Kouzmanoff - Defensive Record but no Gold Glove

Wednesday Novermber 11, 2009

Kouzmanoff was robbed.

The Gold Glove award is not a defensive award and it hasn't been for a very long time. They give these awards to anyone who hits well and plays decent defense for a team that gets press.

They gave the Gold Glove to Rafael Palmiero in a year played 28 games at 1B and another to Barry Bonds in a year he led the league in errors in LF.

Zimmerman hit .292 with 33 hr and 106 rbi. He does make alot of Web Gems, but he also blows alot of plays as evidenced by 17 errors. Only 4 players had MORE errors at 3B.

Kouzmanoff just makes every play. But he didn't hit 30+ home runs or play in Washington DC so he didn't get the press Zimmerman did.

Kouzmanoff's Web Gems weren't shown on SportsCenter because his games started after the 10pm EST SportsCenter started.

So the press didn't SEE him play. They simply don't know what he did.

And for those pushing UZR, did you know that it doesn't take into account ballpark or positioning? It doesn't take into account if you have someone playing next to you like Cabrera who makes a lot of plays deep in the hole. Actually it penalizes you if the guy playing next to you is a great player and gets to some balls in the bordering zone.

All it takes into account on range is whether a player made a play on a ball hit into a zone in which 50% of other players touched the ball in.

And I don't even want to go into the entire argument about the number of TC Zimmerman had versus how many Kouzmanoff had. I did two entire articles on that. Suffice to say the stats show it had much more to do with more IP by LHP and a higher ground ball percentage against those pitchers than with getting to balls farther away from the players original positioning.

Kinda sad when the supposed defensive award goes to a guy that is close to the worst at making errors rather than the guy who set a NL record for being the best.