Gold Glove winners were announced today, and, per usual, I have qualms. Derrek Lee is a fine first baseman, but Todd Helton had five less errors in nearly 300 more chances. And of course Maddux and Pudge got a free ride again (not necessarily that Maddux doesn't deserve it, but at this point his name should just be pre-printed on the ballot). Coco Crisp should have gotten a nod in the AL outfield, and while Jimmy Rollins is swell, Troy Tulowitzki had 117 more chances in 66 less innings and had the same number of errors as Rollins. And I'll take Utley at second, too, thanks.
My question, though, is who should really vote on these awards? Managers and coaches vote for Gold Gloves but don't seem to put much effort into it. Baseball writers vote for MVP, Cy Young, etc., and there are sometimes goofy results with those, too. The biggest rip-off is fan voting for the All-Star Game. So, if managers, writers and fans can't get it right, who should vote (besides me)? Or does it not matter if some awards are totally out of whack? Or are mistakes an unavoidable flaw of any system, and, thus, I should stop whining about it? Or perhaps the mistakes are actually what make it interesting because it gives old men something to talk about while propped atop bar stools?
Maybe Gold Gloves, et al, don't really matter, but they do help form the conventional wisdom, and I get annoyed with a conventional wisdom that says Brooks Robinson is the best all-time fielding third baseman just because he won more Gold Gloves than Mike Schmidt.
|
