Joe Mauer Snubbed as Gold Glove Finalist; Left Out of Top 3

Wow. I was shocked when I saw this. I almost immediately started hammering on my keyboard to start kicking and screaming about why Joe Mauer should win the American League Gold Glove at 1st Base. I was just about to start sounding off. Then, I realized, I hadn’t really looked at where Mauer sat, compared to other 1st baseman, in defensive metrics. So, I decided to do some research before I typed a bunch of words with no back bone.

My research made my opinion even stronger. Mauer isn’t just getting snubbed. He is getting screwed. The MLB is turning him around and kicking him in the ass. I was near shock when I started looking at these numbers. First, before I start embedding tables and pictures, let me show you the finalists again so you know who you are comparing against. The top table is your standard stat table. I have bolded the errors and fielding percentage, which are supposedly the most relied upon stat categories, when looking at standard fielding stats. The bottom table is an advanced stats table.

American League 1st Base Gold Glove Finalists:

  • Eric Hosmer
  • Mitch Moreland
  • Carlos Santana

(Both tables provided by FanGraphs.com)

Name

Team

Pos

G

GS

Inn

PO

A

E

FE

TE

DP

DPS

DPT

DPF

Scp

FP

Joe Mauer

MIN

1B

125

118

1040.2

947

63

2

1

0

86

5

1

88

26

0.998

Carlos Santana

CLE

1B

140

139

1225.2

1055

95

5

4

0

120

16

2

117

21

0.996

Mitch Moreland

BOS

1B

138

126

1170

938

67

5

3

2

92

6

0

93

18

0.995

Eric Hosmer

KCR

1B

157

155

1338

1235

75

4

2

1

116

4

0

124

34

0.997

 

Name Team Pos Inn rGDP rGFP rPM DRS BIZ Plays RZR OOZ DPR RngR ErrR UZR UZR/150 Def
Joe Mauer MIN 1B

1040.2

-1

3

5

7

144

120

0.833

23

-0.8

3.9

4.1

7.1

9.1

-1.8

Carlos Santana CLE 1B

1225.2

1

3

4

10

186

150

0.807

20

0.6

1.4

2.7

4.8

4.7

-5.7

Mitch Moreland BOS 1B

1170

0

1

8

10

117

95

0.812

27

-0.2

2.4

1.7

4

5.8

-6.1

Eric Hosmer KCR 1B

1338

-1

1

-7

-7

195

156

0.8

6

-0.2

-4.4

4.2

-0.3

-0.4

-11.8

So, I’m not going to sit here and explain all of these advanced stats. I would fall asleep on my keyboard (plus I don’t know half of them myself). “Def” is what Fangraphs.com wants you to look at the closest. You can read more on it here but Def is what they claim brings the best result, when judging a player’s defense. 1st basemen are all below average compared to other positions, when looking at the total Def number, but Joe Mauer is by far the best out of them.

Joe Mauer also wins when you look at the old-school stats. He led the league in fielding percentage and only had 2 errors on the season, which is the least out of any of the finalists. So, the standard stats and the advanced stats both have Joe Mauer as your likely winner of the AL Gold Glove, or at the least, in the final-3. So what happened?

Well, it isn’t the first time the MLB has screwed Joe Mauer (The MLB had nothing to do with this. It was voted on by coaches and managers but I like to stir the pot and bring this up whenever possible.):

I am guessing the MLB (coaches and managers) will come out and make excuses about the number of innings Joe Mauer played. When looking at the FanGraph tables above, Mauer is either the same or better in almost all categories other than innings played. Mauer played almost 130 less innings than Moreland who had the least amount of innings played out of the finalists.

Still bullshit.

Note: Byron Buxton and Brian Dozier did make it as finalists in CF and 2B (If Buxton doesn’t win CF then it’s all a joke).

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan
MinnesotaSportsFan.com @RealMNSportsFan

Source: FanGraphs

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