MLB announced the American League Gold Glove winners yesterday, reminding all of us how truly peculiar it is. I'm curious, who exactly votes for Gold Glove winners? Is it writers? players/coaches? Some sort of independent panel? It doesn't really matter, as the whole award is widely considered a popularity contest and legacy award. If you don't believe me, ask Rob Neyer.
In all of this, Placido Polanco walked away with his 2nd Gold Glove (2007), which is great considering that he is an excellent fielder--definitely a top 3 kind of guy, but was probably not THE best 2nd baseman this year. Similarly, Curtis Granderson, who was one of the best 3 outfielders in 2007 and/or 2008 went home empty handed, but that's ok because he lost out to newcomer...Adam Jones? Listen, I like Adam Jones a lot, and think that he will go on to have an excellent career and has all the tools to develop into a bona fide defensive whiz. But he is not even close to there yet, highlight catches not withstanding. Franklin Gutierrez got screwed.
Behind the dish, Gerald Laird did this:
Laird, who started a career-high 123 games after the Tigers traded for him last winter, led AL catchers in a landslide by throwing out 42 percent (42-of-101) of runners who tried to steal on him. He also put up a .997 fielding percentage by committing three errors in 925 total chances, also tops in the league, and posting a league-high 78 assists. Only Chicago's A.J. Pierzynski turned more double plays (eight) than Laird (seven).
Further Tiger-centric analysis here, here and here
[Ed.-there was a Eddie Murphy as James Brown video here that I couldn't figure out how to not autoplay, so I deleted it. You're welcome.]
According to a 1-2 punch of Jon Paul Morosi and Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports, Edwin Jackson is on the trading block. That's a lot of hot stove heat for only being a week removed from the World Series. Again, your Tiger Blog Trio does a killer job of analysis on this.
My 2 cents, having read through the article: The Tigers aren't trying to trade Jackson, but are letting people know that he is not necessarily off limits. As an All-Star, coming off the best season of his career, there is reason to believe that he can be an excellent major league starter, despite his late-season fade. That being said, the Tigers aren't just going to take what they can get for him--he is a cheap, high quality option with long-term benefit to the team, and they would need some cheaper, younger options in return.
This move does not work as a payroll dump, but it would work if they tried to package Jackson in with a high-salary player a la the Josh Beckett + Mike Lowell trade (or Miguel Cabrera + Dontrelle Willis, for that matter). Jackson is a good pitcher priced below market value through 2011--enough so that another team may be willing to take on a larger for one year to get him. I like Jackson, and I'd like to see him stay in Detroit--aka I don't want him to feel like the team is trying to get rid of him. However, I'm ok listening to what other teams might be willing to offer in trade.
About Those Checklist Galleries
You've seen them around, no? This was that big thing that I alluded to a few days ago. I have been working all year at keeping a checklist of Detroit Tigers in every baseball card release. The ultimate goal was to make a comprehensive Tiger card database that is a little easier to follow and use as a checklist than some of the other things that are out there. To supplement this, I've started to make these galleries, to do what I really wanted to all along--get a visual checklist of these sets. Both the checklists and the checklist galleries will be updated from here to infinity and will move retroactively when I have enough time to do so.
As for the galleries themselves: they will all follow the same basic format. Base set, Inserts, Relics, Autographs, various special cards etc. Parallels are not included. Parallels are the bane of my existence. I may make a separate gallery for parallel sets that I collect (e.g. Topps Gold, A&G Minis etc.), but they are not at the core of what I'm doing. If you want to see what all the parallels are, just look at the master checklist--they're all there.
Hits In Blogville
Not a bad week for fellow bloggers.
First Dan at Saints of the Cheap Seats Pulls This:
Heck, even frequent high-end box buster Gellman at Sports Cards Uncensored had The Box Break Of [His] Life.
Misc. Topps loses its football license, which doesn't really impact me, but boo. Do all of these exclusivity agreements remind anyone else of Addyston Pipe & Steel v. United States (1898)? Just me? It smells like fishy backroom dealings to me is all. I Am Joe Collector is doing exclusive card promotions with Blowout. The first one is this afternoon. Need a fix? You can always grab cards on the go at Wawa.
