Where Chipper Continues to Scratch his head...

[Guest Iubitul]

Wright and Beltran win Gold Glove Awards

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Yea!

Deal with it, Chipper.

[Guest themetfairy]

Fuck Larry.

Yea for Beltran and Mr. Wright!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I dunno if Wright was the league's best 3Bman but he had a better year this year than last with the leather.

That said, it's not like Larry is a real threat to take it if not for Wright, is he?

Beltran is very good of course.

[Frayed Knot]

As usual there's too many CFers and no corner guys.
And as usual there's an incumbancy factor that rivals the House of Reps

P - Maddux -- wasn't even a full-time pitcher by the end of the year

C - Y. Molina -- OK I guess

1B - Adrian Gonzalez -- God choice

2B - Brandon Phillips

SS - Jimmy Rollins

3B - Wright
Zimmerman's better but didn't play enough this year. Feliz is too but the offensive gap is (wrongly) too big for some voters. Chipper never was better and certainly isn't now.

OF - Beltran, Pitt's Nate McClouth (no doubt given for his offensive uptick year), Victorino

[metirish]

Great news , congrats to David and Carlos.

[Benjamin Grimm]

That is nice. I was hoping that switching leagues wouldn't cost Santana his Glove, but I guess it did. Oh well.

[Zvon]

This is great!

There was a day when this would be a fantastic highlight of the season past.
It would be enough.
Still is for me.

[Willets Point]

Frayed Knot wrote: 1B - Adrian Gonzalez -- God choice

I didn't realize he was Jewish.

[Frayed Knot]

Hey, he wasn't just somone who stumbled onto a gold glove, he was one of the chosen!

[Guest themetfairy]

Quoting Mad Magazine's Dave Berg - You don't have to be Jewish to be Jewish (but it helps).

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm as down as anybody on giving GGs to legacies, but check out the top ten assisters among NL Pitchers:

GUY	INN	PO	A	FPCT	RF	ZR	A/9IP
Greg Maddux, LA/SD	194	17	57	.961	3.43	.967	2.64
Brandon Webb, Ari	227.2	18	54	.973	2.86	.964	2.14
Aaron Cook, Col	211.1	15	43	.967	2.47	.977	1.83
Derek Lowe, LA	211	15	39	.964	2.30	1.000	1.66
Zach Duke, Pit	185	11	39	.962	2.43	1.000	1.90
Hiroki Kuroda, LA	183.1	18	38	.966	2.75	.974	1.87
Jair Jurrjens, Atl	188.1	9	35	.978	2.10	.974	1.67
Ryan Dempster, ChC	207.2	18	34	.981	2.26	.973	1.48
Cole Hamels, Phi	227.1	11	33	.936	1.74	1.000	1.31
Mike Pelfrey, NYM	201.2	14	33	1.000	2.11	1.000	1.48

I don't know how much of that can be attributed to his propensity to pitch to contact. More than a little, I'd guess, but it can be measured and accounted for.

It's still pretty eye-opening.

[Guest Iubitul]

That is eye-opening. I never would have thought Maddux would have been at the top of the assists list with the number of innings he pitched.

[seawolf17]

Mike Muthafuckin' Pelfrey, future Gold Glove winner.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Also a guy who pitches disproportionately to contact, however.

[Frayed Knot]

Iubitul wrote: That is eye-opening. I never would have thought Maddux would have been at the top of the assists list with the number of innings he pitched.

Lotsa grounders, fewer Ks

[seawolf17]

Edgy DC wrote: Also a guy who pitches disproportionately to contact, however.

Which is how you earn Gold Gloves. Strikeout pitchers don't win Gold Gloves.

[Gwreck]

Guess that makes Santana's win in '07 with the Twins that much more impressive.

[Guest Iubitul]

Frayed Knot wrote: ="Iubitul"]That is eye-opening. I never would have thought Maddux would have been at the top of the assists list with the number of innings he pitched. Lotsa grounders, fewer Ks

Of course - that makes sense - I also thought he threw fewer innings than he did.

[seawolf17]

Gwreck wrote: Guess that makes Santana's win in '07 with the Twins that much more impressive.

But really, who else? Nolan Ryan, Unit, Clemens, Carlton... none of those guys were Gold Glovers. There are exceptions to every rule, but your power K guys don't tend to be slick fielders. Maddux (and Santana) are certainly exceptions, but they're not power guys. Neither was Jim Kaat.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bob Gibson won nine Gloves.

[Frayed Knot]

AL:
P - Mussina
C - Mauer
1B - Pena
2B - Pedroia
SS - Young
3B - Beltre
OF - Ichiro, Hunter, Sizemore

[seawolf17]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Bob Gibson won nine Gloves.

Well, there goes my theory.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Iubitul wrote: That is eye-opening. I never would have thought Maddux would have been at the top of the assists list with the number of innings he pitched.

Lotsa grounders, fewer Ks.

Well, we can merely assert that, but we can check the numbers and see how much that offsets those numbers.

Let me re-run the numbers.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Too much time. Need to do reall work.

What I can tell you is that, though Greg Maddux does get a lot of contact outs, his percentage of ground ball outs isn't so special, particularly compared to the unworldly figures of number two on this list, Brandon Webb.

[MFS62]

I remember when Bobby Schantz and Harvey Haddix were called "The fifth infielder" for thier teams. And neither were fastball pitchers.

Back to Wright. He has good hands and a strong arm. But while it has been inconsistent, his errors dropped around 50% over previous totals.

But he also seemed to show up fairly frequently on the"Web Gems" feature on Sportscenter.
I wonder how many votes are swayed by seeing the spectacular plays on tv while not seeing the winners make many of those plays when they play against the voters' teams?

Thoughts?

Later