Dustin Pedroia Wins Gold Glove, Remains Awesome

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Yesterday Dustin Pedroia won the fourth Gold Glove of his nine year career. It would be easy for me to wax poetic about Pedroia's grit, athleticism, and determination - I've done so many, many times.

But it is not Pedroia's hardware, or even his tools that make him one of the faces of the franchise, a captain in all but name. Dustin Pedroia is a de facto leader of the Red Sox because he puts the team first - you can feel his will to win.

I have the utmost confidence that if Pedroia were asked to trade his individual accolades (RoY, MVP, four-time All Star, four-time Gold Glove, Silver Slugger) for another World Series win, he'd immediately ask where to sign up.

The Red Sox were not a good team this year. There was remarkably little griping from a fanbase famous for it, but mostly because we were still awash in the hangover from 2013 until nearly June. But this award for Pedroia shows that he gives 110% every day, every season.

He's on the wrong side of thirty now, but he still throws his body around like he's fresh from the minors (in fact, sometimes I wish he'd be more careful). There is no halfway when it comes to Dustin Pedroia's style of play; he's the player I want in the big situations - though I wouldn't say no to Papi.

Gold Gloves aren't super accurate for actually measuring a player's defensive prowess - Derek Jeter won two after the age of thirty-five, and his range wasn't even that great in his prime.

By some metrics, Dustin Pedroia is the best second baseman in the American League, and that's all fine and good, but the real question is: if you could have an second baseman, would you pick him?

For me, the answer is always, unequivocally, yes.

Jeter's injury: fatal weakness or galvanizing moment?

Let's be clear. The injury to Derek Jeter early this morning in the Bronx was awful.  His left ankle is fractured, and the timetable for recovery is at least three months.  I don't like the Yankees, and I think that Derek Jeter is vastly overrated, but I never, EVER want to see a player get injured - and especially not like that.

But the loss of Derek Jeter might actually help the Yankees on the field. Not only will they be replacing his subpar fielding (if you ever needed convincing that the Gold Glove Award is a ridiculous popularity contest, his FIVE Gold Gloves should do it), but there will be a "win one for the Captain" spirit wending its way through the Yankee clubhouse.

The Tigers took Game 1 in twelve innings, and the Yankees have Hiroki Kuroda going on short rest for the first time in his Major League career.  Jeter's injury is either a chink in the Yankees postseason armor (although, let's be honest, of the Core Four, Mariano Rivera is the single most important piece, and he's gone), or a galvanizing moment for the Evil Empire.

Here's hoping the Tigers capitalize on their momentum and take Game 2 this afternoon.

Yankees fan resorts to anonymous name-calling

So this is the comment I got after yesterday's post discussing the travesty of Derek Jeter's fifth Gold Glove. I really wish "Anonymous" had elaborated: am I an idiot for agreeing with baseball-reference that Jeter didn't deserve the award? For intimating that the Yankees would sign him for more than his market value? For calling your precious Captain Jetes less than a team player?

Whatever it was, "Anonymous," at least I have enough conviction behind my views to post them with a name so everyone knows who I am. Why the "anonymous" tag? You can sign in with Blogger, Google, AIM, iChat, WordPress, LiveJournal, and several other services, so don't give the "I don't have an account" excuse.

You commented as "anonymous" because you're afraid I'm right. Your precious Captain is not the player he once was, and "the player he once was" was never all that impressive, at least defensively. I'll tell you a secret, anon: I'm HARDLY the only one who thinks this way. I don't pull the topics for my posts out of thin air. I read dozens on sports sites and stats sites every day, including many who report for neither the Red Sox or Yankees (like, I don't know... BASEBALL-REFERENCE).

The next time you come to my blog to insult me and spew your vitriol without any evidence or reasoning, find the courage to do it under your own name. And if you're still thinking that I was targeting poor Derek Jeter because I hate the Yankees, here's some links to people who wholeheartedly agree with the entire premise of yesterday's post.

NBC Sports: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/10/what-theyre-saying-about-jeters-gold-glove/

The New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/11/10/2010-11-10_derek_jeters_selection_as_american_league_gold_glover_at_shortstop_exposes_flaws.html

ESPN: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5784846

Bleacher Report: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/513590-highway-robbery-derek-jeters-gold-glove-win-is-inexcusable

MLB Fanhouse: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/11/09/derek-jeters-fifth-gold-glove-evidence-of-award-gone-wrong/

So, anonymous, next time you want to call me an idiot, please take all of thirty seconds to Google "Derek Jeter Gold Glove" and check that 90% of the internet doesn't agree with me. Bye-bye, now.

Long live Derek "E6" Jeter!

I love baseball-reference. This is not news to any of you, but today, more than other days, I wanted to start a post with my appreciation of that particular site, rather than tucking a parenthesized citation into the middle of a stat-laden paragraph.

So why today of all days? Because if you went to www.baseball-reference.com earlier today, you were greeted with this fantastic chart listing the 2010 American League Gold Glove recipients:

The "We can't believe it either" has since been taken down, presumably so that they'll have space to list the National League Gold Glove shortstop tomorrow, but it was just too funny. The fact that a statistic-based website feels it is necessary to openly mock the AL GG selection should show how flawed the system has become.

Derek Jeter is not a good defensive shortstop, and he hasn't been for quite some time. Wanna know why he only made six errors this season? Jeter has no range, so the same hits that someone like Elvis Andrus knocked down but couldn’t get over to first in time just rolled right on by Captain Jetes. Errors are a fail-stat; they prove nothing.

Jeter's UZR is horrible: -4.7. He can't get to anything anymore, and all of the intangibles and calm eyes in the world aren't going to change that. I can't wait for the Yankees to sign him for the next four or so years for three or four times as much as he'd be worth on the open market. I can't wait for his skills to erode on the field before our eyes eighteen times a year. And I can't wait for the inevitable temper-tantrum "Mr. Team Player" will throw when the Yankees start to phase him out at shortstop.

"Past a diving Jeter." = music to my ears.

Don't kid yourself into thinking he'll move without drama - that is, if they can find somewhere to put him... first base, third base, and DH are pretty much covered in Yankee Stadium for the next five years. Despite a reputation for being a team-first type of guy, Jeter flat-out refused to shift to third base in 2004 when A*Rod came to town, despite the fact that Jeter was the inferior shortstop, even then.

So I'm sure he'll demand his "due respect" and stay at short for a few seasons longer than is wise. And I'll even support the additions of more Gold Glove awards to his trophy cabinet, so long as I get to see "E6" in the New York box scores for years to come.