skyking162

This might surprise you, but I’m not going to get all worked up about the injustice involved with this year’s Gold Glove winners. I’ve come to expect this ridiculousness.

Therefore I’ll keep the snarky comments to a minimum and just rank the award choices from best to worst, based on the difference in fielding runs between the actual winner and should-be winner. Pitchers and catchers are excluded for lack of an objective measure I’m confident in. And these ratings don’t include throwing arm or double-play ability, which are both important yet tough to measure.

Nailed It

• NL OF - Andruw Jones: He’s still good, coming in as the top NL outfielder.
• NL OF - Carlos Beltran: Right on. He was nipping at Jones’ heals this year.
• AL OF - Ichiro Suzuki: He was the second best outfielder in the AL behind Curtis Granderson, who didn’t win a Gold Glove for being seven runs better than any other center fielder in the majors.

In The Ballpark

• AL 1B - Kevin Youkilis: His seven fielding runs were six behind Casey Kotchman. Probably some hitting and team bias here.
• NL OF - Aaron Rowand: He’s a bit above average, but the best of the non-Andruw, non-Beltran choices would have been Juan Pierre or Jacque Jones, both about seven runs better.
• AL 3B - Adrian Beltre: Beltre’s overall value is a bit underrated, so I won’t harp on him. But Brandon Inge and Joe Crede were both 10 runs better.
• AL OF - Grady Sizemore: While there’s certainly reason not to put total faith in the zone-rating metrics in center field, Coco Crisp rated ten runs better than Sizemore. Did I mention that Granderson was light-years beyond either of them?

Let’s Try That Again

• NL 3B - David Wright: This one is just weird. Wright’s reputation is that of a mediocre fielder, but he was actually very good in 2007, 14 runs better than average. But Pedro Feliz was unbelievable at +28 runs. Any team looking for a shortstop should consider him. Ryan Zimmerman and Scott Rolen were also at or slightly above Wright’s level.
• AL 2B - Placido Polanco: Yeah, yeah, Polanco had an amazing seven-year errorless streak. But Mark Ellis had only five and showed better range. Ellis was +20 runs while Polanco was +6.
• NL OF - Jeff Francoeur: Sure, he’s good for a right fielder, but the difference between right and center is about ten runs. Without giving him credit for his arm, Francoeur falls a dozen runs short of the NL’s top three outfielders.
• AL OF - Torii Hunter: Here’s another reason Hunter’s a poor free agent signing — his defense has slipped to below league average. After giving Granderson and Crisp their due, Joey Gathright and Johnny Damon are the next in line. Really.
• NL 2B - Orlanda Hudson: He won based on reputation. Chase Utley was the best, 15 runs better than Hudson.
• AL SS - Orlanda Cabrera: Cabrera was average, while John McDonald was +15 runs in two-thirds of a season. At least Jeter’s -24 runs didn’t win again.

Might As Well Give It To Rafael Palmeiro

• NL 1B - Derrek Lee: He was merely a league-average first baseman in 2007, while Albert Pujols was 24 runs better. When in doubt, go with last year’s winner, right? Todd Helton merits a mention at 15 runs, on par with the best AL 1Bs.
• NL SS - Jimmy Rollins: Not only was Rollins 3 runs worse than average, there were a number of very good NL shortstops that managers could have accidentally written down. Troy Tulowitzky was +22, Omar Vizquel was +19, and even Jose Reyes was +15. Forget Scott Boras, I want Jimmy Rollins’ agent.

Speaking of Rafael Palmeiro, you might enjoy this post from a month ago, where I run through the best fielders at each position 2007 with a minimum of only 28 games fielded — the same number Palmeiro had when he won the Gold Glove at first base in 1999.

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