At least one Tiger is assured of some post season hardware. Placido Polanco won his second Gold Glove for excellence in the field of fielding. Polanco had a very fine defensive season and he was one of a handful of players (Mark Ellis, Dustin Pedroia, Aaron Hill) who were deserving at second base.
Polanco was the only Tiger to notch the honor. Gerald Laird was deserving at the catcher position and Brandon Inge could have made a case to be in the discussion at the hot corner. Joe Mauer and Evan Longoria took home the award though at their respective positions.
But back to Polanco’s candidacy. Rob Neyer wasn’t a fan of the choice grouping Polanco with Derek Jeter, Torii Hunter, and Adam Jones as the players that the voters “flat out blew it.” I’m not really sure how Polanco fits in that group. Polanco fared well on both conventional fielding metrics (only 2 errors) as well as the more advanced measures as Detroit Tiger Tales summarizes. Using most objective measures Polanco was a legitimate winner so I don’t know what Neyer is exactly looking for.
As an aside, props to Tigers MLB.com beat reporter Jason Beck who referenced Polanco’s UZR number in his story. It’s great to see the mainstream guys helping to go to the newer stats and it’s the only way that these will gain more traction.
Awww, Billfer… ya shoulda used the same effect that you did on the FA post pic. Just cuz we didn’t comment doesn’t mean we didn’t love it. 🙂
Since Pedroia should have won this at 2B, I am taking this to be reparation for Laird’s deserved golden glove. Also, since Jeter (who had one of his best defensive seasons ever, but still is average at best) and Adam Jones (who?) won, it makes this a lot little less special for Placido. Also, Ichrio and Hunter just are not as good anymore and maybe did not deserve it. But they both won so many in a row why stop now, right? Also, Texeria is not an elite first baseman. Evan Longoria was a fine choice though. Burhle is fine as well.
So they got 2 out of 9 right.