The Jones Gold Glove thing
DMZ · November 9, 2009 at 7:28 am · Filed Under Mariners
So supposedly Adam Jones’ brother leaked that Jones won a Gold Glove. This is already being reported as coming over Franklin Gutierrez and a grave injustice and so forth… but it’s not, not yet, and I’m not sure why everyone’s jumping on this.
There are three Gold Gloves given in each league for outfielders, and they’re not position-divided. Jones could well win as well as Gutierrez. Just look at the last few years of AL voting, when we’ve seen two and even three center fielders win in a year (Hunter, Sizemore, Ichirio!)(and Vernon Wells).
Also, I don’t see why we should really get worked up about this if it’s true. It’s like bemoaning the Oscars, or NBA officiating. The surprise would be if the Gold Glove voting made sense for once.
I remember thinking in 98 that Segui should’ve gotten the GG for awesome defense that made not only himself look good, but made Cora not look as bad. That year, Rafael Palmeiro (playing for Baltimore, like Jones) won it…
Ever since, I’ve learned not to care too much about GGs. Gutz deserves one, but if he doesn’t get it, yeah, who cares?
I suppose if I am a player I would care.
It’s some more hardware to add to your collection and come contract time, a nice chip to have in your backpocket.
at least Adam (if true) has a bit more right to it than Raffy, that year. Didn’t he play something like 28 games in the field that season?
I normally wouldn’t be bothered as gold glove snubs are to be expected. But, Gutierrez’s defensive season was one for the ages wasn’t it?
Aside from that, it would just be one more case of rubbing salt in the wounds I suppose.
If you’re looking for injustice in the ’98 awards, I’d like to point out that Jose Canseco (.237/.318/.518) took home the Silver Slugger at DH.
If memory serves, the DH in Seattle was halfway decent that year (.322/.429/.565).
Apparently, seventeen extra home runs (46 to 29) are worth more than eighty-five points of BA and a hundred-fifty of OPS.
Speaking of a certain DH, the bigger looming injustice is one that matters a bit more than the Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers. Joe Posnanski has a nice piece touching on the subject.
Is it against the rules to have Gold Glove bonuses included in contracts?
[ot]
I would guess, mostly, because the combination of politics, crime, and a much-despised former Mariner would make it a little too easy for things to go awry. So rather than debate it, just everyone read it.
Seems silly, but thanks very much for posting the link.
What about Hall of Fame voting?
It would be nice if there was some sort of correlation between gold gloves and something like UZR.
But there’s not.
Instead, there’s probably a correlation between gold gloves and batting average, and gold gloves and how many years a player has won it before.
Quick, someone check Luke Greinke’s myspace or facebook.
Read Larry Stone on the subject of GG voting
C’mon, among former/current M’s outfielders, neither Gutierrez or Jones is as qualified for a Gold Glove as Raul Ibanez.
Of course I’m not talking about the supposed qualifications, but rather the real-life performance that evidentially get a player a Gold Glove: being the player with the best batting line for a position who embarrasses himself the least in the field.
Either/or, neither/nor.
Some days I think American grammar might cause me to kill myself.
I’m fine with Gutierrez not winning. I’d rather have no one else understand how good he is, and the Mariners keep him forever! He can be underappreciated like Mike Cameron, and these Mariners will hold onto him.
No, it’s not against the rules. Oddly enough, even jr had the clause written into his ’09 contract. (I laughed long and loud when I read that)
Cots doesn’t show that Guti has that in his contract though. So if he gets one, it’s all pride.
Bill James had a good article (I think it may be in Palmeiro’s entry in the Historical Baseball Abstract, 2nd edition) about how poorly designed the Gold Glove voting system is. Gold Gloves are nice pieces of hardware, but a lot of shortstops won them with their bats and the statistical correlation between any reasonable approximation of fielding quality and Gold Glove awards is minimal.