Three thoughts ...

• On first read, I saw OF Adam Jones and misread it as "Andruw," which really threw me!
• Ichiro is going to win every year until he retires. He could go all Kal Daniels on the field and win on rep alone. But yes, he deserves it right now!
• Tex is the best-fielding first baseman since Keith Hernandez, maybe since Wes Parker. (That's opinion, of course -- go ahead, Mags, correct me!)

 

Tex is the best-fielding first baseman since Keith Hernandez, maybe since Wes Parker.
Well, in the past 3 years, Teixeira is a whopping 9th (out of 18) out of qualified firstbasemen. Given that those who are truly bad at playing first won't make a list like that, he's solidly above average. But from what I have seen, Overbay is better, as are a number of other guys. I know UZR doesn't cover everything for 1B (like digging throws, I think), but that's not enough of a major difference between players to catch up to someone like Pujols or Helton (who are also awesome at picking throws). If the media weren't forced to focus on his glovework in the playoffs (thanks to sucking with the bat, why were they so obsessed with his glove?), I wouldn't have even guessed he had a great rep at first base, the least important defensive position of all. Maybe he makes a lot of diving plays others make standing up, and gets the "looks good out there" votes...

Gold Gloves - blah. Of all the post-season "official" hardware, it's the one that I don't care about at all. Hunter/Jones/Ichiro outfield is remarkably mediocre. Jones and Hunter over Crawford and Gutierrez? Sure....

Tex is the best-fielding first baseman since Keith Hernandez, maybe since Wes Parker.

Sean Forman wrote a piece at the NY Times web site in which he compared Teixeira to Ryan Howard.

Jeter is and always be a defensive liability at short stop.   When they drafted A-Rod they put the wrong SS at third.  If he's the best defensive short stop in the A.L., the rest truly suck?

What AWeb said.  According to UZR, Hunter has been below average every year of the last 4.  A good rule of thumb is that a 34 year old centerfielder should not be a GG winner.  The exception would be Willie Mays.  And to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, Hunter is no Willie Mays.

I'm not sure where to put this, but the Jays and Mariners are discussing a deal for Overbay:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/10353396/Wednesday%27s-buzz-from-the-GM-meetings

I wonder who the Jays are looking at acquiring from the M's.

The Mariners are neofiating with Russell Branyan.  Branyan wants a multi-year deal, the M's offered a one-year deal.

So the Overbay rumour is either the M's showing Branyan that there are other options to increase their leverage, or they think they might not be able to sign Branyan and need a plan B.  It's hard to say which it is.

It's amazing how Texeira's defence has gone from underrated to overrated within 8 months. AWeb got it right, as usual, the Gold Gloves are mostly a joke and probably hit on the right couple of names out of chance as much as anything else. Guttierez and Crawford got robbed, as Mark Ellis did for about the previous four years, as Inge has and so on.

The NL awards have come out and O-Dog got an award. The award probably should have gone to Utley, but Hudson was a fantastic second baseman for about three years and is still reasonbly good, so at least this wasn't a glaring mistake.

thomas, while i haven't looked at the numbers recently, i seem to recall hudson now being below average, and utley being far above. it's to the point that yes, he did get ripped off. but at least they picked someone who used to be amazing.

Yeah, sometimes these awards end up being career awards.  Either a career award for a guy who was great with the glove but not with the bat, or an award for a guy great with the bat and so-so with the glove.  Then you get guys like Jeter who are just loved deeply by the press. 

What is funny is that I recall reading that Jeter was actually having a really good year with the glove this year thus he might have almost earned it this year - or was just the blind squirrel finding a few nuts.

OK.  Mike Cameron vs. Torii Hunter.  Cameron was a great, great defensive centerfielder in his youth, maybe not Willie Mays but in the rough vicinity.  He has aged extremely well, and if you believe UZR or TZ, was the best defensive centerfielder in the NL in 2008 and 2009 (admittedly against a weak field).  Hunter was a good to very good centerfielder in his youth before his knee injury robbed him of some of his speed; he is now a below average defensive centerfielder.  Hunter gets a GG (his ninth) and Cameron does not (he has three). 

The offensive equivalent would be to give Ellsbury the AL Silver Slugger and to not give Kemp the NL Silver Slugger.

I LOVE the Gold Gloves awards! What other award seems to annually create such an entertaining dichotomy; the truly vapid selections countered by the musings of the enlightened masses:

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/11/10/this-years-gold-glove-ripoff/

Teixeira is quite good, but I suspect that one of the things that makes him look really good is the vivid memory of Jason Giambi wearing that uniform and that number.

Jeter deserves his Gold Glove about as much as Hunter or Polanco. He was a good defensive player this year, but there were better choices.

Jeter certainly isn't a defensive liability, not anymore. That seems like a pretty remarkable thing - he is 35, after all, and defenders often peak earlier in their lives than hitters. I have anecdotal memories of people claiming that guys like Mark Belanger and Frank White were actually better in their mid-30s because they knew so much more about positioning than they did when they were younger. Not sure how true it is, and Jeter's improvement is largely a function of improving his footwork and his athleticism anyway.

OT:

Tigers said to be willing to discuss Granderson.

I propose a three way deal in which the Jays get Granderson + one or two prospects, third team gets Doc and Tigers get prospects from third team.

!!

Granderson would be an upgrade in CF, but despite the rhetoric I don't see AA  taking any salary back and Granderson is coming up on his expensive years. 

I am quite happy to hear that AA isn't opposed to trading Halladay within the division.  Halladay for Jackson and Hughes, or Halladay for Lowrie and Buchholz would be alright with me!  I hope it's not the Yankees though.  Halladay is my all-time favourite player and I'll quietly cheer for whichever team gets him, but it's easy to cheer for the Red Sox (I was a Bruin and Red Sox fan as a kid and I'm Irish), but would it ever be tough to cheer for the Yankees.

If we are cursed to see Roy in a Yankee uniform then we can cheer him on and hope the Yanks bullpen blows it in the 9th or that they lose 4 out of 5 games - all but Doc's starts.

we can cheer him on and hope the Yanks bullpen blows it in the 9th

You plan on kidnapping Mo and stashing him in your basement?

After a slow start in Mesa, David Cooper has put up a .359/.444/.513 slash line in his last ten AFL games.

Cooper, Bradley Emaus, Rei Gonzalez and Rob Ray seem to be having decent enough performances in Arizona.

BA has a subscriber-only article linked on their front page about the Jays "being patient with Aherns" or some such.

If you are a subscriber, I'd love to have some insight into who said what about him.

The story is by Larry Millson, his regular minor league update for the print edition of BA.  All the story says is that they pushed Ahrens and Jackson too fast and they need to slow down and keep them in high A for another year but they still like the players.

"We were spoiled with Travis Snider and his ability to move fast through the system," said assistant general manager Tony LaCava, whose new duties include overseeing player development. "Most guys need to spend time, and sometimes they need to spend two years at a level. Every guy is different and we have to look at it case by case."

In the story Millson makes the big error of talking of Ahrens playing in Jupiter last season.  And while I am on this topic I have to say I am less than impressed by Millson's stories.  I feel he calls up the front office and asks for the most obvious story, usually at a high level, and writes it up.  I don't think I ever find anything new or interesting in his bi-weekly pieces.

Magpie, Total Zone has Belanger's defensive peak at ages 31-34, White's peak at ages 33-36 (!), and Bordick's peak at ages 31-33.  Knowledge gained from experience is likely more important for the defensive capabilities of a middle infielder than for a centerfielder. 

It is true that Jeter's improvement resulted from an increase in athleticism, but his defensive issue (the lack of mobility in one particular direction) is easier to fix for a 35 year old than the loss of speed for a centerfielder.

All's quiet on the B.B. front, waiting for the A.A.'s next move.   Which of the 12 relievers will stay, and which will be traded; which of the 11 starters will stay, and which will be traded?   Who else will be traded?   It's just starting to get interesting.

And while I am on this topic I have to say I am less than impressed by Millson's stories. I feel he calls up the front office and asks for the most obvious story, usually at a high level, and writes it up. I don't think I ever find anything new or interesting in his bi-weekly pieces.

Yes. Millson was the worst writer at the G&M while he was there. His baseball pieces always read as though they were pieced together from scraps with no flow or insight.

Jeter's selection doesn't leave much mystery about who'll win the AL MVP.

Gold Glove awards are (poorly) voted on by the managers or coaches, who do not overlap at all with the voters for the MVP award (Baseball Writers Association of America).  There should be no correlation between Jeter's Gold Glove, and Mauer's MVP.

While I'm here, and can rant about poor choices, Teixeria over Youkilis, Polanco over Pedroia, Jeter over Andrus, and Hunter and Jones over Gutierrez are all terrible choices. 

Although there wasn't any gold for the Jays, they did collect two shiny pieces of silver, which were bestowed upon Adam Lind and Aaron Hill.

I wish I could stop seeing lines like these when talking about Aaron Hill:

"Hill's 36 homers and 108 RBIs set franchise marks for single-season production by a middle infielder. "

Tony Batista hit  41 HR for the Jays in 2000.  114 RBI's too. 

I would've given the GG for 2B to our own Aaron Hill. He was 2nd in RZR and first in double plays turned and out of zone plays (see Hardball Times for the stats).

Batista was a third baseman in 2000.

Except Tony Batista was at third base in 2000, not the middle infield. He played SS in 1999 with 26 HR and 79 RBI over just 98 games, then the Jays decided to move him to third to make space for Alex Gonzalez coming off injuries. Batista was, like Rios, lost via waivers - making $3.3 mil that year then $4.9 the next and $6.4 the year after that with an OPS+ of 87-105-73 over those 3 years. An 86 in his final year (2007) was as high as he'd get after that.

The 2009 American League Gold Glove Awards have been "handed" out

Did everyone get that?  Insert laugh here! That's the kind of writing that keeps Bauxites coming back for more!  ;D 

Well that just goes to show how the memory starts to betray you.  I remember when we got him he played SS for us.  Totally forgot the shifted him over to 3rd base the following year...

Jeter's selection doesn't leave much mystery about who'll win the AL MVP.

Never been any mystery. It'll be Mauer. Jeter will be 2nd or 3rd.

You're probably right.  But only because Teixeira and Jeter will split the Yankee votes.  My guess is that Teixeira's and Jeter's 1st place votes in total will exceed Mauer's. 

In 2003, Jeter finished 2nd to Mauer's 6th in the MVP voting (2003 was Mauer's best season prior to 2009).  Jeter's 2009 was probably better relative to his 2003 than Mauer's 2009 was relative to his 2003.  However, in 2003, it was Morneau and Mauer vs. Jeter.  This year, it'll be Teixeira playing the Morneau role (the RBI champ 1st baseman).

I disagree that Mauer wins "only because Teixeira and Jeter will split the Yankee votes."  The most likely reason (to me, anyway) is that Joe Mauer hit .365/.444/.587 as a good-to-excellent fielding catcher.  (You may pick apart his fielding, or that runners stole 74% of their attempts against him, but I'd say he's at worst above average.)  It'll be a shame if your guess about Yankee first place votes is correct.