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

[sarahonlife]

Batting gets factored in somehow, consciously or subconsciously. I mean (and yes, I may be slightly bitter,) how else would Wright get it over Zimmerman?

[arrowintwolakes]

I was rating to my friend the level of shaftedness each deserving player had in the NL gloves and I said that every NL 3B was shafted by Wright getting the glove. Of all NL 3B with 100 or more chances, Wright was 12th of 22 in FP; of the 10 NL 3B with 1000 or more innings, Wright was 6th. Of the 10 with 1000 innings, Wright was 5th in RF.

[mrbaseball127]

This is going to sound like me being a Mets' homer, but Wright blew away the field in "plays out of his zone" at 3rd base. Wright is not the best choice, but he wasn't a horrible choice.

[mrbaseball127]

And more critically, drivingalone is right. Gold Gloves are crap. :P

[arrowintwolakes]

I would put forward that what he has going for him is that he wasn't the worst choice. From almost every point of view, he was a just slightly-above-league average, if durable, fielder this season.

[groovinmahoovin]

He's not so bad in the BP stats though. 106 Rate2, 32 RAR2, 10 RAA2. Obviously that in no way compares to Zimmerman, but I'm generally content when they at least give the gold glove to a decent fielder. Some of the players who ranked above Wright in FP/RF weren't particularly good defensively, like Jose Bautista.

[arrowintwolakes]

Well, I considered all of that in my analysis. A 106 Rate2 isn't bad, per se, but it's not too good either. And the 10 RAA2 (although you and I have discussed the susceptibility of RAA2 before) may be more that he knows his pitching staff. 32 RAR2 is on the good side, but compare Feliz' and Zimmerman's Rate2 and RAR2 respectively: 114, 38; 118, 51. Even on RAA2, Zimmerman just blows Wright away with a 28. Even Chipper Jones fares favorably to Wright; indeed, Chipper's has a career FP and RF of .954 and 2.33 to Wright's 07 .954 and 2.71.