The Count: The Ultimate Gold Glove Snub from WSJ--NOT JETER

Sure to piss off Lester...

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By Carl Bialik

Seattle Mariners centerfielder Franklin Gutierrez was, by a wide margin, the best fielder in the major leagues according to ultimate zone rating. He tied for the major-league lead in runs saved, which like UZR is based on actual data about batted balls. He won a fan ballot for best fielding at his position, the Fielding Bible award for centerfielders — based on a poll of leading baseball analysts — and the nickname Death to Flying Things from Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus. And despite not playing full seasons in 2007 and 2008, he was the second-best fielder at any position over the last three years, according to UZR.

And yet when the Gold Glove awards were announced earlier this week, Gutierrez was snubbed, as were the other top five fielders from 2007-2009, except Ryan Zimmerman. Gutierrez’s teammate Ichiro Suzuki — by all measures a fine outfielder, but not in Gutierrez’s class this year — won one of the AL outfield awards. Former Mariner Adam Jones — by several measures below average with his glove — took another. So did Torii Hunter, who by now appears to be coasting on reputation when it comes to fielding.

Sabermetrically-minded writers are outraged. Michael Jong called it “heinous” at Beyond the Boxscore. Joe Posnanski saw “a huge blight on this year’s Gold Glove award.” Voters “just flat blew it,” ESPN’s Rob Neyer writes. And Dave Cameron and Tim Marchman, both occasional Journal contributors, questioned the whole enterprise on their blogs, called the Gold Gloves “as meaningful as the teen choice awards” and deserving of “the deference a film watcher pays the Academy Awards,” respectively.

No wonder Tom Tango discovered that “hardcore fans are just as likely to believe in Santa Claus as they are to believe in the Rawlings Gold Glove, so says an unscientific but obviously more than accurate poll conducted at The Blog for Inside The Book dot com.”

Perhaps then we should listen to what hardcore fans had to say about the remaining, unannounced awards. The Internet Baseball Awards in the AL and NL tend to go to deserving candidates, such as Joe Mauer and Zack Greinke, in landslides.

Meanwhile, for awards that only exist online, check accounts from Max Marchi and Eric Seidman about the best and worst batters when it comes to not chasing bad pitches.

* The Count