Comments on: ESPN’s PR people gave away the Gold Glove winners in advance

By: firedude7160

firedude7160 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:37:58 +0000

I believe they actually own the rights to the gold glove brand. They regularly promote (or at least used to regularly promote) themselves as “The gold Glove People”

They also make an entire “Gold Glove” line of baseball gloves
http://www.rawlingsgear.com/baseball/baseball-gloves/?Series=3061&s3=homeLeft

By: heynerdlinger

heynerdlinger — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:03:21 +0000

Yep, and Mantle didn’t even play in any of the final five games that season either. Williams could have gone hitless in his last 8 games and still beat out Mantle at the end.

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:38:58 +0000

Damnit, last time I trust those guys from BP without checking.

/cry

By: evanhartford

evanhartford — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:28:26 +0000

Nice try Church. Williams had BA locked up when he sat those last two at bats. Had he gone 2-4 (instead of 2-2) he still would have won the batting title by a mile…

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:57:26 +0000

Meanwhile, Reyes tainted to the batting title

Can we stop saying this? Even Ted Williams did this once*. It’s not like Reyes walked off the field after slaughtering a basket of kittens.

*http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS195709290.shtml

By: evanhartford

evanhartford — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:48:53 +0000

Well I would think the Triple Crown would be more flawed becasue of the RBIs but the reason I think its “ok” is because:

A) Its not subjective
B) You can’t really argue that a Triple Crown Winner wasn’t the among the best all around hitters (if not the best) in any given year.

The World Series Title is also not subjective and it takes a large sample size to have a chance at winning it.

By: sparkycon

sparkycon — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:41:57 +0000

Ted, thanks. While I agree with your statement, I also am unsure that sportswriters are qualified either. I certainly don’t think they should vote in players to the HOF. They are biased, hold grudges, etc….

By: brucewaynewins

brucewaynewins — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:13:07 +0000

Does Rawling simply sponsor this or do they actually own the rights to the Gold Gloves?

By: brucewaynewins

brucewaynewins — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:12:12 +0000

I wonder if they’ll do the same thing for the Silver Slugger awards?

By: brucewaynewins

brucewaynewins — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:11:13 +0000

Personally (and I’m sure I’m a minority here) I feel like the Gold Gloves did a better job of getting things right than usual this year.

By: umrguy42

umrguy42 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:32:47 +0000

Triple Crown involves Batting Average, so no joy there. And you’ve obviously missed the arguments that the World Series only is about who can excel in three short series (problems of small sample size). :p

By: professorperry

professorperry — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:21:20 +0000

If Shane wants to a win a gold glove for his fielding prowess, he better hit more HRs.

By: professorperry

professorperry — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:12:07 +0000

Then you missed an epic HBT thread, filled with trolls and thugs, the outraged defenders of Jeter’s honor, and the grand conspiracy in which the Fielding Bible is personally responsible for the decline of western civilization.

By: hep3

hep3 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:10:18 +0000

Kemp won because he had a better offensive year. It routinely happens with the Gold Gloves. It shouldn’t, but it does.

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:07:36 +0000

I think he’s referring to Shane Victorino. While I’m not sure the Hawaiin was necessarily the best NL CF, he was absolutely better than Matt Kemp, as was at least half the league.

By: evanhartford

evanhartford — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:04:08 +0000

Craig, I get that the Gold Glove award is hopeless flawed, but is there any baseball award nowadays that ISN’T hopelessly flawed? I mean, the All Star game is a popularity contest. The HOF voters are on a witch hunt. The MVP has more to do with the team than the player. I suppose the Cy Young is probably one of the least flawed awards, but its still pretty contraversial to most Sabermeticians because the voters tend to favor wins. Meanwhile, Reyes tainted to the batting title and sabermeticians would frown on an award for best batting average. I guess the only awards that aren’t hopelessly flawed are the World Series Title and the Triple Crown.

By: halladaysbiceps

halladaysbiceps — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:59:03 +0000

Who are you referring to? Kind of vague.

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:54:14 +0000

@ sparkycon: C C is saying they are not the best judge, and I agree. Day in and day out, players have no clue as to what is happening on 30 other teams. They know other players mainly by reputation, not by personal observation (except for what they see when they play a particular team). Let the people who actually watch and study the players decide.

By: eaglebobby

eaglebobby — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:52:19 +0000

I don’t understand how a guy who plays on the same team as one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, let alone the NL–who’s committed ZERO errors–doesn’t get a gold glove. But the guy who wins it has 5 errors, and more chances, because his team’s pitching staff is not as good and hence he got more chances.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:45:07 +0000

Wow, sorry about that Bruce! Since I didn’t write that post I didn’t see the comments to it, so I totally missed it. I’m going to update the post to note your good catch.

By: sparkycon

sparkycon — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:39:17 +0000

I’m sorry maybe because there is no sarcasm font I am missing something Craig but are you saying that the players and managers are not a good judge? Who is a better judge, a writer or blogqger who has never played the game? (sarcasm font) Yeah that makes sense.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:36:16 +0000

While I trust the Fielding Bible awards more than the Golden Gloves, it is kinda lame that they only choose one winner per position. That certainly makes the choices easier, with considerable less controversy. When you choose one for each league, you subject yourself to more scrutiny. Maybe next year somebody other than Peter Gammons. Albert Pujols the eighth best 1B?, Brendan Ryan not in the top 10 defensive SS? What gives Pete?

By: brucewaynewins

brucewaynewins — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:25:48 +0000

brucewaynewins – Nov 1, 2011 at 11:07 AM
Hopefully someone notices this but if you look at the Gold Glove Finalists list the first name in every category in a smaller font. Most of the names I looked at seem as if they’d be the likely person to win “assuming” the award goes to the best fielder and not just the biggest name. I know that’s not how it works but it’d be odd if they accidently gave away the winners.

So if thats the case … spoiler alert

Golden Glove Winners are:

Pitchers: Mark Buehrle, CWS and Clayton Kershaw, LAD
Catchers : Matt Wieters, BAL and Yadier Molina, STL
1B : Adrian Gonzalez, BOS and Joey Votto, CIN
2B: Dustin Pedroia , BOS and Brandon Phillips, CIN
3B: Adrian Beltre, TEX and Placido Polanco, PHI
SS: Erick Aybar, LAA and Troy Tulowitzki, COL
LF: Alex Gordon, KC and Gerardo Parra, ARI (eh)
CF: Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS and Matt Kemp, LAD
RF: Nick Markakis, BAL and Andre Ethier, LAD

4 1

By: brucewaynewins

brucewaynewins — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:24:22 +0000

Hey I pointed this out yesterday at 11 am in the fielding bible awards post.