NL Gold Glove Winners

I'm really starting to believe that Chase Utley is the Rodney Dangerfield and Boise St. of Major League Baseball. Regardless of what the guy does, he just can't get the respect he deserves.

Now I love Orlando Hudson. High enthusiasm, good bat, good defense; a guy you want on your team. He's a glue guy, but not a traditional "glue guy". Those who usually referred to as such, get those accolades because it's a nice way of saying that he's valuable. Pretty much akin to saying "she's got a good personality". Instead, O-Dawg is a glue guy that you actually want on your team, even in a perfect world. I'll take 9 guys who play like him everyday.

But Utley is an all-time gamer and glue-guy type that plays far better defense than O-Dawg. It turns out I was crazy to think that the voters would redeem themselves after giving the 2008 award to Brandon Phillips. Who is a fine defender, and came in 2nd via Fangraphs' UZR and UZR/150 last season. But 2nd place last year was exactly half of what Utley did.

Instead, Utley is as forgotten as Brandon Wood on the Angels depth chart.

Utley turns in yet another outstanding fielding season (oh yea, he was pretty good in the World Series. Irrelevant to this topic, but I could talk for days about the show he put on by hitting 5 home runs against the Yankees).

Utley was the only player to break double digits in both UZR and UZR/150 in 2009. The only player to break double digits in 1 category was Freddie Sanchez. But he did that in less than 1000 innings. Not the quality, nor the quantity of Utley.

O-Dawg? Negatives on both ratings. Not terrible, but not Gold Glove worthy.

And you can't make the Jeter argument about O-Dawg being smarter than most NASA scientists and having immeasurable intangibles. Because Utley has the market cornered on baseball intelligence and downright hard nosed defense. He could field a rolling ball of knives as if it were a sponge ball only seen in tee-ball games.

It's Ok Chase. The Fielding Bible loves you. And if they did it by league, Chase would have that title to put (rightfully) on display.

At Short Stop we have (now) 3 time winner Jimmy Rollins taking home the title. A fine choice in 2008, but in 2009... eh not so much. Another winner on reputation. Furcal and clap-clap, clap-clap-clap, clap-clap-clap-clap TU-LO have just as big of an argument here.

And that Jack Wilson guy had he stayed all year in the NL.

In case you haven't noticed, I think Jack Wilson is good at fielding baseballs.

Going to 3rd Base, hats off to you Ryan Zimmerman. Proof that being a professional every day despite your teams atrocious record and channeling your inner Brooks Robinson will get you well deserved accolades.

And the outfield. Oh the outfield. Kemp and Victorino are fine defenders. But Nyjer Morgan was out of his mind this year. Too bad he got hurt. Bourn is a fine choice, and hats off to the voters for having the balls to vote for a guy who isn't nuthugged by every media outlet.

Would have loved to see Randy Winn get one here. But not having a large fan following and making Sportscenter's Top 10 is a sure way to get less than you deserve. Anytime a 35+ year old outfielder drops a 36.6 total rating via UZR and UZR/150, you should get it just on merit.

Or when you are also far and away ahead of everybody else in both categories, sans the aforementioned Morgan, like Winn was this year. That's always nice too.

And now we go onto the Rookie of The Year awards. These are wide open, and sure to cause some interesting reviews. I say Coghlan or McCutchen had the best debuts in the NL, but voters are sure to love Mr. Filthystuff Tommy Hanson.

In the AL we could see Pretty Hair Gordon Beckham. Pretty Hair is fairly good at baseball activities. But he ain't named after The King. Hopefully Elvis has a reason to put on a nice suit and accept his award this time.

Honorable mention to Andrew Bailey, who was unconscious this season. Unfortunately, only about 5 people noticed.