Kuzul

Three weeks ago, Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists began to unveil the results of our end-of-season wards poll. We’ve looked at Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, Comeback Players of the Year, Relief Men of the Year, Rookies of the Year, and Managers of the year.

Now, in our last week, we get to the good part: Cy Youngs and MVPs.

Today, as the BBWAA announces its choices for Rookies of the Year (too bad we already beat them to it!), we turn our attention to the American League Cy Young race.

As always the top five vote-getters are featured here, with commentary from the writers who chose them. The full list of results is at the end.

So read on, see how we did, and be sure to tell us what we got wrong!

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The Baseball Writers Association of America have announced its choice for AL Rookie of the Year for 2010, and Texas Rangers RP Neftali Feliz took home the honor while capturing 20 of the possible 28 first-place votes.

It was always almost assuredly going to be either Austin Jackson or Neftali Feliz—both of whom had fine seasons, but neither of whom was truly the best rookie in the American League.

The best newbie in the Junior Circuit was a 24-year-old catcher named Carlos Santana.

Before the 2010 season, Santana was widely considered among the best of an immensely talented pool of promising catching prospects. With respect to Mr. Posey, in his short time in the majors, Santana emerged as arguably the best young backstop in baseball.

For the purposes of the Rookie of the Year award, the operative words are “short time in the majors.” Santana appeared in just 46 MLB games this year between his call-up on June 11 and his season-ending knee injury on August 2.

There’s a difference between the most valuable rookie and the best. Yet the lack of playing time is the only rationale voters can possibly have for not naming Santana the 2010 American League Rookie of the Year.

Forget his promising power (.207 ISO, six homers). Forget his decent speed (three steals). Forget the fact that he shored up the middle of Cleveland’s lineup as a catcher. The most fantastic aspect of Santana’s game was his unbelievable plate discipline.

Carlos Santana’s 19.3-percent walk rate was the best in baseball this season among players with at least 100 plate appearances. Keep in mind that he did that as a rookie. To have that kind of plate discipline at age 24—that’s ridiculous. Did I mention he’s a catcher?

All told, Santana was worth 2.0 Wins Above Replacement in just 46 games. Even assuming he doesn’t improve any further (and since he’s not even 25, it’s a safe bet that he will), that makes him a six-win player over a full season. Compare that to the 5.1 WAR Joe Mauer posted this season, and it’s clear the Indians have a tremendous asset on their hands.

Santana’s power and plate discipline mean his success is sustainable (assuming he recovers from his knee problems). That’s more than we can say for Austin Jackson.

Jackson put up nice numbers this year, hitting .293/.345/.400 while scoring 103 runs and swiping 27 bases. But his plate discipline was lacking, as evidenced by his unimpressive 7.0-percent walk rate and scary 27.5-percent strikeout rate. The latter figure is worse than David Wright’s, but without the power. So how did Jackson do so well for himself?

The answer lies in his batting average on balls in play. Jackson’s .396 BABIP was the best in baseball, and while there’s reason to believe it can remain relatively high, it’s absurd to think that it won’t come down next season.

Using The Hardball Times’ xBABIP calculator, we find that a smaller proportion of balls he hits inside the park—.355, still much higher than the average—could be expected to fall for hits.

Substitute his xBABIP for his BABIP and even with the generous assumption that all the lost hits would be singles, his slashline falls to just .263/.311/.370—plus, as the number of times he gets on base decreases, so will his runs and steals. Would you want that kind of player on your team? Would you ever consider casting your vote for that guy for Rookie of the Year?

Interestingly, Santana got shafted in terms of BABIP, meaning his numbers should be even better. Using his .305 xBABIP in place of his .277 BABIP, his slashline jumps to .286/.417/.493. That’s a .910 OPS—probably more, since I assumed all the gained hits would be singles—from a catcher. That’s the kind of production that gets your name in the MVP discussions.

Of course, none of this matters, because (through no fault of his own) Santana played less than a third of a season, and therefore has no chance of being named Rookie of Year. But just because he won’t be doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be.

For more Indians coverage, visit WahooBlues.com.

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Next week, the Baseball Writers Association of America will begin to unveil its picks for Major League Baseball’s most important end-of-season awards: Rookies of the Year, Managers of the Year, Cy Youngs and Most Valuable Players.

But Bleacher Report’s featured columnists didn’t have the patience to wait for the BBWAA to announce their picks, so we responded with our own mock vote.

With this post, we have reached the end of Week 3 of our 16-part series on the MLB awards.

Yesterday, we looked at the best skippers in the American League, so naturally today is time for the results of our NL Manager of the Year vote.

The top five vote-getters are featured here with commentary from people who chose them. The full list of votes is at the end.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

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When Derek Jeter was announced as the AL Gold Glove winner at shortstop Tuesday afternoon, I hit the roof. Many people had similar reactions to the article I wrote in response about why the Yankees’ captain was nowhere close to the best defensive shortstop in the American League.

Most of the criticism centered around the fact that I was a Red Sox fan writing an article about a Yankees player (and therefore anything negative I said was rooted in bias, not fact), or my use of Total Zone and Ultimate Zone Rating, statistics that assign a runs-saved value to a player’s defense, instead of traditional fielding percentage or the ol’ eyeball test. But to me, the fundamental gap was rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the way good defense is measured.

So forget the players, forget the teams, forget the statistics. Just imagine a hypothetical game in which one team’s shortstop is “Player A” and the other is “Player B.”

Over the course of the nine-inning game, each team’s hits go to roughly the same places on the diamond—five grounders are hit at or near the shortstop while three hard-hit balls are sent bouncing up the middle.

Player A cleanly fields all five of the balls hit to him—pick, throw, yerrrrrr out! But he doesn’t get to any of the hits that are out of the shortstop’s basic range. Maybe he’ll get close enough to dive for one of them, but he doesn’t have the ability to get to it in time.

Meanwhile, Player B makes four of the five routine plays but boots the last one and is charged with an error. However, due to his superior athleticism or speed or instincts or what have you, he saves three hits by getting to the balls that Player A couldn’t reach.

Who is the better fielder? Player A has a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage, while Player B’s error sinks his FLD percent to an amateurish .875. So Player A is clearly better, right?

A fan or a coach watching the game would probably come away with the same impression. The image of Player B bobbling the ball would be far more powerful and enduring than the memory of Player A not getting to the out-of-range plays. In fact, if Player B managed to stay on his feet while chasing down the ball at second base, observers remembering Player A’s dive would praise him for his fruitless athleticism.

But common sense tells us that the guy who made more plays was the more valuable defender. It’s a safe bet that Player B helped his team more in the field because he made two more plays than Player A.

Therefore, the Gold Glove award shouldn’t go to the guy who’s the best at routine plays or makes the fewest errors. It’s not about fulfilling the literal duties of one’s position, it’s about stopping the batter from reaching base safely to the best of one’s ability.

That established, let us turn now to some real-life players: Derek Jeter, who won the AL Gold Glove (supposedly) because of his .989 fielding percentage and six errors—best among AL shortstops—and Alexei Ramirez, who led that same group in Ultimate Zone Rating despite his 20 errors thanks to his phenomenal range.

In our hypothetical example, Player B made two extra plays for each ball he flubbed. In the real world, Ramirez made 14 more errors than Jeter, but he also accumulated 67 more putouts and 134 more assists—201 in total. That’s an extra play-to-extra error ratio of over 14:1.

For every extra ball Ramirez booted, he successfully scooped up 14 additional grounders. For every throw he missed, he reached 14 balls that Jeter couldn’t have gotten to. Does anyone want to argue that the good Ramirez did in stopping those 201 balls from falling for hits was outweighed by the 14 times he failed to do his duty?

Don’t try to rationalize that by saying Jeter had fewer opportunities to make plays—regardless of the pitching staffs, these things tend to even out over 162 games. Yes, Ramirez played 73 more innings in the field than Jeter, but if we prorate The Captain’s performance over A-Ram’s innings, he still falls short by a whopping 180 plays.

When a ball is hit right at him, there are few better fielders in the game than Derek Jeter, but using that to rationalize his Gold Glove selection would be like saying Jose Lopez should be MVP because he’s great at hitting fastballs. To focus primarily on fielding percentage and errors when evaluating defense is to exhibit a fundamental misunderstanding of the game of baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

This week, Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists continued our 16-part series on Major League Baseball’s end-of-season awards with the results of our Rookie of the Year votes in the AL and the NL.

Today, one week before the Baseball Writers Association of America names the 2010 Managers of the Year, we’re unveiling our picks for the American League’s top skippers.

The top five vote-getters are featured here with commentary from people who chose them. The full list of votes is at the end.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

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The national media’s love affair with the New York Yankees knows no bounds. They get the headlines, they get the national broadcasts, and they get the end-of-season awards.

This last handout is most topical the day after the announcement of the American League Gold Gloves. The gilded webbing is notorious for being based more on reputation and sheer name recognition than actual defensive skill—how else could Torii Hunter and Matt Kemp have been honored last year while Franklin Gutierrez and Nyjer Morgan’s mantles remained unadorned?

But I digress. Due to baseball’s sycophantic infatuation with everyone who suits up in pinstripes and (probably) a general apathy among the voters, three Yankees were named among the Junior Circuit’s top fielders—and none of them deserved them.

The first, Mark Teixeira, has parlayed one great defensive season, when he posted 15.3 UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating—a measure of how many runs a player saves with his fielding) in 2008 into a reputation as a master glovesman. Since then, he has been average at best; he posted just a 0.6 UZR in 2009, and that dropped to -2.9 last year.

Why that’s worthy of two consecutive Gold Gloves over, say, Oakland’s Daric Barton (12.1 UZR) is beyond me. Do you think Tex would have had a prayer if he was still with the Rangers?

The second, Robinson Cano, was almost as bad of a choice. His defense was worth -0.6 UZR, thanks to the worst range (-7.5 Range Runs) of any second baseman in the game. The Gold Glove would have fit the A’s’ Mark Ellis or the Twins‘ Orlando Hudson much better.

But by far the most undeserving winner was the Captain himself. For the fifth time in his career, Derek Jeter was named the AL’s best defensive shortstop. And for the fifth time, he didn’t deserve it.

Jeter’s -4.7 UZR wasn’t anywhere near the top—in fact, it was third-worst among AL shortstops. That’s a full 15.5 runs—the equivalent of nearly two wins—behind the rightful Gold Glove winner, the White Sox‘ Alexei Ramirez.

Yes, Jeter’s .989 fielding percentage was the best of all Major League shortstops. But that number is misleading, as it reflects only the balls he got to, and the biggest flaw in Jeter’s game is his abysmal range. A brick wall will stop any ball that’s hit right to it, but it wouldn’t be an effective fielder because it couldn’t get to anything else (also because brick walls can’t throw).

Jeter committed only six errors, compared to Ramirez’s 20. But for every extra error Ramirez made, he also completed five more putouts and got 10 more assists. The plays Ramirez flubbed may have been more obvious than the mistakes Jeter made, but the fact of the matter is that Ramirez was a more effective defender.

Jeter’s -11.8 Range Runs ranked second-worst in the league. Keep in mind that he’s a shortstop, meaning his primary job is to cover a lot of ground. How can a fielder win a Gold Glove when he’s one of the worst in the business at getting to the ball?

You could try to argue that Jeter was unlucky in terms of balls hit near him. But even if you don’t accept that those things tend to even out over 162 games, this isn’t a new trend.

Only twice since tracking began in 2002 has Jeter posted a positive UZR; over that time, he’s been worth -42.5 runs on defense—and that’s being generous. Total Zone has him at -60 runs over that stretch and an absolutely awful -131 runs in his career.

This isn’t just anti-Yankee bias—I think one snubbed Bomber, Brett Gardner, actually deserved a Gold Glove. I’m not complaining because they’re Yankees. I’m complaining because they’re inferior defenders.

Teixeira, Cano and Jeter didn’t deserve their honors, and if they were on any other team, they wouldn’t have had a chance. Any defense of these choices would make Jeter’s glove look good by comparison.

For more from Lewie, visit WahooBlues.com.

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The 2010 season is likely to go down as the “Year of the Pitcher,” but it could also be adequately labeled the “Year of the Rookie.”

Two rookies, Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner, led the San Francisco Giants to an unlikely championship. The much-hyped Jason Heyward made good on his reputation as a five-tool stud, and Stephen Strasburg was brilliant in his brief MLB stint.

Don’t forget Ike Davis, Jaime Garcia, Gaby Sanchez, and Starlin Castro—and that’s just in the National League.

Yesterday, Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists continued our 16-part series previewing Major League Baseball’s end-of-season awards with the results of our AL Rookie of the Year vote. Today, we look at the best newbies in the Senior Circuit.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

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Two weeks ago, Bleacher Report’s MLB Featured Columnists began releasing the results of our end-of-season awards vote. Over the last fortnight, we’ve debated our picks for Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, Comeback Players, and Rolaids Relief Men of the Year.

Today we begin covering the major awards with the AL Rookie of the Year award. At 2 p.m. EST next Monday, the BBWAA will release their choice for the Junior Circuit’s best newbie; until then, you’re stuck with ours.

This was the closest race we had, with just one first-place vote separating the top two finishers, and we had a tie for fifth place. The top six finishers are featured here, with the full results at the end.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

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Every year, managers, coaches and writers from around Major League Baseball award honors and trophies to the players—and every year, they screw up.

So Bleacher Report’s featured columnists decided to do it ourselves. Instead of just complaining about the awards as they were announced as we would normally do on our own, we teamed up to hold our own mock awards vote.

This week, we looked at the Comeback Players of the Year in the AL and NL before naming the AL Rolaids Relief Man of the Year. Today, we end Week 2 of our four-week series with the best relievers in the National League.

The top five vote-getters are featured here with commentary from people who chose them. The full list of votes is at the end.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

Begin Slideshow

Every year, managers, coaches and writers from around Major League Baseball award honors and trophies to the players—and every year, they screw up.

So Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists decided to do it ourselves. Instead of just complaining about the awards as they are announced as we would normally do on our own, we teamed up to hold our own mock awards vote.

On Monday, we kicked off Week 2 of our four-week-long results series with our picks for AL Comeback Player of the Year, then we followed that up yesterday with their counterparts in the NL. Today, we look at the best relievers in the American League.

The top five vote-getters are featured here with commentary from people who chose them. The full list of votes is at the end.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong!

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