Gold What Now?

Dave Paisley

The post-season hardware has almost all been doled out (we’re just waiting for the National league Gold Gloves today) and it’s been a funny sort of awards season. When Barry Bonds won the NL MVP on Monday, I thought for sure that Alex Rodriguez would win the AL MVP because it seemed that the voters had finally recognized that you have to just go with the talent. No such luck, though, as the "how my team did" factor reared its ugly head again. And, of course, the voters are a completely different set for the AL and NL awards.

It made me curious. What if the Giants had just missed the playoffs, instead of being the NL wild card team? Would the voters have been less forthcoming in favor of Bonds? Who in the National league could have taken the award instead? Based on the voting, I guess you’d have to say Albert Pujols, but he wasn’t as strong a contender as Alex Rodriguez had to deal with in the AL.

In fact, let’s take a look at the voting patterns. Here’s the National League:

Player/Club	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Points	Count
Barry Bonds, San Francisco	32	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	448	32
Albert Pujols, St. Louis	-	26	4	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	276	32
Lance Berkman, Houston	-	1	7	5	6	5	2	3	1	1	181	31
Vladimir Guerrero, Montreal	-	4	5	3	3	5	2	3	5	1	168	31
Shawn Green, Los Angeles	-	-	3	8	4	3	2	3	3	4	146	30
Jeff Kent, San Francisco	-	-	3	2	4	8	5	2	3	1	135	28
Randy Johnson, Arizona	-	-	5	3	4	4	2	4	1	-	127	23
John Smoltz, Atlanta	-	1	3	5	2	1	6	2	3	3	124	26
Sammy Sosa, Chicago	-	-	-	2	3	1	1	4	4	2	63	17
Curt Schilling, Arizona	-	-	-	1	2	3	2	1	3	2	53	14
Chipper Jones, Atlanta	-	-	2	2	-	-	4	-	1	2	50	11
Eric Gagne, Los Angeles	-	-	-	1	2	1	1	4	1	2	44	12
Brian Giles, Pittsburgh	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	4	2	3	27	11
# Votes	32	32	32	32	31	31	30	30	27	21

You’ll notice I’ve added a tally of votes cast to each row and column. The very rightmost column shows how many total votes a player got, and I find it just fascinating that only Bonds and Pujols appeared on every ballot. One voter (not necessarily the same one for each player) felt obliged to leave out Lance Berkman and Vlad Guerrero. Four voters felt Jeff Kent wasn’t worthy of being in the top 10, and nine felt that Randy Johnson didn’t deserve top ten status.

That last one blows me away. If you were putting together a no limit best team on the planet, how can you possibly not take Randy Johnson as one of the top ten? How? Sure, there are voters who don’t think pitchers should even be eligible for the award, but only six voters left John Smoltz off (and one felt him worthy of second place!) I guess closers really are overrated...

Along the bottom of the table, you can see how many votes went to players who didn’t make the top 13 listed. All top four votes went to a player on the list, but one fifth and sixth and two seventh and eighth place votes went to other players. I’m sure there’s even a vote or two for Derek Bell in there somewhere.

Over in the American League, the picture wasn’t quite so clear cut:

Player/Club	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Points	Count
Miguel Tejada, Oakland	21	6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	356	28
Alex Rodriguez, Texas	5	7	11	4	-	1	-	-	-	-	254	28
Alfonso Soriano, New York	2	11	9	4	1	-	-	-	-	1	234	28
Garret Anderson, Anaheim	-	4	5	7	7	1	2	-	2	-	184	28
Jason Giambi, New York	-	-	2	8	10	4	1	1	1	1	162	28
Torii Hunter, Minnesota	-	-	-	5	5	8	1	5	4	-	132	28
Jim Thome, Cleveland	-	-	-	-	2	3	3	8	1	4	69	21
Magglio Ordonez, Chicago	-	-	-	-	1	4	5	3	-	4	59	17
Manny Ramirez, Boston	-	-	-	-	-	2	5	1	2	2	39	12
Bernie Williams, New York	-	-	-	-	1	-	3	2	3	2	32	11
David Eckstein, Anaheim	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	1	4	2	24	9
Nomar Garciaparra, Boston	-	-	-	-	-	2	1	1	2	3	24	9
Barry Zito, Oakland	-	-	-	-	-	1	2	1	2	2	22	8
# Votes	28	28	28	28	28	27	23	23	21	21

What just happened here? A-Rod got hosed Tommy, A-Rod got hosed.

It just shows what a well placed burst of late season, late game heroics will do for an MVP candidate. Alfonso Soriano had the hot first half. Too bad. Sorry Alfonso, hot first halves and $3 will buy you a latte at Starbucks. Eric Chavez had a great year, matching Tejada everywhere except where it matters — on Sportscenter. A couple of years ago people scoffed at Ken Griffey Jr. getting pissed at ESPN for showing his gaffes while they contrasted them with Jim Edmonds highlight reel footage. Well, here’s what highlight reel footage gets you — an MVP award. Maybe Griffey was more justified than we thought at the time.

However, I guess if the voters had mostly made up their minds not to vote for a player on a contending team, then Tejada’s selection at least shows that they recognize the value of playing a difficult position.

And what of the voting patterns? Well, the top six candidates were mentioned on all 28 ballots, up from only two in the NL. Also, the top five votes on each ballot went to players in the top 13. So while the top choice was lass clear cut in the AL, there was more consensus on who the top contenders were. One disappointing note, though, is that only one pitcher appears on the ballot — Barry Zito, and only just — taking the thirteenth spot of thirteen shown, and getting no higher than one sixth place vote.

Interesting stuff.

Moving on to Gold Glove awards, the AL winners looked like this:

C - Bengie Molina, ANA (Breaks Ivan-Rodriguez' streak of 10 in a row)

1B - John Olerud, SEA (Last year’s winner: Doug Mientkiewicz)

2B - Bret Boone, SEA (Roberto Alomar, Boone also won 1998 NL)

3B - Eric Chavez, OAK (Repeat, 2)

SS - Alex Rodriguez, TEX (breaks Omar Vizquel’s streak of nine straight)

OF: Torii Hunter, MIN, (Repeat, 2)

OF: Darin Erstad, ANA, (Last year’s winner: Mike Cameron)

OF: Ichiro Suzuki, SEA (Repeat, 2)

P - Kenny Rogers, TEX (Last year’s winner: Mike Mussina)

The Gold Gloves are, of course, pretty much a joke. Voted on by managers and coaches, or occasionally bat boys and team mascots, the debacle that was Rafael Palmeiro’s win at 1B a couple of years ago is legendary. And that’s the problem with Gold Gloves, they’re given more on reputation than performance. I’m sure many of those who voted for Palmeiro knew he hadn’t played in the field. They just knew he would be good if he had, so he deserved the award anyway. I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before there’s a Gold Glove for the best fielding DH.

Palmeiro’s win was even touted by some of us as an example of Texas bias, what with Juan Gonzalez having stolen a couple of MVPs from A-Rod already. So A-Rod moves to Texas, and guess what? The ol’ Texas bias has evaporated. Much like the pitching, I guess.

Oh well, it only remains to see what laughs the NL Gold Glove voters have in store for us, and we’re done for the year.

about the author

Gold Gloves or Lead Hands? What's the most egregious Gold Glove ever dished out? Send thoughts to Dave Paisley along with three Special K(tm) boxtops to :drdjp@strikethree.com.