2007 Gold Glove Winners Announced

I’m just going to post the actual winners before I start discussing things. Because really, in a post titled “2007 Gold Glove Winners Announced”, naming the winners is pretty important.

AL
P: Johan Santana
C: Ivan Rodriguez
1B: Kevin Youkilis
2B: Placido Polanco
3B: Adrian Beltre
SS: Orlando Cabrera
OF: Grady Sizemore, Ichiro Suzuki, Torii Hunter

NL
P: Greg Maddux
C: Russell Martin
1B: Derrek Lee
2B: Orlando Hudson
3B: David Wright
SS: Jimmy Rollins
OF: Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, Aaron Rowand, Jeff Francoeur

Note that the NL has four awards for the outfield. What the fuck? I don’t really care, just wanted to point that out. Moving on.

In early September, I sent an e-mail to the other writers of this blog with my predictions for this year's MLB awards. With the awards being announced over the next week and a half it’s a good time to revisit these picks starting with the Gold Glove. Here they are with correct picks in italics:

AL
C: Kenji Johjima
1B: Kevin Youkilis
2B: Placido Polanco
SS: Orlando Cabrera
3B: Brandon Inge
OF: Grady Sizemore, Coco Crisp, Ichiro Suzuki

NL
C: Russell Martin
1B: Mark Teixeira
2B: Brandon Phillips
SS: Troy Tulowitzki
3B: Aramis Ramirez
OF: Andruw Jones, Aaron Rowand, Carlos Beltran

You might notice that I didn’t choose a pitcher. The fielding sample size with pitchers is very small (the average starter has only 15 putouts and 25 assists over the course of a given season) and luck plays a much larger factor in small sample sizes which makes it hard for one pitcher to be distinguished from the others. Seriously, Johan Santana won the AL Gold Glove this year with a 14/26/1.000 line (putouts/assists/fielding percent). But how is it any better than Joe Blanton’s 15/27/1.000 or Shaun Marcum’s 19/27/1.000 which included six double-plays?

But hey, 9/16 isn’t too bad. Yes, out of 16. Jeff Francoeur can cry himself to sleep cuddling his extra award for all I care. That shit came out of nowhere. And I stand by my original choices of Crisp, Phillips and Tulowitzki. I think they all got robbed.

Phillips lead NL second basemen in putouts and assists by a large margin while only committing 8 errors in 1371 innings (second most played). Tulowitzki lead NL shortstops in fielding percentage, putouts (by 21) and assists (by 82). Leading in putouts and assists by that much without playing the most innings is huge by the way. Because it means he handled the ball the most and committed very few errors while doing it (only 11). He also had the highest RF9 (range factor per 9 innings played measures the ability to cover the field) and was ahead of the actual winner 5.39 to 4.41. Crisp managed to lead the entire league in fielding percent but none of this really matters with the lack of comprehensive fielding statistics.

I’m just mad that some players who put up excellent seasons got snubbed for big-names who had mediocre years. Hopefully someone else will post about the MVP/Cy/RoY when they are announced.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Tulowitzki's UNASSISTED TRIPLE PLAY.