A day late and a dollar short
NL Gold Gloves! I blame Sid Meier.
C: Yadier Molina (TZ: 16, TZ/135: 17, FSR: 19, CS%: 49%)
1B: Albert Pujols (TZ: -2, TZ/135: -2, UZR: 1.5, UZR/150: 1.1, FSR: 8)
2B: Brandon Phillips (TZ: 0, TZ/135: 0, UZR: 9.7, UZR/150: 9.7, FSR: 18)
3B: Scott Rolen (TZ: 3, TZ/135: 3, UZR: 10.6, UZR/150: 12.1, FSR: 14)
SS: Troy Tulowitzki (TZ: 12, TZ/135: 13, UZR: 7.1, UZR/150: 8.1, FSR: 14)
OF: Michael Bourn (TZ: 23, TZ/135: 24, UZR: 17.6, UZR/150: 18.5, FSR: 8)
OF: Carlos Gonzalez (TZ: -2, TZ/135: -2, UZR: -2.7, UZR/150: -3.8, FSR: 10)
OF: Shane Victorino (TZ: 12, TZ/135: 12, UZR: 2.3, UZR/150: 3.3, FSR: 5)
P: Bronson Arroyo (DRS: 6, DRS/135: 33)
This illustrates something that really, really annoys me: see the "OF" selections? They picked two center fielders and a utility outfielder. It drives me completely bullshit that, when it comes to Gold Gloves, people just treat "outfield" as one position. How does that make any sense? The "outfield" is three different positions, guys. The AL Gold Gloves went to one each of those three positions, which was the intelligent thing to do, so I didn’t say anything about it then. But then the Seniors went and messed it all up. Well, in my breakdown, I’m giving out one Gold Glove to each outfield position, and that’s that. As long as I’m revising the history, I may as well revise the process too.
Here goes:
C: Yadier Molina
1B: Ike Davis (TZ: 4, TZ/135: 4, UZR: 10.1, UZR/150: 11.9, FSR: 3)
2B: Chase Utley (TZ: 7, TZ/135: 8, UZR: 10.3, UZR/150: 12.9, FSR: 9)
3B: Chase Headley (TZ: 14, TZ/135: 12, UZR: 16.5, UZR/150: 17.9, FSR: 4)
SS: Brendan Ryan (TZ: 15, TZ/135: 16, UZR: 11.5, UZR/150: 12.1, FSR: 11)
LF: Pat Burrell (TZ: 11, TZ/135: 21, UZR: 4.9, UZR/150: 10.7, FSR: -3)
CF: Michael Bourn
RF: Jay Bruce (TZ: 15, TZ/135: 15, UZR: 20.2, UZR/150: 19, FSR: 9)
P: Jon Garland (DRS: 6, DRS/135: 36)
So, hey, what have we learned today? We’ve learned that nobody played left field in the NL this year — there were like six players who qualified for the batting title at LF. Pat Burrell wasn’t one of them, since he came over from the AL in the summer, but his defense in the 632 innings of LF he did play was worth more to the Giants than pretty much anybody else at the position all year long. I feel a little bit funny about giving a half-time player an award, but, seriously, when he saves more runs in half a year than anybody else does in a full year, maybe that means he deserves it even more, hey?
Basically, left was super confusing this year. It was down to Burrell’s excellent half-year or Matt Holliday, who UZR rates very favourably (8.2 — okay, so maybe "very" is too strong, but you get it) but TZ and FSR are utterly indifferent toward. There were also a few other players who had even less time in left than Burrell but that UZR really, really liked (Gerardo Parra, I’m talking about you), but who barely made a blip on the other two metrics. So, really, it was Burrell or Holliday. I can see a case for either one.
Further research: Burrell is a very odd player. He appears to be absolute ass in the field except for one really good year (this year) and one pretty okay year (2003). Big swings like that make me inclined to be suspicious of fielding metrics — until I remember that Jose Bautista hit 54 home runs this year, which is just five HR shy of his career total through 2009, and that sure doesn’t make me suspicious of the "home runs" metric. Sometimes we have to remember that baseball is an odd game played by real people, I guess, and that random fluctuations can result in a really mediocre player being super good for just one year.
Just ask Brady Anderson!
In non-Burrell news, Carlos Gonzalez clearly has his bat to thank for his Gold Glove. It’s worth noting, I suppose, that his FSR is really good, but both TZ and UZR are negative, as is his DRS. He did, however, make only one error; I wonder if perhaps FSR is biased by "obvious" bad fielding like errors, as opposed to the "hidden costs" of bad fielding — balls a player doesn’t get to, throws that don’t make it on time, and so forth. Things that look like the player did everything right but ultimately cost the team.
FSR is pretty interesting. I’m definitely keen to keep an eye on it; I think it’s suffering from small sample size right now. So feel free to vote on player tools and help a brutha out, hey?
