Yadi screwed again

[Astros]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Miklasz says it better than I could. This is 2 years in a row that Yadi's been screwed out of a Gold Glove when he's a consensus best defensive catcher in baseball. This is getting as bad as Pujols getting screwed out of the MVP in 04 and 06

News: The LA Dodgersí Russell Martin wins the 2007 Gold Glove as the NLís best defensive catcher in a vote of the leagueís managers and coaches.

Martin beat out the Cardinalsí Yadier Molina.

Views: This is incomprehensible.

This is one of the dumbest results in the history of Gold Glove voting, and it makes you wonder if managers and coaches actually pay attention to the games theyíre involved in.

ìI was floored,î said Joe Sheehan of The Baseball Prospectus, who was a guest Tuesday on our 1380-AM radio show. ìWe can nitpick some of the other Gold Glove choices, but this one isnít even a debate. Yadier Molina is the best defensive catcher in Major League Baseball.î

Among NL catchers, Martin had the most errors (14). According to STATS LLC, Martin threw out only 28.7 percent of those who attempted to steal bases against him. That was only the fourth-best rate in the NL, and ninth-best rate in MLB among full-time catchers.

As for Molina: he led all MLB catchers in nailing base stealers, throwing out 23 of the 46 who challenged him (50 percent). He also led NL catchers in putouts per nine innings.

That only 46 steals were attempted on Molina tells us everything we need to know. Teams fear Molinaís arm. Theyíre very reluctant to run on him.

When Molina wasnít catching for the Cardinals in 2007, teams ripped off 30 steals in 35 attempts. That demonstrates, in a profound way, the difference that Molina makes defensively.

Fear of getting caught isnít in play with Martin. Teams tried to steal on him 115 times in 2007 ñ though I should point out that Martin caught 1,254 innings compared to Molinaís 861. But Molina caught enough to qualify for all defensive ratings. And when teams succeed at stealing 71.3 percent of the time against a catcher, as they did versus Martin in 2007, shouldnít that count heavily against him?

Hereís whatís particularly crazy about this: if managers and coaches are afraid to run on Molina, then why donít they vote for him? If you respect a catcher so much that you shut down your running game because of him, then doesnít he deserve your vote? It makes no sense.

Molina also got screwed out of the Gold Glove in 2006, when it went to Houstonís Brad Ausmus ñ even though Ausmus threw out only 12 of 72 base stealers.

So why did this happen again?

Theories:

Try as they might to avoid doing this, some of these baseball men simply attach a catcherís offensive value to the thought process when contemplating their Gold Glove choice. Martin batted .293 with 19 homers and 87 RBIs last season. (That does not explain, however, why Ausmus won it in 2006).

Molinaís case was damaged by a stint on the disabled list (fractured wrist) in late May, then was shut down in late September because of a knee injury. Martin caught in 145 games; Molina only 107. If a manager/coach was adamant about factoring in playing time and durability in the voting, I can see some logic there. But that doesnít change the reality that NL managers altered their style of play when facing Molina, and he did play in more than 100 games.

The Cardinals finished 11th in the NL in ERA (4.65). Do the voters hold that against a catcher? It shouldnít. Molinaís catcher ERA (4.29) was lower than the Cardinalsí overall ERA, so he obviously wasnít the issue. And that Molina ERA wasnít much higher than Martinís catcher ERA (3.95). Obviously, with Brad Penny, Derek Lowe and Chad Billingsley making 85 starts for the Dodgers, Martin had better guys to work with.

Molina is well on his way to having one of the greatest defensive careers in MLB history.

His career throw-out rate of 47.1 would be the best in major-league history since STATS began keeping track of the statistic.

And heís yet to win a Gold Glove award.

That tells you more about the flaws in the process, and in the minds of the voters, than any weakness in Molinaís defensive game.

It seems that the only thing these guys can steal on Molina is the Gold Glove award

[Royals]

The dumbest result in GG voting is and will remain, Rafael Palmeiro.
Anyone who thinks GG voting means anything though is a complete retard.

[Orioles]

Agreed. The Palmeiro thing ruined any shred of legitimacy the GG still had. Still, I like to complain about it every year. Like how they gave the NL SS award to Rollins and not to Tulo (probably just to give Rollins some kind of hardware since he had a great year but won't win MVP). Rollins is no slouch, but Tulo was head and shoulders above everybody else this year defensively. Besides leading the majors in SS fielding percentage, the defensive stats I've seen had him way ahead of everyone else in terms of range (particularly as far as balls fielded out of the SS's zone). Also, you can't really ever quibble with giving Torii Hunter a GG in the OF, but Coco Crisp put on an unexpected and very impressive display of defensive skill in a tough CF in Boston. He showed a pretty amazing ability to track down balls that seemed impossible to get to, time his dives perfectly and come up with the highlight-reel catch most of the time. Of course, this award for defense is rarely given out based on actual defensive performance. It seems almost like another way to reward good offensive players. Usually they're at least above average defensively so it's not totally ridiculous, but there's the Palmeiro thing, and Jeter winning at SS, which both make me think actual defensive prowess isn't required to win the GG.

[Royals]

Yeah, I considered kvetching about Crisp because he was just spectacular... but really, these guys don't seem to have a clue when they vote for these awards. Of all the awards, it's probably the most meaningless, IMO.

[Giants]

As good as Crisp was I think if you get benched during the World Series for a rookie you automatically get disqualified for postseason awards.

[Orioles]

As good as Crisp was I think if you get benched during the World Series for a rookie you automatically get disqualified for postseason awards.

That was about hitting. This award is about defense (and Coco came in defensively in the postseason w/ Ellsbury shifting to LF for Manny). Coco was the rare everyday CF this year that routinely made spectacular catches that were almost never unnecessarily spectacular. He gets good jumps, and still makes a ton of catches that leave you amazed that he got there in time.

[Royals]

Nice to see an OFer that doesn't leave their fet unless they have to. There are a lot of OFers out there that make plays that leave you wondering "Did he really have to dive for that?" because they want to make the highlight reels (Jim Edmonds springs to mind). Maybe Crisp should have made more unnecessary dives and slides... then he might have gotten the GG he deserved.