Congrats to Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina on winning his first Gold Glove award.  He should have won it in 2006 over the laughably inadequate winner for that year, Houston’s Brad Ausmus, who threw out only 12 of 72 base stealers in ‘06. And Molina should have won it in 2007, when he had the best throw-out rate among NL catchers, but the NL managers and the coaches apparently thought they were voting for the best-hitting catcher award, and they gave the Gold Glove to LA’s Russell Martin. This season, finally, the managers and coaches got it right … though ironically, Molina wasn’t as good defensively this season as he was in 2006 and 2007.  Maybe the managers and coaches were impressed by Molina’s career-best .304 batting average in ‘08. I have no idea why this is, but for some reason the managers and coaches seem to factor in offense when voting for a defensive award. It’s crazy. But Molina deserves this honor.

As usual, Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols wasn’t given the proper respect by people who supposedly have the most knowledge of the game. San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez won the Gold Glove at 1B, and while I am a fan of the way the guy plays, he’s not in Pujols’ class as a defender.

Let’s take a look at three ratings systems for a clearer picture at first base…

Zone Rating (ranking) from STATS LLC:

1. Pujols,  935.

3. Gonzalez,  .882

Revized Zone Rating (RZR) from Hardball Times:

1. Pujols,  .840

10. Gonzalez   .697

(Additional note: despite playing roughly 200 fewer innings than Gonzalez,  Pujols made more plays than Gonzalez according to RZR. And Pujols made 52 plays out of his zone — balls that he shouldn’t have gotten to, but did — compared to 35 by Gonzalez).

Dewan-James Plus-Minus System:

In this system, which is based on video review, fielders are judged on a simple premise: should they have made the play or not? And they are scored accordingly.

Well, in the National League, Pujols had a plus 20 rating among first basemen, the best in the league (not counting Mark Texeira, who was traded from Atlanta to the LA Angels).  Gonzalez, on the other hand, had one of the worst ratings among NL first basemen, a minus 6. How bad is that? Well, Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard, with a minus 2, rated ahead of Gonzalez.

Dewan recently gave Pujols the Fielding Bible Award for the third consecutive season, meaning that Pujols was considered the finest defensive 1B in either league.

Gonzalez has nice footwork around the bag. And based on what I saw in 2008 (and I watch a lot of baseball on the satellite), Gonzalez is smooth at scooping low throws. To an extent, the various ratings systems might be a little too hard on Gonzalez. But that said, he’s no Pujols. It isn’t really close.

It’s one thing for baseball writers to screw up the award voting; I’ve come to expect that. But how can the managers and coaches — who presumably know better — be so far off base?

Final thought: we could also made a case for the Cardinals’ Troy Glaus over the Mets’ David Wright at 3B.

Wright was the Gold Glove winner this time, and his considerable talent is beyond dispute.

But Glaus scored higher than Wright in Zone Rating. And Glaus was a plus 7 in the Dewan-James Plus-Minus system; Wright was a plus 3. And Glaus (7) committed fewer errors  than Wright (16).

Wright, however, got the edge over Glaus in the Revized Zone Rating system, .982 to .962.

It wasn’t the easiest year to evaluate NL third basemen on defense. Two of the fielders who scored the highest in various systems — ATL’s Chipper Jones and Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman — missed time because of injuries. And another smooth 3B, Philadelphia’s Pedro Feliz, started 106 games this season.

I don’t think it was outrageous to choose Wright over Glaus, but I think Glaus was better in 2008.

But the selection of Gonzalez over Pujols is absurd.

Thanks for reading …

-B