Congratulations to the 2011 Gold Glove winners. Here are some notes from around MLB…
- Brandon Phillips ($250K), Adrian Beltre ($100K) and Adrian Gonzalez ($100K) were among the winners to obtain bonuses for their fielding excellence, according to the AP (via SI.com).
- Jamie Moyer threw for scouts last Thursday, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Reports on the left-hander, who’s nearly a year removed from Tommy John surgery, are excellent.
- Patrick Newman of FanGraphs explains what you need to know about Yu Darvish, the Japanese starter who could be posted this offseason.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs makes the case that teams should treat Darvish as a super two player by guaranteeing him two or three years at an average annual value of approximately $10MM.
- Jim Margalus of South Side Sox isn't thrilled that the White Sox exercised Jason Frasor’s 3.75MM option and explains what the decision means for Chicago.
- The Yankees expect to be heavily involved in trade talks this offseason because they have prospects to trade and are willing to deal pitching, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney (on Twitter).
- Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski told reporters, including MLB.com's Jason Beck, that he'd like to re-sign free agent infielder Ramon Santiago. Though the Tigers like Santiago, they don't see him as an everyday solution.
- Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. says he’d like to re-sign free agents Ryan Madson and Jimmy Rollins if possible, according to Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We've had discussions with the agents of both players," Amaro said.
- Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest repeated that he can consider major expenditures this offseason, according to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.
Andre Ethier won a gold glove… What just happened?
At least Parra won cause he was clearly the best outfielder in the National League
hey at least no yankee won
They give it to Jeter every year, even though it’s well accepted that he’s horrible at shortstop, but when they finally have a player that DOES deserve it, Gardner, he doesn’t get it. I don’t get it.
that’s sort of ironic
Last year, Gardner topped the MLB in UZR (And won the Fielding Bible award for left field) and doesn’t get a Gold Glove, but Teixeira (Second in fielding bible vote), Cano (Fourth) and Jeter (Not a single vote) all managed to get one with a negative UZR.
Honestly, this year’s got some flubs, but it’s not quite as obviously at odds with reality as previous years. Five of the nine fielding bible winners got a GG (With the AL winner ranking second for first base, so it’s not that far off there. The biggest disparity being a complete disconnect in the outfield (And this depends on your metric values, Ellsbury did lead center fielders in UZR). The AL shortstop ranking was pretty bogus, but at least it wasn’t Jeter for once.
I alwasy questioned on how Texiera and Cano had negative UZR’s. From what I understand though, UZR and those other stats can’t determine scooped balls nor do they determine foul outs (which Tex led the league in last year)
Cano had more PO, more assists, more innings and fewest errors than any 2B in 2010 if I’m not mistaken.
He had no errors and 8 outfield assists. Plus the outfield GG’s are set by the seperate positions now. So one for LF, one for CF, and one for RF. With those stipulations, Ethier makes sense.
I obviously have all the respect in the world for Jamie Moyer (as all baseball fans should), but I have to wonder how a 49 year old Moyer coming off of Tommy John surgery should be receiving “excellent” reports from scouts.
Is it in comparison to what people expect from 49 year old’s (not named Satchel Paige)? In comparison to what he was doing before the surgery? Is he back with a vengeance, throwing a 92 MPH fastball that paints the black?
140 words on the subject is no where near enough….
He probably developed a devastating 23 mph slider.
The reports are probably more on his movement and location than anything.
How did Alex Gordon win the Gold Glove over Gardner? He led the league in fielding sabermetrics wise by a mile. Snubbed again!
Oh idk TheHitman32… maybe because Alex Gordon had 20 outfield assists compared to Gardner’s 7??..
Besides errors, you could not have picked a worse statistic to judge defensive ability by. Please, GTFO.
*Hitman23. According to Fangraphs, Brett Gardner’s UZR 25.8 as opposed to Gordon’s 9.6. Gardner led the league in this stat. It is incredibly inaccurate to base the Gold Glove on only outfield assists.
Very few people will run on Gardner. And besides, as others have stated, his UZR absolutely annihilates Gordon’s. Gordon’s is still good, no doubt, but Gardner should have been the unanimous AL LF for this award.
And remember.. its pretty amazing Alex Gordon won a gold glove. He moved from 3B to Left Field… Brett Gardner use to be a CF and still could be. Thats why his sabermetrics are so good. A centerfielder playing LF.
Why should that have any bearing? The whole award is supposed to be for who played the position the best. Period.
Um, how does that even apply? Gardner played LF for most if not all of the 2011 the season. He played the best defensively at that position. His talent shouldn’t be undervalued because according to you, he’s a CF in LF. I don’t see how that should have any effect on his performance if he played the whole year in left.
apparently the voters didn’t think brett gardner hit well enough to win the gold glove
He hit more home runs than Gardner which is exactly what defensive excellence should be judged by.
Glad 3 Dodgers won the Gold Glove…as much as I like Ethier and believe many doubt his defense….it’s good, but not GOLD GLOVE good.
What happened that Y. Betancourt and C. Mehgee didn’t receive a gold glove? LOL!
Bummer that Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta didn’t win this year, but I think overall this was one of the better jobs the baseball writers have done. Unlike past years when they kissed Yankee rear end and called it a day. Congrats to the winners for sure.
It all comes down the the CS% for catchers it seems, and Wieters was the best everyday catcher in that regard by over 5% I think. I’m disappointed for sure, but not surprised.
Peralta wasn’t up for a Gold Glove. I think Jackson should have won. Wieters had a better defensive year than Avila, though.
I wanted to slap the ESPN “experts” every time they touted assists and fielding percentage as why so-and-so won. “JACOBY ELLSBURY HAD A GREAT OFFENSIVE YEAR AND HE HAD A 1.000 FIELDING PERCENTAGE!!!!!”
Just because ESPN is stupid doesn’t mean Ellsbury is an awful choice. As noted, he did top the MLB in UZR for a CF.
Did I say Ellsbury was an awful choice? I said Jackson should have won. O NO, GRAB THE INTERNET PITCHFORKS AND INTERNET TORCHES!!!
I feel it’s worth noting that baseball writers don’t vote on the Gold Glove, managers and coaches do. The reason that the Gold Gloves are the most obviously broken award in the MLB is because these guys really don’t take it very seriously and will often either vote for their guy or a guy with big name recognition, which is why it’ll usually go to a large market player..
3 Dodgers won just to drive the sale price of the team up. Believe it
Moyer’s pitched in rotations with Greg Maddux, Nolan Ryan, and Roy Halladay and has been the teammate of Sandberg, Griffey, Palmeiro, and Ripken throughout his career. Quite impressive.
Great career and even better person. Just reading quotes from him, listening to interviews, he’s a guy who gets what fans want to see out of their ball players. Never the most talented guy but one of the hardest working and most prepared. Hope he gets a shot from somebody (Seattle, San Diego, somewhere with a big yard).
I agree with what you wrote, except the Great career part, but I know that wasn’t your main point.
wow gold gloves actually mean nothing. they should just get rid of them, its pretty embarrassing
I hope Tommy John allows Moyer to pitch for another decade. He made his MLB debut 2 years before I was born.
so you’re 76 ?
Lol @ Yankees fans griping about Gardner. How does that bittchslapp to the face feel?
If that makes you happy, then whatever.
If that was a “bittchslapp” then Jeter winning last year was manslaughter to the rest of the league.
LOL @ the KC Royals having fans.
PS- 2113….is that when we should expect the Royals to compete?
jamie moyer? holy crap, i would love to see him pitch in the majors again 😛
Would love to see the Padres sign Moyer on a minor league deal. What better place to close out your career than the spacious confines of PETCO, he is cheap, and the Pads could use an experienced arm now that Harang is gone.
I try not to get mad about the GGs but I think Austin Jackson is clearly the best def CF in baseball. Mabe im biased idk but I thought he was a lock for ROTY last yr…
havent seen much of jackson play, but UZR says he’s not even close
I’ve seen him play and UZR is correct… He’s like Rey Orodonez in CF. He can make some spectacular plays, but then a line drive or fly ball directly at him eats him up.
He made 3 errors all year. I’m not someone that overvalues errors and fielding percentage, but to say that he messes up simple plays on a regular basis is completely untrue.
He did a couple times in the playoffs and that’s probably what you saw. But I’ve watched him regularly for the past two years and he doesn’t struggle with simple plays at all. (Ryan Raburn, on the other hand …)
Jackson’s one defensive weakness is that he NEVER leaves his feet. Even if stretching out or diving for a ball is the only way to get an out. He’s a bit overly cautious in that regard. (This may or may not be due to extremely slow teammates playing in the corners)
But his range is great, and he has a decent arm for a center fielder too. And he seemed to take at least 3 or 4 home runs out of the seats this year.
No, Jackson never leaves his feet, but it also means he never plays a single into a double or a double into a triple unlike the aforementioned Raburn. And since he never leaves his feet, the voters rarely see him on SportsCenter making amazing diving catches, unless he’s robbing homeruns.
“Jackson’s one defensive weakness is that he NEVER leaves his feet. Even if stretching out or diving for a ball is the only way to get an out. He’s a bit overly cautious in that regard. (This may or may not be due to extremely slow teammates playing in the corners)”
Verlander’s right on this one and your last note plays into it. If you’re the best defender in your outfield by as wide of a margin as Jackson, you can’t afford to be making the diving plays because anything that gets past you is going to take ages to get back to the infield.
Take it from someone who watched the 2010 Red Sox outfield disaster where we didn’t even have a consistent center fielder. Everyone’s diving for stuff and never getting it and nobody’s fast enough to be backing anyone else up and everything’s all over the outfield. You want a guy who’s by and large conservative with his dives when he doesn’t have much backing him up.
Yeah, I wasn’t really criticizing him. He’s a great center fielder, and I agree that he has to be cautious with Magglio and Delmon Young manning the corners.
I’m just saying that’s basically the only valid complaint someone could have about him if you watch him on a regular basis. There are times when it looks like he could catch the ball if he just laid out for it, but I’ve literally NEVER seen him do so. In ANY circumstance.
J.D. Drew was the same way and he got a lot of whining from the Sox fanbase for it. No heart, no hussle, blah blah blah. But none of those people paid much attention to that right field wall, which has destroyed lesser fielders. If the ball gets by you in that corner, it’s either going to bounce up, turning an easy single into a ground rule double/taking away a play at the plate (Which Drew was great at) or it’s going to bounce off that odd shaped wall and end up somewhere in no man’s land.
According to Fielding Bible, Jackson saved the Tigers 22 runs in 2011 and has made 63 more plays than the average CF over the last two years. He saved the Tigers 21 runs in 2010.
You beat me to that stat, and it should say all you need to know.
The fact that his defensive sabers aren’t stellar just tells me that systems has a flaw in it. To not statistically rank him among the CF elites just boggles my mind. I have never seen such range in a CF. He catches balls that no one else in the league could get to, save Bourjous and maybe Guti. His range and initial read on the ball is the best in baseball, and I don’t need a stat to tell me that. Just watch him.
that’s basically saying the tigers pitching staff allowed 63 more balls to get to cf than they should have. 😛
. . . Not really.
It just means the average CF wouldn’t have gotten to those plays, while an above average CF (like Jackson) would have.
He won the 2011 Fielding Bible Award for CF, so…
a lot of that had to do with opportunity, but duly noted
should of just gave it to ellsbury
agree..as a yankee fan i would do that trade all over..if yanks had kennedy and austin over the grandyman they’d be champs 2day
The Yankees lost in the ALDS because of not hitting in the clutch.
Austin Jackson had a .198 BA with RISP in 2011 and batted .125 in the ALDS and .195 in the playoffs (I’m using that small sample because you said they would have won if they had him). Are you saying Jackson > Granderson? Because clearly pitching was not the reason the Yankees lost.
They suggest offering Darvish 10 mil per year at 2-3 years. At that rate he would be worth gambling on. They said his K/9 ratio should be higher based on the (stuff) he has. One very good point someone made is that the batters he faces have more of a slapstick style of swing. Kind of like Ichiro so they prolly don’t strikeout as much. In the MLB he prolly would have a higher strikeout ratio. As a Brewers fan, I wouldn’t mind if the Crew make him an offer. He could end up being one of the best finds of the year! I would rather have my team take a gamble on Darvish than CJ Wilson. I feel bad for the team that overpays for CJ Wilson. He is a good pitcher and he has put up good numbers in a tough ballpark to pitch in, but he is not going to be worth what some team is going to pay for his services. My guess is that if he doesn’t stay put in Texas, he will end up playing for the Nationals. The Nats are the one team that I can see overpaying for him. What do you guys think about Darvish or Wilson?
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what about tex and dont they know robby cano
Pedroia and Gonzalez deserved it. Only Yankee that was robbed was Gardner.
It’s a joke that Matt Kemp won the CF Gold Glove….absolute popularity contest. Victorino and Bourn are much better defensive CFs by far. And honestly, even though I am a Braves fan, McCann should have been nowhere near the list of candidates for NL catchers. I also think if the coaches and managers had a chance to watch Atlanta play more, Freeman should have somewhere in the vicinity at least.
Gold gloves have become a joke.
They’ve been a joke for a few years now.
Matt Kemp won the award simply because of his offensive year.
Almost surprised they didn’t throw another GG at McLouth. He was just as bad as he’s always been and his arm’s still a noodle. He was even playing for a more popular team than when he won it before. GGer for sure!
Asdrubal Cabrera not a gold glove recipient? Just ridiculous. You can throw all the saebermetrics and zone ratings and whatever other cockamamie stat out there to defend any player you want, but Cabby not winning a gold glove is a sign that this award means nothing. It was bad enough Derek Jeter was taking this award home on an all too regular basis, but to not give the best defensive short stop the award is robbery.
Hoping the Halos sign Moyer for two bags of Werther’s Originals.
Man, I wish life worked in the same way the GG’s do. It’d be just like Office Space. Don’t show up to work for weeks, be a crappy employee, and they hand you a promotion with as much as six people working under you. I’d have upper management written all over me.