Gold Gloves Are Bunk!

[jodamiller]

Catcher comparison of Martin vs Y. Molina

PlayerGPAttempts% CSInn/SBFld %Martin15412333.315.3.988Molina107305437.4.991

In what areas was Martin better? He did have only 5 passed balls (1 every 250 innings) vs. Molina's 7 (1 every 123 innings), but Martin had a much better pitching staff to work with. On the flip side, Martin's errors were highest in

Comments

[arrowintwolakes]

I don't think you realize how huge a difference 47 games is, especially for a catcher. It's not just that Martin caught more games than Molina, it's that he was 1st in the league in innings caught where Molina was 14th, with a difference of 393.1 innings. A difference of nearly 400 innings is immense.

Even that said, despite the massive difference in innings caught, Martin's and Molina's RAR are almost identical (38 for Molina to Martin's 37), and that's a difference that speaks worlds to Martin.

On the flip side, and to support your argument, RAA2 (the fielding stat that is determined by how a pitching staff pitches) has Molina blowing Martin out of the water with a 21 to Martin's 13.

It's certain that Martin might not have been exactly deserving of the GG, but I don't think Molina necessarily was either. I would put forward that CS% is not a very good indicator for a player with such limited time played. Martin's high RAR and much, much higher RFg trumps his only relatively, only very slightly low FP (a poor indicator of defensive ability anyway).

Molina put together an impressive season defensively especially considering he missed a third of it. But you're selling Molina much too high and selling Martin much too short.

[jodamiller]

There's precedent on the shorter season in voting for a GG catcher. Also, to me, the cather need to block bad pitches and throw out runner. Molina was just so dominate at that and I can't get over the difference between him and Martin. I'm also having to pull out the, most likely, unconscious inclusion of batting stats when people vote on the Gold Glove.

[arrowintwolakes]

That may be so (for reference, please see every GG Jeter has ever won), I'm simply saying that, excluding the stats I mentioned above that prooves Yadi's proficiency with any pitching, even terrible pitching, their numbers are not so distant from one another. If you have two players with very similar defensive numbers, and one played 30% more than the other, should not he receive more regard for his performance? Had Yadi had a full season, he would have had more CS than Martin, sure, but the fact is Martin did have more CS than any other catcher in the NL. His CS/9 may be lower, but you can't say that he didn't throw out his share.