Kimmi

I think he would have been better off letting Familia start the inning clean, but that is said in hindsight also. I really had no problem with him letting Harvey start the inning.

You are absolutely right. People are saying what a great baserunning play that was because it worked. Had he been thrown out at the plate, which would have ended the game, they would be saying what a bonehead play that was. A good throw would have likely had him.

I found this through a Google search: I have not searched for the 2nd question yet.

lol

1. Gold Gloves awards have had little or no merit. They have improved in the last 3 years with the addition of the saber component, but the managers and coaches are still largely voting on the wrong criteria. 2. I agree about the Cy Young winners being, for the most part, solid. That said, I remember a few years back (2010, I think), when several people insisted Sabathia should win the Cy because he was a 20 game winner, and that Felix should not win because he only had 12 wins or something close to that. I was so glad to see Felix win it that year. If I recall correctly, no pitcher with less than 15 wins had ever won the Cy before. As you said, the voters are becoming better informed. 3. I think you hit the nail on the head with the criteria being so open ended with MVP. Most valuable player does not necessarily mean the best player, and it's hard to quantify 'valuable' beyond WAR. Is a player valuable to a team that is nowhere near playoff contention? Does a player's leadership add any value? If a player is injured and his replacement plays almost as well, does that make the first player less valuable? There are some head scratchers for sure, Cabrera over Trout being the most recent. Miggy had the sexy homerun and RBI numbers that voters seem to love. I am encouraged by the improvements in recent voting, but there is still a way to go.

Exactly. Jeter is worthy of some kind of award, but it certainly isn't the Gold Glove.

Baseball is awesome. There is no other sport that comes close. I agree with you that the Royals were a very likeable team. And now the long offseason. Boredom has set in already.....

They're not all BS. But as long as there are people voting based on things like RBIs, errors, and pitcher's W-L record, they won't get it completely right.

This is exactly what I said. The managers and coaches vote based on reputation and offense. This is why the saber component was added. Xander should not win it, but he is by far more worthy of the award than Jeter was.

For tonight's game, I say Go Mets! OTOH, for Volquez' sake, I hope he pitches well.

I have no stock in Morales one way or the other and have no reason to make excuses for him. It's not an excuse. If Morales heard his catcher yelling 'home', it is understandable why he reacted like he did.

LOL Don't quit your day job. I actually think you're a pretty funny guy. That blown save was probably the nail in the Mets' coffin.

Didi would have won the Fielding Bible Award if they gave an award to the best SS in each league. That said, Didi ranks only 3rd in SABR's SDI ratings, which is the SABR component of the Gold Gloves. It will be interesting to see whether Didi or Escobar wins that.

It would not be a travesty, as it was to give Jeter the GG all those years, but it would also not be right. He was not the best SS defender in the AL this season. You want to give an award to a player just because it would not be a travesty?

Defensive metrics are better looked at over a larger sample of 3 years, rather than one, to get a good idea of a fielder's true defensive talent. That said, the stats over one year give you a fairly good idea of what a defender did on the field that year. The more stats you look at, the better the overall picture. Jacko posted the numbers of Didi and Xander for dwar and UZR/150. They aren't as close as you make them out to be. Also, Didi has a DRS of 5 while Xander's is 0. SABR gives Didi an SDI of 3.2 over Xander's 0.1. The Fielding Bible Awards are out, which I didn't realize. Andrelton Simmons from the NL won, hands down with 120 points. In the AL, Didi was the vote leader with 46 points, followed by Hardy, Escobar, Iglesisias, then Bogaerts, who received 17 points. You are making me agree with Jacko and defend a Yankee player, which I don't like doing. So quit being a homer and stop.

I am guessing you are using BR's stats for dwar and range factor. Errors are factored into the advanced metrics, and they do not say much in and of themselves. BR uses defensive runs saved to calculate dwar. Bogaerts had a DRS of 0 and Escobar's was -1, hence the 0.1 difference in dwar. I will grant you that Bogaerts was better than Escobar in that regard, by the narrowest of margins. Range factor is based on the number of putouts and assists. There are any number of reasons why Escobar would not have as many chances for putouts and assists as Bogaerts did, including groundball to flyball ratio of pitchers and handedness of pitchers. In other words, it's not a great comparison of two players without taking those things into consideration. Fangraphs has Escobar with a 13.9 dwar and Bogaerts with 8.0. Escobar's range runs saved (RngR) is 4.3 and Bogaerts is -4.6. Escobar's UZR/150 is 6.7 to Bogaerts .9. Lastly, SABR gives Escobar and SDI of 7.1 to Bogaerts .1 .

I have not read that Perez acknowledged yelling 'home', nor have I read that he denied it. I agree that in that situation the typical play is to throw to second and get the DP. However, if your catcher is yelling 'home, it is going to give you reason to pause. The catcher's job in that situation is to direct the play. The fielder is not watching the runners, he is fielding the ball. For all the pitcher knows, the runner on first took off with the pitch and there was no chance at the double play, in which case the play would be at home. Maybe Perez didn't yell anything. Morales insists that he heard it though, and even went so far as to say that he recognized it as Perez' voice. If Perez didn't say anything, then yes, Morales had a big time brain cramp. If Perez did yell 'home', then Morales' actions are fully understandable.

UZR is not poorly formulated. It is subjective to a certain extent, but far less subjective than the opinions of managers/coaches who barely get to see these players play. Far less subjective than errors and fielding percentage. You can tell by watching Bogaerts that he is pretty good. How do you know that he is better than Hardy, or any of the other AL shortstops? Unless you have watched all of them play the vast majority of their games, you can't. The flashy types usually win. Why? Because the managers/coaches are voting for them. Advanced defensive metrics are not fooled by flashiness. Defensive stats are not perfect, by any means. However, using them to determine Gold Glove winners is a far better method than relying on the votes of managers and coaches. Why did Rawlings add a SABR component to the GG voting a couple of years ago? Because they know how little credence was given to those awards. Since adding the SABR component, the Gold Gloves have been much improved.

They aren't "so much better", but they are better. Isn't the idea to give the award to the best defender at each position?

Very interesting, indeed. If the Mets win tonight by 4, then you may be on to something!

Everything I've heard about ARod says that he is a very good analyst. Unfortunately, I can't stand the sight or the voice of him and therefore, can't watch the guys in the studio.

What Morales said was that he heard his catcher say to throw the ball home, but when he looked home, he didn't see the runner. He probably looked to 3rd to see how far off the bag the runner was. It was a tailor made DP, but the catcher is the guy out there directing the fielder where to throw the ball. If the catcher is yelling "home, home", then Morales is thinking he should throw home.

The defensive standout shortstops are all in the NL. I said that it is not an outrage that Bogaerts was nominated. It's not like he's the worse SS in the league, or even below average. However, if one is being objective, Hardy deserves the nomination over Bogaerts. My problem with Bogaerts being a finalist when he's not one of the top three is that there is no integrity in that. I didn't post anything to back up my opinion because I know how everyone here responds to defensive metrics. Also, UZR/150 and DRS are readily available at Fangraphs and SDI is available at SABR. It's not like what I'm basing my opinion on is a secret. There is no way that managers or coaches can know who the best defensive shortstops were for the year, based on the limited number of games they can see the other teams' shortstops play. They rely a lot on reputation, which includes offensive reputation, and archaic stats, like fielding percentage.

No, I'm not going negative. I have never been a fan of GG Award because they are a joke, IMO. I love Bogaerts. I love the improvements that he has made defensively, and I give him all the recognition in the world for working hard and making such huge strides. As I said, my post was criticism of the award, not of Bogaerts. Gregorius, Escobar, and Hardy should be the nominees, with Escobar being the winner, though I can see Gregorius winning it also.

Who here blindly believes and doesn't question? I know you're not talking about me.