pagan did not best Shane Victorino.
UZR this, UZR, that, only 8 errors for Jeter means something. Perhaps not with this new age obsession fixated on sabermetrics rather than old fashioned seeing is believing and some common sense. Only these ridiculous stats could somehow proclaim that Daniel Murphy was one of the NL’s best first baseman.
For the record, I watched at least 150 Mets games this season and my eyes told me that David Wright deserved no GG. Not even close. Any objective Mets fan who watched most games could see that. And as forthright as David is, I suspect he’d tell you the same and is happy his good buddy Zim won it.
so says Murray Chass
the only reason DW ever got a gold glove was because of his hitting. he is an atrocious 3B. perhaps in the two years he did win, everyone else just happened to be more atrocious?
I’ve watched baseball for 70 years and I never saw a great third baseman who moved back on balls hit his way. How come no coach has been able to get this thought into Wright’s head? Yes, he makes some spectacular plays, but not enough to outweigh the negatives. And his arm? You hold your breath on every throw. Personally I would have turned him into a first baseman by now.
Pops
Are you people able to read? Ed stated at the end of his post that he did not think Wright should have won the award. He was just using Wright as an example. So stop with the pompom comments.
Good comment, most people generally read the title and first paragraph of posts then head straight for the comments. It’s annoying.
Thanks for reading it all the way through. Glad the italics in the final paragraph grabbed your attention. Too bad it didn’t do the job for all the readers.
I hope the next time Wright gets a piece of gold, it’s in his championship ring. Then we’ll all wave pom poms, but for the entire team.
I love this post Ed. I also felt that Wright shouldn’t have won the Gold Gloves in 2007 and 2008. I did think Reyes should have won in 07 over Rollins. Beltran’s gold gloves were well deserved. As UZR gains more and more poularity, maybe the Gold Glove voting will eventually reward those who are most deserving.
WOW I never thought David would get this.Leave the pour guy alone.he is one of the only Mets who,gives a care.Do you think he cares if he wins a gold glove,or not??Im sure he would rather be winning games,then win this award?The guy already puts too much pressure on himself.I think the guys deserves 1 mulligan in his career.Now if he hits like this again,or makes 18 errors,put him in Leftfield.Then maybe he can get used to the wall,and figure a way to hit a ball over it.
The Gold Glove Award seems to be ridculed a lot and rightfully so. They DO look at hitting over the actual defense now. Wright didn’t really deserve it in 2008. In 2007, if you look at the other 3Bs and their defensive stats, you can see why they chose him. Reyes was indeed robbed of the award in 2007 because of Rollins’ offense.
Regardless, this post gets a massive win from me because of the Arte Johnson reference…
“…BUT STUPID AND UNNECESSARY!”
Such a classic Laugh-In skit.
oh for petes sake can we all leave david alone? im not talking about the post, for the most part it was pretty accurate. we all know david didn’t deserve to win the GG this season. but the people calling him a horrible third baseman and that crap? just stop. i mean come on, do you REALLY think that if he had gotten his 30 HR, 100 RBIs and hadn’t made a single error it really would have made a difference in the outcome of this season? this season was lost, and so was david’s focus. he’s still a pretty young player who was never put into this kind of situation before, carrying the entire team on his shoulders. im no major league player, heck, im no little league player. but i do strongly believe that the way this season was going had some effect on david’s play. am i saying he wasn’t trying hard enough? no. im saying that when there are so many injuries and just so many things going wrong, it’s hard to get in the swing of things. yes, i’m aware he was struggling right off the bat. but i do believe if he had something worth playing for, he would have found his stride. again, im in no way saying he wasn’t trying. i just think it’s a mental thing he needs to over come. love david and always will, cut him some slack.