The Envelope, Please: Gold Glove Winners Announced
Your 2011 Gold Glove winners are:
AL
C - Matt Wieters
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Dustin Pedroia
SS - Erick Aybar
3B - Adrian Beltre
LF - Alex Gordon
CF - Jacoby Ellsbury
RF - Nick Markakis
P - Mark Buehrle
NL
C - Yadier Molina
1B - Joey Votto
2B - Brandon Phillips
SS - Troy Tulowitzki
3B - Placido Polanco
LF - Gerardo Parra
CF - Matt Kemp
RF - Andre Ethier
P - Clayton Kershaw
My predictions from this post were pretty close. I missed in the outfield in the NL (I had Chris Young over Kemp and Jay Bruce over Ethier. I mentioned my disdain for picking corner outfielders over center fielders so Bruce... it is what it is but Kemp would have actually been my third pick behind Young and the incumbent, Shane Victorino in CF) and I also missed at 1B, SS and LF in the AL. I'll admit that Adrian Gonzalez and Teixiera was a pick 'em for me so I'm ok with that selection but I stand by J.J. Hardy over Erick Aybar... Aybar was better at turning the double play but all other defensive metrics point towards J.J. Hardy including a UZR that was almost 10 points higher, half as many errors and a slightly better range factor. Hardy did play in 13 fewer games so I guess that hurt his candidacy but I'd still take him. I'm also more than a little bit surprised that Alex Gordon won the award over Brett Gardner, who was clearly the best defender in the bunch. Don't get me wrong, Gordon had a phenomenal season, especially considering the fact that he was playing a new position and his 20 assists are certainly impressive and make him a worthy recipient, but if you asked all thirty GM's who they would rather have playing defense in the outfield, Gardner would likely earn all thirty votes. In fact, his 31 UZR is the highest of any player at any position... arguably the fastest player in baseball, he gets to balls that others don't and, unfortunately, he was passed up.
As for the event itself, I think that ESPN has to be a little bit upset with the way things panned out. Slated to start at 10:00, the show started 45 minutes late due to a Toledo-Northern Illinois football game that featured 123 combined total points and 1,165 combined total yards (and zero defense). The hour long show was a bore but I'm saying that's par for the course; lengthy awards shows must generate better ratings than late night reruns, otherwise they would get the hint that we deserve better. And truth be told, John Kruk probably wouldn't be my first pick to sit on a panel dedicated to discussing position defense but I guess Ozzie Smith wasn't available.
My $0.02... tell us what you think.
AL
C - Matt Wieters
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Dustin Pedroia
SS - Erick Aybar
3B - Adrian Beltre
LF - Alex Gordon
CF - Jacoby Ellsbury
RF - Nick Markakis
P - Mark Buehrle
NL
C - Yadier Molina
1B - Joey Votto
2B - Brandon Phillips
SS - Troy Tulowitzki
3B - Placido Polanco
LF - Gerardo Parra
CF - Matt Kemp
RF - Andre Ethier
P - Clayton Kershaw
My predictions from this post were pretty close. I missed in the outfield in the NL (I had Chris Young over Kemp and Jay Bruce over Ethier. I mentioned my disdain for picking corner outfielders over center fielders so Bruce... it is what it is but Kemp would have actually been my third pick behind Young and the incumbent, Shane Victorino in CF) and I also missed at 1B, SS and LF in the AL. I'll admit that Adrian Gonzalez and Teixiera was a pick 'em for me so I'm ok with that selection but I stand by J.J. Hardy over Erick Aybar... Aybar was better at turning the double play but all other defensive metrics point towards J.J. Hardy including a UZR that was almost 10 points higher, half as many errors and a slightly better range factor. Hardy did play in 13 fewer games so I guess that hurt his candidacy but I'd still take him. I'm also more than a little bit surprised that Alex Gordon won the award over Brett Gardner, who was clearly the best defender in the bunch. Don't get me wrong, Gordon had a phenomenal season, especially considering the fact that he was playing a new position and his 20 assists are certainly impressive and make him a worthy recipient, but if you asked all thirty GM's who they would rather have playing defense in the outfield, Gardner would likely earn all thirty votes. In fact, his 31 UZR is the highest of any player at any position... arguably the fastest player in baseball, he gets to balls that others don't and, unfortunately, he was passed up.
As for the event itself, I think that ESPN has to be a little bit upset with the way things panned out. Slated to start at 10:00, the show started 45 minutes late due to a Toledo-Northern Illinois football game that featured 123 combined total points and 1,165 combined total yards (and zero defense). The hour long show was a bore but I'm saying that's par for the course; lengthy awards shows must generate better ratings than late night reruns, otherwise they would get the hint that we deserve better. And truth be told, John Kruk probably wouldn't be my first pick to sit on a panel dedicated to discussing position defense but I guess Ozzie Smith wasn't available.
My $0.02... tell us what you think.
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