The Inertia Award

It is an immutable law of the baseball universe that Gold Glove awards tend to be given to the same person year after year, even in the absence of logical justification, unless acted upon by some outside force. Yesterday, Derek Jeter won his third straight (!!!) Gold Glove award at shortstop. He started winning, in large part because the winner the previous two years (Alex Rodriguez) was no longer playing shortstop. That move was enough to disrupt the award intertia. Similarly, Mark Grudzielanek won his first AL Gold Glove at second base this year, largely because last year's winner (Orlando Hudson) no longer plays in the AL. Last year's Gold Glove catcher was Jason Varitek, who won largely because the usual winner (Ivan Rodriguez) was injured for part of the season. This year, Tek was injured, Pudge was healthy, and the universal order is restored.

I'm angry about these awards not because, like so many in Red Sox Nation, they were not given to Alex Gonzalez and Mike Lowell. Alex Gonzalez played a superlative shortstop, and was, by any measure, considerably superior to Derek Jeter. But Gonzalez only played about 110-115 games this year. I know what you're thinking, Rafael Palmiero won in 1999 at first base despite playing only about 25 games in that position. Interia! He won because he won in 1998. But I don't begrudge the vote against Gonzalez. If you look at basic fielding measures, errors, fielding percentage, range factor, zone rating, etc., Jeter isn't even in the top 50% of AL shortstops. Juan Uribe, Michael Young, Jhonny Peralta, and Miguel Tejada are all much better than Jeter.

At third base, Lowell was amazing. He was close to stellar. But inertia says that Eric Chavez, who has won the award for the last five years, was also very solid, and there wasn't enough evidence (to the naked eye) to unseat him. I can't really complain about that selection, even though if you look at the date, Brandon Inge was actually probably a little better than both Chavez and Lowell.

Similarly, the outfield winners are the same this year as they were last year. And the same as 2004. And the same as 2003. I'm not saying that Ichiro, Torii Hunter, and Vernon Wells aren't good outfielders, but come on. They're not always the three best. In fact, they might have ever been the very best. If you looked at stats, you'd have to give serious consideration to guys like Nick Markakis, Carl Crawford, Corey Patterson, Scott Podsednik, and Grady Sizemore. Not to mention Manny Ramirez! (I told you not to mention him)

My problem, I think, is that there really is no standard. This is worse than MVP. The managers are supposed to vote for the best fielder at each position. They can't vote for the guy on their own team. I don't think that today's managers are lazy or hate statistics, but I doubt if they give this really much thought. I would be willing to bet that on the ballot or whatever form they have, there is some indication of last year's winner. And unless there is some major thing that changed- like Omar Vizquel leaving the American League a few years back, or Darin Erstad playing first base instead of center field- they go with what they had last year.

I understand the power of this interia. Hell, it controls and defines much of my life's activities. But we have data. We have logical reasons and defensible proof why certain guys should be legitimately honored- particularly guys who really deserve it and have been unfortunately below the radar of public appreciation. I understand the inertia. I just wish I wasn't so upset by the results of it.