Comments on: Adrian Gonzalez Wins Gold Glove

By: The Sacrifice Bunt: A San Diego Padres Blog | Your 2008 Most Valuable Padre is

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:59:36 +0000

[...] it was announced, I wrote briefly on the ridiculousness of Adrian’s Gold Glove win. Adrian is not the best fielding baseball in the National League. Far from it. Lance Berkman, with [...]

By: Melvin Nieves

Melvin Nieves — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:19:58 +0000

He seems like an honest sportswriter. Pretty refreshing.

By: william

william — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:30:21 +0000

Andrew Baggarly is a SF Giants beat writer, and I grabbed this from his MVP ballot discussion. Great read. Great blog. Extra Baggs : NL MVP: Baggs breaks down his ballot

9. Adrian Gonzalez There’s an inherent bias to favor players than you see most often. Makes it easier to appreciate what they bring to the field every day. This is true for the team you cover, of course, and it also extends to your team’s division. (Not to get sidetracked, but that might have contributed to my voting Matt Holliday first and Jimmy Rollins second on the 2007 MVP ballot…) The NL West Kool-Aid wasn’t very strong this season, but one player had all the essential vitamins and minerals. Adrian Gonzalez put up an amazing, amazing year - especially given the complete lack of another threat in the Padres lineup, combined with the difficulty of hitting at Petco Park. He was Pujols Lite. Less filling, still tastes great. (Give me time and I’ll find a way to compare him to a mug of hot cocoa, too.) He was worthy of his Gold Glove, no matter what the Pujols backers say. I felt it was important to squeeze at least one NL West player on the ballot, and Gonzalez was easily the most fitting choice.

By: Randy Ready

Randy Ready — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:34:13 +0000

…and I’m willing to bet a good deal of those quotes (or at least that general opinion) could be attributed to Bochy when he was coaching the San Diego Padres, which would have made his opinion null and void.

By: Melvin Nieves

Melvin Nieves — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:12:15 +0000

“He’s got that mentality you like for an infielder”

Bochy apparently has the mentality you expect for a gold glove voter.

I don’t mean to imply that defensive data tell the whole story, but come on. There’s no evidence in that “he has that mentality” stuff, it’s biased, unverifiable opinion.

Though I do respect Bochy’s opinion on guys he’s managed more than the opinion of sportswriters.

By: william

william — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:10:18 +0000

“He can throw across the diamond to third base better than anybody in the game”
“He anticipates making the play. He looks to make the aggressive play to get the lead runner.”
“He’s got that mentality you like for in an infielder,”
“He’s aggressive. He knows how important it is to get that guy out. You’d better break hard and go hard, because he’s looking to get you.”

“Defensively, there’s nobody better in our league,”

Bochy