Lesser Awards

IMAGE: LITLNEMO FROM FLICKR

I love David Wright as much as any other Met fan. He's a great guy, a great player, and a solid ambassador for this team. He also makes the occasional dazzling play at third base, but he is nowhere near deserving of the Gold Glove, an award that has become just laughable. There were 8 third basemen in the National League last year with higher fielding percentages, 7 with a higher range factor, and 6 with a higher zone rating. These, in my opinion, being the most telling yet accessible fielding statistics, Wright got real lucky, and won the award on popularity. The award has become a joke. Derek Jeter had won three in a row before this year, and he is the epitome of a slightly above average SS. There is a profound laziness apparently involved in the voting process these days; sometimes it appears that if there is no blatant choice at any given position, or an annual lock, a la Greg Maddux, the voters don't bother to research; they just pick the most popular guy with the biggest bat who isn't known for being a bad defensive player. For the love of God, the Colorado Rockies set Major League record for team FP, and didn't manage a single Gold Glove. Sorry, J-Roll, but Troy Tulowitzki was far and away the best defensive SS in baseball this year, not just the NL. The award needs a reworking, or needs to be eliminated otherwise, because when it becomes an offensive award, or some offensive prowess is a requirement, it is a useless thing. Mark Belanger of the '70s Orioles hit .228 with 20 total HR over an 18-year career and won a mountain of Gold Gloves. In this day and age, that just wouldn't happen. Maybe there needs to be a BCS type computer that determines Gold Gloves.

I guess congrats to Wright anyway, and more so to Carlos Beltran, who deserved his, and congrats to both of them for the Silver Sluggers, which they both deserved.

And despite my agreement with his overall point, it's not his place, and Larry Jones can shut his mouth. Credit to Metsblog for providing me with that story/link.