[MVB]

Wow, panicked there for a minute... I couldn't find the baseball forum. I ended up having to scroll all the way down the page to get at these forums. Way too much work...

Anywho, the American League Gold Glove award winners were announced almost an hour ago.

Pitcher: Kenny Rogers ( 5th Gold Glove)
Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez (12th Gold Glove)
1B- Mark Teixeira ( 2nd Gold Glove)
2B- Mark Grudzielanek ( 1st Gold Glove)
SS- Derek Jeter ( 3rd Gold Glove)
3B- Eric Chavez ( 6th Gold Glove)
OF- Vernon Wells ( 3rd Gold Glove)
OF- Ichiro Suzuki ( 6th Gold Glove)
OF- Torii Hunter ( 6th Gold Glove)

So, what do you all think of the choices? Almost ( with the exception of Rodriguez and Grudzielanek) the same as last year...

I only have a problem with two of the winners. The second base award belonged to Mark Ellis, and *sigh* the shortstop award belonged to Michael Young ( or Alex Gonzalez). Jeter's great and all, but he's not the best defensive shortstop in the league.

[MVB]

I went ahead and did some research on American League shortstops and this is what I came up with:

This year, I think the competition was very tough, and there were several players who could have walked away with this award.

My top 5:
__________________________________________________ __________________
1. Michael Young ( .981 fielding percentage, 747 total chances, 14 errors)
2. Johnny Peralta ( .977 fielding percentage, 710 total chances, 16 errors)
3. Derek Jeter ( .975 fielding percentage, 610 total chances, 15 errors)
4. Alex Gonzalez ( .985 fielding percentage, 475 total chances, 7 errors)
5. Juan Uribe ( .977 fielding percentage, 604 total chances, 14 errors)
__________________________________________________ __________

While Alex Gonzalez had the best fielding percentage and made the fewest errors, he also had the fewest opportunities to mess up. Juan Uribe has the fewest innings played in the field and the fewest assists.

The top three are actually pretty close. Each committed 14 or more errors (Young made the fewest), each had a fielding percentage of .975 or better (Young had the highest), each played 1,275 or more innings in the field (Young played the most), each had 380 assists or more ( Young collected the most), and each turned at least 80 double plays ( Young turned the most). See a pattern here?

Michael Young deserved this award, but Jeter is the more popular player among managers and coaches. Jeter also makes the highlight reel plays and the clutch defensive plays. I think that is the reason why he continues to collect the Gold Glove awards while other shortstops play better all-around defense.

[EmpireWF]

Eric Chavez probably deserved it more than any other third baseman this year, he was outstanding. And he never let his poor offensive numbers effect him in the field.

I guess people will knock Jeter's selection, but I'm not really going to diss Michael Young that much. He hasn't gotten a lot of PR since he's playing in Texas and the last few years, he's been one of the more consistant players in the AL.

Didn't Torii Hunter miss a good portion of the year due to injury?