The list of AL Gold Glove winners was released today. The rundown:
- P: Kenny Rogers
- C: Ivan Rodriguez
- 1B: Mark Teixeira
- 2B: Mark Grudzielanek
- 3B: Eric Chavez
- SS: Derek Jeter
- OF: Vernon Wells
- OF: Torii Hunter
- OF: Ichiro Suzuki
By and large, the list gets it right, but with it comes two sad realities:
No. 1: Good luck getting an award on the left side of the infield. Chavez and Jeter have won the award the last three years. At least Chavez is defensible -- he wasn't the best third baseman this year, but he has been in the previous five seasons and certainly had another good year with the glove in 2006. Brandon Inge probably should've won it, with Joe Crede, Adrian Beltre and Mike Lowell not far behind.
Jeter, on the other hand, has won it repeatedly despite more and more writers coming around to realize that he has sub-standard range. They give him credit for being able to handle shortstop, and that's about it.
Juan Uribe should've won it last year, and I thought a diving-into-the-stands catch would help him win his first Gold Glove like it did for Jeter in 2004. Nope. While 2006 was a step down from his 2005, it still was better than anybody else in the league save Alex Gonzalez. While the National League has plenty of fine glovemen at short, the AL's cupboard is pretty bare. Gonzalez had surer hands but less range; Uribe made far more plays but made more errors. The numbers (and playing time) favored Uribe, but an argument for Gonzalez could be made.
No such argument can be made for Jeter, but once Uribe starts hitting again, then maybe he can get into the same defensive discussion. Stupid how that works.
No. 2: Torii Hunter would win a Gold Glove in a wheelchair. Last year he stole the Gold Glove away from Aaron Rowand despite playing in
only 98 games. This year, he probably took one away from Grady Sizemore. Hunter came back from his ankle injury with diminished range and looked like Scott Podsednik out there, and it showed on his embarrassing diving attempt against the A's (that didn't count in the voting, but it was indicative of his play).
Now that I think about it, three of these Gold Glove candidates had anti-Uribe performances in the field. Not just Hunter with the disastrous dive, but Inge and Chavez made a few key boots in the field during their playoff losses.
It's looking like the only possibilities to win a Gold Glove are at second base, first base (though Mark Teixeira is clamping down on it), and perhaps one of the outfield spots. Since the Sox don't have great defenders at any of those positions, it's going to be awhile before we see any White Sox's defense get its reward.