Blog Focus: American League Gold Glove Winners Announced
Normally, the announcement of Gold Glove winners in baseball sets the sabermetric world ablaze with anger at the baseball writers who vote on the award.
Typically, an undeserving big name or four always ends up with an award rather than a better defender who flies under the radar of baseball scribes. Here are this year's AL Winners:
C - Joe Mauer; 1B - Mark Teixeira; 2B - Placido Polanco; SS - Derek Jeter; 3B - Evan Longoria; OF - Torii Hunter, Ichiro Suzuki, Adam Jones; P - Mark Buerhle.
Surprisingly, though, the reaction this year by stat-first baseball sites has been pretty tame, with a few arguments here and there, but generally a consensus that the writers' choices are at least not horrid, but there were still a few complaints. Here are some other takes on it:
Examiner: "There isn't a person or argument that can convince me that Minnesota's Joe Mauer was more deserving of a Gold Glove than was Detroit's Gerald Laird. Laird had a higher fielding percentage, a higher caught stealing percentage, more than double the assists and the same number of errors (three) in 24 more games."
Beyond the Boxscore: "As mentioned, the GG voters nabbed two of the UZR leaders (at third base and at second base, if you don't count Zobrist). It would appear as if they did a very good job in that department, as this methodology shows Longoria as absolutely dominant defensively and Polanco a very defensible choice given the difference between him and Pedroia. Mauer and "One Man, Five Tools" Laird came out fairly even in the projection, so there should be no quibble in handing the award to the future AL MVP. Likewise, the Youkilis vs. Teixeira debate came fairly even, so deeming Teixeira the winner is certainly a decent choice."
Continued on the next page
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