Running MLB awards thread

Motherfucker.

 

Sorry man. Nothing personal. You're a good dude. Here, an olive branch:

 

I would give up my chalupa for her.

Thank you, sir.

 

Sadly, to even be considered for the Gold Glove sometimes, you HAVE to have pretty good offensive numbers.

 

It certainly helps the name come to the mind of the voter.

 

I agree. I also don't believe for a second there were three better defensive outfielders in the A.L. than Curtis Granderson. Hell, I don't think there was three in the majors.

 

Cabrera played 51 more games at shortstop than McDonald (153-102) and only made three more errors (11-8). In turn, Cabrera beat McDonald in assists, 415-294, and double plays turned, 104-66, at shortstop. And with a higher fielding percentage, although incredibly small -- .983-.982 -- I see no problem with taking Cabrera over McDonald.

McDonald had more flashy plays, but Cabrera was more of a constant player for the Angels.

 

Silver Sluggers came out today:

AMERICAN LEAGUE AL
C Jorge Posada, NYY
1B Carlos Pena, TB
2B Placido Polanco, DET
3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY
SS Derek Jeter, NYY
OF Vladimir Guerrero, LAA
OF Ichiro Suzuki, SEA
OF Magglio Ordonez, DET
DH David Ortiz, BOS

NATIONAL LEAGUE NL
C Russell Martin, LAD
1B Prince Fielder, MIL
2B Chase Utley, PHI
3B David Wright, NYM
SS Jimmy Rollins, PHI
OF Carlos Beltran, NYM
OF Matt Holliday, COL
OF Carlos Lee, HOU
P Micah Owings, ARI

First of many for Mr. Owings, I think.

 

Are you still fucking humping Micah Owings' jock? Christ.

 

Hey, lay off. There's four players to ever make the major leagues from my hometown -- one is dead, one was a Cub and one of them sucked. Owings is the only hope we have left.

 

this has always been one of the most baffling things about baseball awards.

it actually defies logic: the award is for fielding skills. and yet you have to be a good hitter to get it.

it's like saying you have to be a good dancer to win at poker. that makes no sense.

and neither does having to be a good hitter to win a fielding award.

i wish someone would change this but i can't imagine how to change things other than a concerted campaign to educate voters, which is probably not what MLB wants, because it's easier to promote the good hitter/good fielder than a john mcdonald.

 

It's tough, because you have to be a good enough hitter to stay in the lineup to be eligible for the fielding award. But except in the case of DHs and freaks like Manny Ramirez and Ted Williams, you also have to be a good enough fielder to stay in the lineup for hitting honors.

It sucks for good-field, no-hit guys like McDonald, because hitting is obviously more valued than fielding. But the fact is, he only played 102 games at shortstop. There's no way he was as valuable in the field as a guy like Orlando Cabrera, who played 153 games (and was almost as good a fielder as McDonald, anyway.)