Outshined_One

In fairness, Indiana has held their own in the conference this year. They're not a great team, but their passing game is good enough to give opposing secondaries fits.

11/11 LF Flaherty 0/4, BB, 2 K DH Vitters 1/4, R, 2 K 11/12 LF Flaherty 1/3, BB, RBI RP Cales 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Again, why did it "most confuse" you? Some of you are acting like Adolfo won the award or something. Gonzalez is a very good outfielder with a very good arm. No doubt his bat helped him, but I just don't see why it is so curious or why it is causing confusion that he won. the defensive metrics do not support the idea that he was very good or even above-average in the OF this year, which is a more objective analysis than your statement of him being "pretty badass" How snarky of you. He looked very good to me, that's all I'm saying. Sorry if that's not as objective as FRAR or RF or whatever it is you are using, but it is what it is. It's unlikely that many voters for GG pay attention to metrics, so I don't see why it is confusing that a guy who (at least on the surface) played solid defense, made a bunch of flashy plays, and hit the [expletive] out of the ball this season gets a gold glove. I never got why good hitters should get Gold Gloves. Give it to the best defender for heaven's sake; we have the Silver Slugger for good hitters. Also, given the selections in the AL, it's pretty obvious the voters don't care much for metrics...much less reality. As far as I can tell, it's all about name recognition, hitting, errors, and fielding percentage. If it's about those things, it's not about who is the best defender in the league at that position. I'll give Gonzalez his due; his errors and fielding percentage were both good. However, digging deeper explained why his numbers were that way. His range and his arm were not very good. If a ball was hit to him, he was fine. Otherwise, he had some issues. Defensively, that's not what I'd want out of a guy who plays more than a third of his games in CF. Offensively, I can live with him. Defensively, I don't see why he got this Gold Glove. There were a number of better options, including Marlon Byrd.

Having a hard time seeing how this passes considering the current state budget crisis. Illinois needs every dime it can get.

Rolen getting the award wasn't Jeter bad, considering Rolen actually had a very good (but not great) year defensively at 3B. Zimmerman and Headley were clearly the best, but Rolen was behind them. Victorino wasn't all that great, but the selection that most confused me was Carlos Gonzalez.

11/10 LF/RF Flaherty 1/5, R, K 3B Vitters 2/4, BB, R, 2 RBI, 2B (5), 2 K, SB (2), CS (2) SP Muyco 3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, HBP RP Carpenter 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K RP Smit 1.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, WP

The A's won the bidding, but he hasn't put pen to paper yet. Considering what they spent to negotiate with him, the A's should get him.

Ouch.

NL Gold Gloves P - Bronson Arroyo C - Yadier Molina 1B - Albert Pujols 2B - Brandon Phillips SS - Troy Tulowitzki 3B - Scott Rolen OF - Michael Bourn OF - Shane Victorino OF - Carlos Gonzalez

I'm vaguely interested if he has a clean bill of health. He's cheaper than Fukudome next season and a change of scenery might help his performance. I wouldn't do it straight up; I'd want the Red Sox to kick in cash or prospects to help offset the $10m Daisuke will be making in 2012. With the rumors going around about the Cubs potentially kicking the tires on starting pitchers, I'm guessing we'll see someone like Carlos Silva shipped out.

did you expect someone else? Gotta love the comment next to Jeter's name in the list of this year's Gold Glove winners at the top of Baseball-Reference.com. And the stat that it links to showing that Jeter was the worst defensive shortstop in the American League by an absurdly large margin Starlin Castro was dead last on that list. Holy crap.

Full list of AL Gold Gloves: P - Who? C - Joe Mauer 1B - Mark Teixeira 2B - Robinson Cano SS - Derek Jeter 3B - Evan Longoria OF - Ichiro OF - Franklin Gutierrez OR - Carl Crawford Jeter, Cano, and Teixeira all have negative UZRs on Fan Graphs. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

11/9 PR Flaherty 0/0, R

I could be wrong, but I don't think the Yankees have one of the better farm systems in baseball. In fact, I think it's pretty mediocre. They're above average based on the upside of some of their players, but they're currently lacking depth. Their farm system has improved in the past few years thanks to increased spending in the draft and their increased pursuit of big names in Latin America. They have one of the top prospects in the minors in C Jesus Montero along with a few more guys who'll get Top 100 consideration.

Also, Arizona Phil has a piece on how certain Cubs prospects are performing in Venezuela.

11/8 LF/2B Flaherty 1/3, BB, K, Assist (Home) RP Cales 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K

Press Release He'll be their VP of Player Development and Amateur Scouting.

earl bennett is one IQ point above johnny knox and simply ran the wrong route. Since Angelo took over, it seems like the Bears have had some of the dumbest receivers in the NFL.

You could hear people cheering for the Bears and Bills at various points of the game, but there wasn't anything particularly deafening.

Rewatching the Collie hit, it seemed to me like Collie made the catch, established possession, got hit helmet to helmet, went ragdoll, and fumbled the ball. The refs called the pass incomplete, and then announced the penalty as a hit on a defenseless receiver, which I think can only be called if the receiver doesn't have the ball. Granted, there still was a helmet to helmet hit that gets called pretty much all the time and it would have negated the fumble. Still, that was a bad series of calls by the officials. Also, I think Jerry Jones is about to go on a killing spree.

Was it me, or was Earl Bennett the best defensive back on the Olsen TD? He nearly swatted the damn ball away.

Rising Stars Game Gameday Carpenter hit 99 a few times and worked around a one out double. Vitters came in as a pinch hitter and struck out in his first AB. Rising Stars Box Score PH/3B Vitters 0/2, K RP Carpenter 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

Maybe I'm crazy but didn't castro finish 2nd in the NL in errors last year despite missing April. I'd say that's quite bad 2nd in the majors, actually. Two things worth noting: 1) All of the players in the Top 7 of that list are shortstops. Here are the 2010 UZR numbers for those players at SS... Ian Desmond: -8.8 Starlin Castro: -2.1 Cliff Pennington: 9.9 Erick Aybar: -2.0 Alcides Escobar: 3.8 Alexei Ramirez: 10.8 Josh Wilson: -2.1 I don't see much of a correlation between the two sets of numbers, good or bad. Errors some value when viewed in context with other numbers, but they are also highly subjective and should not be the sole basis on which a player should be judged defensively. 2) Starlin Castro just accumulated 500 plate appearances at the age of 20 in a season. Most players his age are either in short season A, low A, or are playing their sophomore seasons in college. You're telling me he's not going to improve? I mean, I can understand if you think he has some defensive issues that he needs to iron out, but he's not even old enough to drink. It's a little early to give up on him as a shortstop.

While we're talking about injury-riddled rolls of the dice, would anyone be interested in Troy Glaus?

11/4 2B Flaherty 0/4, 2 K SP Muyco 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, HR, WP RP Carpenter 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K RP Smit 1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, HR RP Cales 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K