Thursday Morning Astros, etc. Round Up: Michael Bourn's big day
by DyingQuail on Nov 12, 2009 9:12 AM CST
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That's right ladies and gents, an Astros player took him some awards season hardware. I have to admit, I was a little suprised when my phone lit up with a text from HLP informing me that Michael Bourn had won himself a gold glove. Why? I don't know. It makes sense, but I guess I'm just used to Astros players not mattering in these sorts of things because they play for...well...the Astros.
Today is pretty much all about the big day that Bourn had, so let's break it down:
Excitingly enough, Richard Justice offers us this open invitation in his reaction to Bourn's Gold Glove:
The next time I judge a trade too soon, I want someone to stuff a large sock with Twinkies and smack me in my pretty face.
Ed Wade, as a favor to all of us, please make a trade this offseason. Please, please, please, please, please. Other than this tempting invitation that I will hold in my heart, Justice doesn't offer much of anything new.
Beyond the Box Score takes a look at who won the NL Gold Gloves and who should have based on bUZR plus FanScouting reports. Thankfully, they don't take issue with Bourn's Gold Glove, which would have rankled me. I think there were at least ten different occasions this season where we discussed how off Bourn's UZR seemed in comparison to what we were seeing. As clack noted yesterday, Bourn was among the best in RZR, and had an astounding 113 out of zone outs. It's that final number that I think demonstrates how great defensively Bourn is. It can't be easy playing CF in a park like MMP and covering for one of the worst LFers in MLB. Remarkably, Bourn does it, and does it well.
The Unofficial Scorer weighs in on a few subjects (even giving FarmStros some love), but I think he sums Bourn's Gold Glove the best of anything I've read on it yet (no offense, HLP):
Normally, I'm pretty statistically-minded, but I've come to trust [UZR] less and less, for measurements over any unit of time below careers. Bourn was right around zero for much of the season, and I really don't think my eyes were deceiving me on his true worth in the outfield.
Rounding out Michael Bourn's ego inflating day (seriously, what a day) was the announcement that he was voted as the team's MVP by the BWAA. Sure, I argued for Wandy Rodriguez, but I won't find any fault with this vote. HLP, I guess you were right.
What's particularly awesome about the awards (Wandy was pitcher of the year, Jeff Fulchino ROY—very deserving), was this:
Veteran right-hander Brian Moehler won the Darryl Kile Good Guy Award, which is given to a player who exhibits good character.
File that under random career accomplishments, but congrats nonetheless to Mr. Moehler.
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Related to your expectations regarding awards for Astros players....
Rob Neyer congratulated the Gold Glove voters for giving Michael Bourn a GG. Neyer, who has been very critical of Gold Glove voters (for good cause in most cases) said he realized that he should compliment them when they do good. And Neyer said that, while he believed Bourn is the best CFer in the NL, the view is not universal, and it would have been easy to ignore Bourn because he plays for the Astros and he isn’t a big hitter. So, Neyer was pleasantly surprised that the voters looked past those issues and gave Bourn the GG. Neyer’s take on the GGs was linked in th ESPN article which davaog linked in the comments yesterday.
BTW, I couldn’t believe some of the ESPN reader comments on Neyer’s article, stuff like “do you ever watch a game of baseball,” and “people who use mathematics on baseball are morons,” etc.
by clack on Nov 12, 2009 11:15 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
Ted Keith
Wrote an article, using stats he said the only position the voters got right was catcher for the NL.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ted_keith/11/11/gold.glove.awards/index.html
He used UZR and the plus/minus, run saved stats from Bill James system, in his article. I found it interesting that he had 2 left fielders 1 for the AL and one for the NL. If you read Joe Posnanski he had a post about David DeJesus and his GG candidacy. Defense is such a hard aspect of baseball to quantify into statistics. We do have people who watch film and rate performances, but even then it could be subjective to biases and interpretation.
by timmy_ on Nov 12, 2009 11:34 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I'm not impressed with that author's approach.
He uses UZR and +/- selectively when it suits his recommendation. For example, he touts Mike Cameron because he was tops among CFers on UZR, but he leaves out +/- for Cameron, where he is only +3 (compared to Bourn at +11). Then he turns around and uses +/- to support Morgan’s defense in LF and RF. (Nyjer Morgan would have a been a reasonable award recipient, but, as noted in comments at BBTF, he missed something like 1/3 of the season, and changed positions when he changed teams…which can also be considerations for not picking him.) Sometimes he uses RF or ZR instead to support his belief about a player. That leaves you with a suspicion that he picked the metric which helped his argument and omitted the metrics which didn’t. A lot of his argument on outfielders is really a disagreement with the GG rules, which refer to the best oufielders rather than players at each outfield position. I can sympathize with an argument that the GG should be given to outfield positions, but those aren’t the rules. And it’s really not surprising CFers have an advantage over corner outfielders.
I also have to question his reliance on stats like “number of DPs involved in” (particularly for 1st basemen). Yes, DPs are important, but I would take it with a grain of salt, since it’s hard to know what you are measuring. Is Pujols’ involvement in a lot of DPs a reflection of his talent or Brendan Ryan’s, for instance?
by clack on Nov 12, 2009 12:46 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I agree with you completely
but don’t be biased by this one article, he’s done several other wonderful stat based articles. I just wanted to point out that defense is a hard aspect to nail down stats wise, and their’s much debate within the stat community on what to use in evaluating the defense of a player.
by timmy_ on Nov 12, 2009 3:22 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Bourn may be the most underrated outfielder in baseball.
by Tommy Bennett on Nov 12, 2009 12:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
He can't be too underrated
He won a gold glove
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Nov 12, 2009 6:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
St. Louis
|
91 | 71 | .561 | 0 | Lost 6 |
|
Chicago
|
83 | 78 | .515 | 7.5 | Lost 1 |
|
Milwaukee
|
80 | 82 | .493 | 11 | Won 3 |
|
Cincinnati
|
78 | 84 | .481 | 13 | Won 2 |
|
Houston
|
74 | 88 | .456 | 17 | Lost 3 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
62 | 99 | .385 | 28.5 | Lost 2 |
(updated 2.9.2010 at 11:43 AM CST)
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