And now: National League gold gloves!
You know the drill. The winners are:
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, SDP (11 FRAA, 3.8 UZR)
2B: Orlando Hudson, LAD (16 FRAA, -3.3 UZR)
SS: Jimmy Rollins, PHI (-6 FRAA, 2.7 UZR)
3B: Ryan Zimmerman, WAS (6 FRAA, 18.1 UZR)
OF: Shane Victorino, PHI (-5 FRAA, -4.1 UZR)
OF: Matt Kemp, LAD (10 FRAA, 2.6 UZR)
OF: Michael Bourn, HOU (4 FRAA, 8.6 UZR)
C: Yadier Molina, STL (16 FRAA)
P: Adam Wainwright, STL (-2 FRAA)
This is a little confusing, because there are a few cases — Hudson most prominently — where FRAA and UZR totally diverge. What can you do? Fielding metrics are still very young. This is why we look at several and try to iron the kinks out. More reliable than just eyeballing the dude’s, like, jersey to see if it’s really grass-stained from diving catches. Anyhow, the moment you’ve been waiting for; the should-be winners:
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, SDP (11 FRAA, 3.8 UZR)
2B: Chase Utley, PHI (10 FRAA, 10.8 UZR)
SS: Rafael Furcal, LAD (11 FRAA, 8 UZR)
3B: Ryan Zimmerman, WAS (6 FRAA, 18.1 UZR)
OF: Nyjer Morgan, WAS (22 FRAA, 27.8 UZR)
OF: Randy Winn, SFG (13 FRAA, 16.5 UZR)
OF: Justin Upton, ARI (9 FRAA, 7.4 UZR)
C: Yadier Molina, STL (16 FRAA)
P: Ubaldo Jimenez, COL (6 FRAA)
Jimenez is in a dead heat with Ryan Dumpster in FRAA, so I looked at other stats to break the tie, and found that Jimenez is ahead in RF/G, RF/9, and even stupid smelly Fielding Percentage. So I gave the nod to him. Third outfielder was also kind of a wash among a few qualified candidates — only Morgan and Winn really stood out from the pack. I picked Utley over Hudson at 2B because Utley’s rated as very good by both composite metrics, and they give me wildly different answers on Hudson, even though Hudson’s good metric is rated much better than Utley’s.
Anyhow, the point is: Furcal, Morgan, and Winn were very thoroughly robbed by the BBWAA idiots, who would rather look at jersey dirt than soil their eyes with numbers. Numbers aren’t that scary, guys; I mean, it didn’t take me very long to find the answers to these questions, and I’m a certified moron who doesn’t even get paid to do this. You think maybe you stooges could give research a shot someday?
