We’re talking about the GOLD GLOVE AWARD.  What third-baseman should be held up as the example of fielding excellence.  Brooks Robinson.  Clete Boyer.

Did Gold Glove voters consider Ozzie Smith’s hitting or base stealing abilities?  To not consider Mr. Felix for a Gold Glove because of his lack of hitting, or because nobody knows him, speaks of big-city / regional media bias.  Perhaps the Gold Gloves should be divided between the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Red Sox!

Games played should be a factor, though it’s not as big a deal as when determining the MVP.  Perhaps it’s like having enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title.  Fielding percentage, range factor, great plays – yes, they all should be considered.  Errors are a valid statistic, certainly not antiquated.

The MLB rulebook concerning Official Scorekeeping addresses errors in section 10.12.  When it comes down to it, it says: “…in the scorer's judgment, the fielder could have handled the ball with ordinary effort, the official scorer shall charge such fielder with an error.”

While there may be minor differences in judgments of official scorers in different cities, those differences are minute.  Review each error?  I trust the scorers…they’ve attended tons of games just to qualify, many more than you or me.  You could review the errors to see how greatly they contributed to the outcome of that game.  The Mets had a losing record in games Wright committed an error.Great plays could be reviewed and tabulated as well.

Players make spectacular plays, but Zimmerman and Wright botched ordinary plays twice as often as Felix, Ramirez, and Jones.  For that reason alone the GOLD GLOVE shouldn’t be given to Zim or Wright.

We’re pulling each other’s chains here.  A bunch of words and pretty pictures aren’t convincing arguments, guys.  I’ve only been watching / studying / loving baseball over all other sports for 45 years, but I don’t know everything.  My oft-mentioned CPA friend is more of a student of the game than me.  He agrees that Wright shouldn’t have won.  Perhaps I can get him to render his opinion.  The last post gave the opinion of a veteran MLB beat-writer (who’s always respected Wright’s hitting), who was similarly perplexed. 

Upon further review, perhaps travesty is a strong word.  Between Zim, Wright, Felix, Ramirez, and Jones, there are numerous arguments and perhaps no clear favorite.  But using any quantifiable measure of fielding, what places Wright first?

I can't believe the Mets David Wright won the Gold Glove. He's known to be a hack in the field, and has often made errors that led to Mets losses. Chipper had another slick-fielding year, despite numerous injuries. Here are some comments from the AJC's David O'Brien, who thought the voters must've taken into account Wright's hitting:

"Wright had the fifth-most errors (21) among NL third baseman, and his .954 fielding percentage was fifth-lowest among NL third baseman, far behind the top three of SF’s Pedro Feliz (.973), Chicago’s Aramis Ramirez (.972) and Chipper (.971), who had nine errors in 126 games at third base.

The managers and coaches do the voting for Gold Gloves, and I told Chipper it wouldn’t be the first time their votes were swayed as much by a player’s hitting totals as his defense. Wright hit .325 with 30 homers and 107 RBIs in 160 games.

“When I find out [Wright won] I was speechless, for quite some time,” Chipper said. “Certainly the guys with the least amount of errors and best fielding percentage quite obviously didn’t win it.”

O'Brien continued: "This afternoon I was going over stats and started comparing. And it made me realize, again, just how potent Chipper’s bat has been whenever he’s been in the lineup the past two seasons.

Consider this: Wright had what was widely hailed as a terrific offensive season, batting .325 with 40 doubles, 1 triple, 30 homers, 113 runs, 107 RBIs, a .416 OBP and a .546 slugging percentage (.962 OPS).

Now consider this: Chipper played 24 fewer games than Wright, and Hoss hit .337 with 42 doubles, 4 triples, 29 homers, 108 runs, 102 RBIs, a .425 OBP and a .604 slugging percentage (1.029 OPS).

Wright killed him in steals (29 to 5), but otherwise Chipper’s numbers are all nearly equal or better than Wright’s, in 24 fewer games."

At least Jeff Francoeur won one. Andruw & Greg Maddux did too...perhaps the voters felt that was enough "Braves."