MLB announces Gold Gloves

By John Mugatu - Posted on November 6th, 2007

MLB announced their Gold Glove Award winners today. In the AL: C Pudge Rodriguez, 1B Kevin Youkilis, 2B Placido Polanco, 3B Adrian Beltre, SS Orlando Cabrera, OF Torii Hunter, Grady Sizemore, Ichiro Suzuki, P Johan Santana; In the NL: C Russell Martin, 1B Derrek Lee, 2B Orlando Hudson, 3B David Wright, SS Jimmy Rollins, OF Aaron Rowand, Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran, Jeff Francoeur, P Greg Maddux.

(Do you think that Pudge, Hunter, Ichiro, Jones, Beltran & Maddux even care about this award anymore? They all win it every year. They probably have boxes off these oversized gloves stashed away in their attic somewhere. Who has room to display all these ... oh, right, filthy-rich ballplayers with trophy rooms.)

Based on the ever-growing fielding statistics that are available, this year's winners were all deserving and I doubt there can be much argument in the AL. However, the NL infield is littered with poor choices, starting with the dubious choice of Derrek Lee over Todd Helton for the NL 1st baseman award. The other infield positions weren't as glaringly incorrect as choosing Lee over Helton, but I can pick 2 NL regulars who had better defensive seasons than the winners: at 2B, Brandon Phillips & Freddy Sanchez; at SS, Troy Tulowitzki & Omar Vizquel; and at 3B: Ryan Zimmerman & Garrett Atkins. Check out the stats, and don't just look at the error totals that some voters tend to do. Fielding percentage, Range Factor & Zone Rating are all available right on ESPN.com, and they speak for themselves.

The AL is loaded with defensive outfielders, so fantastic defensive outfielders like Coco Crisp, Melky Cabrera & Curtis Granderson (all of whom did not win awards) cannot be considered snubs because Hunter, Sizemore & Suzuki are extremely worthy recipients. One odd item of note is that 4 NL Outfielders won the award (Rowand, Jones, Beltran & Francoeur) so there must have been a tie in the voting. Congrats to Youk & Placido, each of whom had flawless seasons at their respective infield positions, no small task (with a little help from a scorekeeper here and there, but zero errors is still zero errors).

And even though I feel others were more worthy, winning this award still means that Wright is near the top as a defensive 3rd baseman, so hopefully with Wright winning the NL 3rd baseman Gold Glove, this will quell the ridiculous A-Rod to the Mets rumors, unless said rumors include A-Rod agreeing to switch positions (again, like 1st, 2nd or the OF). There is no room for A-Rod in Queens, as Wright & Jose Reyes should lock down the left side of that infield for the next 10 years, and there is no reason to consider either of them to switch positions (as it had been previously speculated that Reyes or Wright could move to 2nd or the OF to accommodate the Prima Donna). Although that is upsetting because I would revel in the opportunity to refer to him as the Queen of Queens for the rest of his career.

John Mugatu's blog • Add new comment

Haha.. Queen of Queens. I

Submitted by DJ on Tue, 11/06/2007 - 22:41.

Haha.. Queen of Queens. I think I just became an "A-Rod to the Mets" fan! I would love to hear him called Queen of Queens just one time to his face. Oh how wonderful that would be.

MLB announces Gold Gloves

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