The American League Gold Gloves were announced today for the 2006 season, and Derek Jeter won another award at shortstop, despite the fact he was 4th in the league in fielding percentage, last in Range factor, and third-worst in Zone factor (thanks to my friend Adam for the stats).
The complete list of AL winners:
C- Ivan Rodriguez
1B- Mark Teixeira
2B- Mark Grudzielanek
SS- Derek Jeter
3B- Eric Chavez
OF- Ichiro Suzuki
OF- Torii Hunter
OF- Vernon Wells
P- Kenny Rogers
What do you immediately notice about this list? The Boston Red Sox, who made just 66 errors all year, and just missed tying the record for fewest errors in a season by a team, had exactly zero players win Gold Gloves this year. Mike Lowell, Alex Gonzalez and Mark Loretta all had superb seasons in the field, and all three could have won the award. Only Grudzielanek on that list of the three winners at 2B, SS and 3B really deserved to win.
But I'm not going to lose any sleep at all over who won these awards. They have forever been a popularity contest among the voters, who happen to be managers, coaches and players from that particular league. I remember back in the early 1990s when Benito Santiago was winning the award every year, that he once won one year despite the fact that he led the National League catchers in both passed balls and errors.
But it's interesting to see that the Seattle Mariners, who still hold the record for fewest errors by a team with 65 in 2003, had four Gold Glovers that year. The Red Sox have none this season.
Whatever. To me, the Gold Gloves have always been one step above a joke.
I won't be tossing and turning over it.
7 comments:
No tossing and turning here either. And I wrote about The GGs, such as they are, today also. Have a great weekend.
Thanks Peter, I'll check it out. You have a good weekend, too.
The Gold Glove @ SS, going to Eric Jeter(I Mean Derek), is the 1st Quest in being considered for Sainthood by Archbishop Timothy of The Memphis Office Of The Sacred Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Farsical:
With This Award, he is declared "Venerable" by Scribes & "Overrated" by Knowledgeable Fans, who know of this malpractice of "Vox Populi."
I agree ... I'm not upset about losing any of the GG's ... HOWEVER ... I always feel burned losing ANYTHING to the mfy's ... anything ...
*sigh*
There is always next year.
Zachary: I don't think there's a minimum numbers of games to be considered to win a Gold Glove. It's just a simple vote among coaches and managers. It's a reputation award, and I doubt seriously if any of the voters look at stats before they cast their ballots.
Novy: Thanks for stopping by. I wouldn't get too worked up over these awards, even if a couple of Red Sox players deserved to win them. I understand your feelings though...
I just hope this doesn't affect how people vote for the AL MVP. Can you imagine how awful it will be if Jeter wins that, too?
Jeter winning the MVP would really tick me off, Laura. I still vote for Papi, Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau ahead of him.
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