Nick Markakis wins Gold Glove

[AlbionHero]

I don't think there is any debate about someone like Dyson or Lough. You need to start and get 450+ abs to even be considered. You earn a gold glove through consistent reps, mentioning Dyson and Lough is a tangent that isn't even worth being talked about.

Remember when Palmeiro won a GG when he started 28 games at 1B?

[weams]

Take it from a guy who lives out here in Royals country, the year before last David Lough was the defensive specialist for the Royals. David Lough was (is) the best fielder among the Royals Outfielders. Gordon is an excellent LFer, Cain is good but not great in CF. Adam Jones is better than Cain. And Nick Markakis is light years ahead of Nori Aoki. Dyson has excellent speed and covers a lot of ground. Beyond that, he sucks at every other aspect of defensive OF. Offensively, he can run and he sucks in every other aspect.

In other words, what we saw was the best they could possibly do. Thanks for sharing.

[UpstateNYfan]

There were years here when many here complained when Nick didn't get the GG. Just congrats and move on.

[waroriole]

Why shouldn't a defensive replacement be eligible to win the gold glove? Isn't it supposed to go to the best fielder? Is there a whole list of other official criteria I don't know about? It is possible I have never looked up the voting guidelines.

I always thought it was implied that it go to a player who made the most defensive contributions throughout the season. If a guy plays 5 games, but makes 5 great plays, should he win?

[Reboulet'sStache]

In other words, what we saw was the best they could possibly do. Thanks for sharing.

I'd hope so. The idea that was their "B level" defensive play would be insane.

[weams]

I'd hope so. The idea that was their "B level" defensive play would be insane.

What I meant was they took all the chances for ten days and miraculously they came out winning on all of them. In the World Series, some of those balls dropped and Dyson's head and arm proved deficient. They are not as good as we are in the field.

[Frobby]

That isn't the logic being used. Unfortunately this board is full of "he is slow as molasses" type analysis that tends to follow a group-think approach. Nick is a very good right fielder for lots of reasons, but many on this board sees his lack of speed (which is overstated IMO, he is slightly slower than average) and discount all the other things. It's fine and I'm over trying to debate this here, but I certainly don't appreciate the mantra that anyone who thinks he is a good outfielder is some simple minded buffoon who looks at error total. It just isn't so.

Nick is a very good defensive player who helps the team in a lot of ways. Congrats Nick!

Couldn't have said it better. Nick makes no mistakes, catches anything he can dive or slide for, never bobbles grounders, makes the right throw accurately every time, plays caroms beautifully. He's just about perfect from a technical point of view. And yeah, he's a bit slow, but I agree with you that this is overstated.

[Frobby]

What I meant was they took all the chances for ten days and miraculously they came out winning on all of them. In the World Series, some of those balls dropped and Dyson's head and arm proved deficient. They are not as good as we are in the field.

They are very, very good. You need to give them more credit. All three of their GG winners were deserving repeat winners, and they have several other plus defenders.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Couldn't have said it better. Nick makes no mistakes, catches anything he can dive or slide for, never bobbles grounders, makes the right throw accurately every time, plays caroms beautifully. He's just about perfect from a technical point of view. And yeah, he's a bit slow, but I agree with you that this is overstated.

By his deficiencies being overstated, are you implying that he's much better than the metrics portray him then?

[Frobby]

By his deficiencies being overstated, are you implying that he's much better than the metrics portray him then?

I was referring to posters who overstate his lack of speed, not the metrics. However, I've always felt Nick was better than the advanced stats suggest, too. I'm not going to argue that point too strenuously, but I've always had a bit of skepticism about those metrics (not just for Nick, but in general). I feel that in 10 years we will be scoffing at the defensive metrics we were using in 2014 as field f/x comes into common use and the number crunchers really chew on that data. But only time will tell.

[CA-ORIOLE]

I was referring to posters who overstate his lack of speed, not the metrics. However, I've always felt Nick was better than the advanced stats suggest, too. I'm not going to argue that point too strenuously, but I've always had a bit of skepticism about those metrics (not just for Nick, but in general).

Ok, Fair enough.

I feel that in 10 years we will be scoffing at the defensive metrics we were using in 2014 as field f/x comes into common use and the number crunchers really chew on that data. But only time will tell.

Field f/x (or whatever they are calling it now) is already being used as far as I know. I think we'll continue to gain more precision, but I'm not sure what we have now will be deemed primitive or wholly innacurate by any means, particularly over large data frames. I'm sure we'll have much more data, but i'm not sure that will provide any more clarity. Maybe less with divergent methodologies and systems.

[Frobby]

Ok, Fair enough.

Field f/x (or whatever they are calling it now) is already being used as far as I know. I think we'll continue to gain more precision, but I'm not sure what we have now will be deemed primitive or wholly innacurate by any means, particularly over large data frames. I'm sure we'll have much more data, but i'm not sure that will provide any more clarity. Maybe less with divergent methodologies and systems.

Only three stadia were equipped with field f/x in 2014. Next year it's supposed to be all 30.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Only three stadia were equipped with field f/x in 2014. Next year it's supposed to be all 30.

Do you have a reference for that? I thought the weren't even calling it field f/x anymore.

[25 Nuggets]

I'm a little confused here. Who in the Royals OF are we comparing to Nick Markakis? 'Cause that should be Nori Aoki, the RF.

I don't think Kakes was the best defensive RF in the AL (Kole Calhoun) but he was surprisingly close enough, considering the bad metric reputation he has, and the award is certainly no crime. He was an above average defensive RFer in a league where there were very few of them.

Congrats!

[Loophole]

FIELDf/x is already in all 30 parks. Statcast is the new technology being expanded next season.