Major League Baseball announced the Gold Glove winners today. Overall, there weren’t too many surprises.
American League Gold Glove recipients
National League Gold Glove recipients
Greg Maddux won his record-breaking 17th Gold Glove (and 17th of the past 18th seasons). He surpassed Brooks Robinson and Jim Kaat who both have 16. Quoth manager Bud Black:
“I think, more than anything, he has great baseball instincts when it comes to fielding a ball,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “When he throws a pitch, he knows where the ball is going to be hit. It’s amazing to see the plays he makes but it doesn’t surprise me.
Six of the seven outfielders who received the award (there was a tie so 10 were awarded in the NL) were centerfielders. I guess shouldn’t surprise too many people. Historically, not many left fielders are in line for the award. Rightfielder Jeff Francouer, who got his first Gold Glove, was the exception.
The Gold Glove is known for being an award of tradition but this year, ten first-timers won the award.
The only surprise to me was David Wright. Maybe it’s just my ignorance since I didn’t watch a whole lot of Mets games this year. I did watch a few last year, though and while I loved his stick, I wasn’t impressed with his glove. But again, that was last year.
For what it’s worth, the Beltway Boys felt that Zimmerman wuz robbed. It just came out by the way, that Zim broke his hamate bone while swinging a bat last weekend. He is scheduled for surgery and should be fine in a month or two.
Followup: I did a quick search regarding left fielders and the Gold Glove. Indeed, I was right. From Baseballlibrary.com, Paul White writes:
In the forty-five seasons that Gold Gloves have been awarded, 135 have been given to American Leaguers. Just 19 of those went to left fielders, and never more than one in any year. Of those, 15 are accounted for by just four men – Carl Yastrzemski (7), Minnie Minoso (3), Joe Rudi (3) and Dave Winfield (2).
OF Gold Gloves should be awarded to LF, CF, RF, not just all CFs. Granted CFs are usually the best OFs, but SSs are usually the best fielding IF. Congrats to Greg Maddux, old man river just keeps rolling on. Also congrats to JRoll, although I though Tulo would win SS in the NL. Ryan Zimmerman was robbed! Who votes on this stuff anyway?
Was thinking more about the Gold Glove winners and go to thinking about RF. Range Factor, not rightfield, is a Bill James’ stat that is just about totally useless! It compares apples & oranges, a fielder’s range is determined by the amount of putouts/assists he gets per inning/game played in the field at a particular position. A couple of things jump into my mind right off the bat, strikeout pitchers, the number of runners on base, and the number of groundballs (hits & outs) and the number of flyballs (hits & outs). Not to mention balks & wild pitches. When considering outfield play, you’ve got to take into whether the player plays LF, CF, or RF, as CF has alot more plays. I was thinking of this when I was looking at Dustin Pedroia and Curtis Granderson. Pedroia has a limited RF, due in part to the Boston strikeout artists. Granderson has a great RF, due in part to Detroit’s flyball pitchers. Both are quality fielders, don’t get me wrong. I’m just showing you where RF can be misleading.