31
2012
Morning Grind: Since When Does Offense Determine Gold Gloves?
An article by XtreemIcon
When did the Gold Glove become an offensive award? On Tuesday, MLB announced the 2012 Gold Glove winners. Here are the winners:
There are some obvious choices in there, like Beltre, Buehrle, Molina, Reddick, Heyward, and Cano. Some choices can be argued back and forth, like Teixeira, Gordon, LaRoche and Wieters. Then there are some downright absurd choices. All due to respect to Adam Jones, how does this award not go to Mike Trout? Aside from the fact that Mike Trout is the best center fielder in the universe, Jones wasn’t even that good defensively this season. This is a glaring error, but it’ll all be forgotten when Trout takes home his MVP award.
Ninth-worst in FLD%, third worst in UZR/150, dead last in DRS, first in voter’s hearts.
The other glaring mistake on this list is Carlos Gonzalez. He’s a miserable defensive player. I don’t know how else to put it. He has zero range and an average-at-best throwing arm. Martin Prado should sue for defamation of character for being considered inferior than Carlos Gonzalez. This is clearly a case of offensive numbers winning a Gold Glove Award, and it’s a real shame. How Gonzalez was even a finalist is baffling me.
Both awards for shortstops were given to the wrong players. I’m not as up in arms about the American League, as Hardy is certainly a good defensive player, but Rollins stinks now Brandon Crawford of the Giants and Zack Cozart of the Reds both impressed me far more than Rollins with the glove. In the Junior Circuit, Brendan Ryan was a living, breathing clinic on how to play shortstop. Unfortunately for him, he hit .194/.277/.278, so apparently he’s unable to win a defensive award. Same with Crawford and Cozart. Since Rollins hit 23 home runs and scored over 100 runs, he must be the best defensive shortstop in the league, too, right? It’s just silly. Additionally, Andrew McCutchen MVP-caliber offense clearly won him some points. He’s never been a very good defender. He’s fast, sure, but he just doesn’t make the plays. Watch Michael Bourn play centerfield and you’ll see a chasm-sized difference in the way Bourn uses his speed and the way McCutchen doesn’t use his.
Wright deserved this award more than he deserved the two he actually won!
In an odd case I can’t really blame on the bat, Chase Headley won the award over David Wright. I like Headley a lot and I’ve been a big proponent over his overall solid game. But Wright had a monster defensive year. I’m not much for defensive statistics, but Wright led all NL third basemen in UZR/150 by a significant margin and led in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) by a very wide margin. Despite how unreliable defensive metrics are, when you’re that much better than the next guy in both those categories, there’s something to be said about the defensive season Wright put up. He also tied for the second-fewest errors in the league and was .003 points behind the leader in fielding percentage. He deserved this award more than he deserved the two he actually won! I’m also certain Aramis Ramirez is a better third baseman than Headley.
Thankfully, the voters got it right with Darwin Barney. They could have easily given it to Brandon Phillips based on reputation, but Barney was stellar this year and deserved it. Oddly enough, Phillips hit better, which bucked the trend.
Here are my picks for the Gold Glove awards:
*Salvador Perez of the Royals is very, very good, but lost significant time due to injury. Watch out for him.
**A good argument can be made for Adrian Gonzalez, but he spent almost a quarter of the season in the NL.
Who are yours?
About the Author: Jesse Elgarten
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Poor David Wright… He must be thinking, “What does a guy have to do to get respect around here?”
First, the All Star snub and now THIS? on a micro level, he must feel a little bit like the New York Giants football team. Today, Herman Edwards selected the 49ers as the best team in the NFC, just two weeks after they took a beating at the hands of JPP & Co. on their own turf.
I guess there comes a time when you just have to grin and bear it, keep your mouth shut and just play ball. Oddly, that’s usually when players do their best, and when they play their best, that’s where their inner joy is restored and then winning becomes contagious and fun. The only difference is that the player owns that joy, it’s not something that is bestowed on him by fans or sports writers. Thus, they cannot take that joy away.
So, David Wright, go get that big contract and start leading these young Mets to places they’ve never been before!
LGM!!!
The difference is the NY Giants have Super Bowl victories which tell the true story over the pundits views. Wright? Hopefully he gets preferential tee times.
Despite the universal deification of Mike Trout who is truly a remarkable offensive player, he is not a great outfielder, actually not the first choice in Anaheim to play Centerfield, Boujos is in the late innings. Trout is incredibly fast, but in the dozen times I’ve watched, he is nowhere near Gold Glove status, not as good a fielder as Harper by the way, and eventually he will be a Left fielder, at best a Right fielder. Adam Jones is a top Center fielder and deserves the award
To answer the question in the post title….for a long time.
Gold glove voting has long been a joke. Prime evidence of that is looking at all the gold gloves Jeter has won despite being one of the worst defensive SS in the game.
The nature of the voting is probably part of the problem. Managers are doing the voting but only see some of the players they are voting on (at least the ones outside of their division) a handful of times a year. And most probably aren’t the type to go and look up players’ defensive stats before casting the votes. Not that UZR and the like are the end all be all, but when a guy does lead in UZR as much as Wright did (or Bourn did) its probably the right call that that guy was the best.
UZR was never intended to be used in one year sample sizes and it’s terrible and inaccurate in that regard. Even the people who created will tell you to use it for a minimum of 3+ years of sampling data. For a one year only comparison, fielding percentage and range factor is still the best indicator and Headley beat out Wright in FP, RF9 and RFG.
Since When Does Offense Determine Gold Gloves?
Answer: Since 1999 when Rafael Palmeiro won it and only played 28 games at 1B.
I couldn’t believe when that happened.
I dont know Headley aside from seeing him 3-4 times, but the David Wright I saw this year was even better than the David Wright who won his earlier gold gloves. He got royally screwed over in my opinion.
When I heard the news last night I wanted to vomit.
As many metrics that we have for defense now, you still need to understand who is voting for these awards.
Does anyone think that managers and players are going to run to the computers and even check fielding percentage before casting a vote? They see the players they vote for at most about 18 times and then on highlights from ESPN and MLBN. Of course it’s gonna favor the popular vote and the guy that makes the flashy play.
Total BS! Gold Glove voting is an absolute joke!
Think about it in your own work place if they have hardest worker of the year awards or some other bs. Do you rush to the computer and look at their sales record or whatever other stats you could judge them by? These guys are players and coaches they have more important things in their mind to do.
Has anyone heard from Bayonne Mets Fan? He was probably in one of the worst spots to be, hope you are doing alright out there man. All the best.
XtreemIcon, With all due respect (I guess that means you officially cannot get angry) you lost all credibility with me when you mentioned Trout winning the MVP. Are you forgetting the year Miggy had?
You mean the offensive year Miggy had?
Right! Call it what you want it is still an award that is heavily weighted to offense. I would like to see the total games where Trout absolutely won the game with a defenive play. Come on you can’t be serious? Is Trout a better averall player? I would say without heitation, yes but this is the MVP not the best player in the league award.
When we’re talking value, speed and defense have just as much weight as offense. Baseball is a zero sum game. Saving your team a run is as good as scoring one. Cabrera is a bad defensive player and a bad, slow baserunner. He won the Hank Aaron Award, which is for best hitter. As well he should have. But the value Trout added being leagues and leagues better than Cabrera in two important aspects of the game, as well as being no slouch himself with the bat, tips the scale heavily in his favor.
How many home runs did Trout bring back in games the Angels won by one run?
Exactly!
Seriously, that might be the most Saberfu@%ed version of the MVP ever! If it means the player that had a better year then it must say Miggy!
Exactly……it’s Trout? Miggy didn’t have the better year, Trout did. Miggy was a better hitter and won the award for best hitter. Trout added so much more value than Miggy to his team because Miggy hurt his team in two of the three aspects of the game. The MVP should be Trout.
Xtreem, I like to believe I am somewhere in the middle of the sabermetrics arguement maybe I lean ever so slightly for but you had better never make an agruement against them. Your approach is nothing but a formula. Why have a vote then? Apply the formula and hand out the award. Thankfully there is still some human involvement in the award, so the rightful winner and the MVP (Most Valuable Player, as in the player that meant most to his team and had the best year.) is Miggy Cabrerra. The best overall player may be Trout but the award is the MVP and not the B.O.P.
What formula am I using? What sabermetrics are involved here? Please explain.
Isnt it funny though…Offense gets u gold gloves but the best offensive catcher in the NL from 1996-2000 never won a single gold glove in his career
I’ll have to come back here again to see what you Mets fans will say after Craig Kimbrel wins the Cy Young. LOL
Sad you have no life to speak of that you have to troll Mets sites…………..
Were you at the game when they choked away their chance at the playoffs and showed what little class you part time fans are with throwing the crap on the field? You attend so little games you don’t know how to conduct yourselves.
Sorry but Headley did not get to the quantity of batted balls that David did AND turn into outs plus his throwing and coming in and fielding with one hand and throwing is the best in baseball.
Why no love for RA for GG?
He held runners on better than any LH pitcher plus played great on the field.
I think Buerhle won on reputation and his play on ESPN, Bueherle Meter, really they name a play to judge other plays against gets you the publicity to win.
RA got robbed, Mets get robbed again by Baseball, oh well.