It's the "dog days of winter" if you're a baseball fan, player or coach. Most of us have another 2 months or so until we get into baseball full swing.
I've had 7 months to stew and it's the New Year so what the heck, here goes:
My son plays outfield for a decent program "west of the east coast" and is on one of the many teams that stress pitching and defense.
The Rawlings Gold Glove has been awarded to MLB players over 50 years and by it's own definition,"The Rawlings Gold Glove Award has been the benchmark by which all defense is measured". All three D3 outfield 2009 Gold Glove winners indeed had high fielding percentages. The player I'm referencing has 4.38 40 yard speed and can track down balls hit in the outfield better than anyone as evidenced by having more putouts than two of the three outfield Gold Glove winners. Same player had 11 outfield assists, which is almost twice as many as the three D3 outfield Gold Glove winners (6) combined.Division 3 plays a 40 game regular season schedule; extrapolate those 11 outfield assists to a full MLB schedule and that number skyrockets to 44 assists. I guess where he went wrong was having one more error (two) than the winning Gold Glove D3 right fielder (one)
If I'm a pitcher I'd want my outfielders to keep base runners from advancing to the next base, not an outfielder who is "playing it safe" hitting the cutoff man. (Using a football analogy, would you rather have a quarterback who threw for 8 touchdowns and 1 interception or a quarterback that threw for 35 touchdowns and 5 interceptions?)
In the future hopefully a coach would nominate a player on his team that warrants consideration for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, hopefully the Committee Chair and the 8 ABCA coach's who comprise the NCAA D3 Baseball Rawlings Gold Glove baseball selection commitee would consider all candidates equally and look at the merit of a strong accurate arm as well as a high fielding percentage , where all defense is measured. (Maybe that's why it's called the Rawlings Gold Glove and not the Rawlings Gold(en) Arm Award? For more info on the Rawlings Gold Glove Award go to: http://www.rawlingsgoldglove.com/
This player had 20 outfield assists (never committing more than 3 errors) the last 3 years, so in my mind and those that have seen his play, maybe he was deserving of this very prestigious award last season.
Happy New Year All!
I've had 7 months to stew and it's the New Year so what the heck, here goes:
My son plays outfield for a decent program "west of the east coast" and is on one of the many teams that stress pitching and defense.
The Rawlings Gold Glove has been awarded to MLB players over 50 years and by it's own definition,"The Rawlings Gold Glove Award has been the benchmark by which all defense is measured". All three D3 outfield 2009 Gold Glove winners indeed had high fielding percentages. The player I'm referencing has 4.38 40 yard speed and can track down balls hit in the outfield better than anyone as evidenced by having more putouts than two of the three outfield Gold Glove winners. Same player had 11 outfield assists, which is almost twice as many as the three D3 outfield Gold Glove winners (6) combined.Division 3 plays a 40 game regular season schedule; extrapolate those 11 outfield assists to a full MLB schedule and that number skyrockets to 44 assists. I guess where he went wrong was having one more error (two) than the winning Gold Glove D3 right fielder (one)
If I'm a pitcher I'd want my outfielders to keep base runners from advancing to the next base, not an outfielder who is "playing it safe" hitting the cutoff man. (Using a football analogy, would you rather have a quarterback who threw for 8 touchdowns and 1 interception or a quarterback that threw for 35 touchdowns and 5 interceptions?)
In the future hopefully a coach would nominate a player on his team that warrants consideration for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award, hopefully the Committee Chair and the 8 ABCA coach's who comprise the NCAA D3 Baseball Rawlings Gold Glove baseball selection commitee would consider all candidates equally and look at the merit of a strong accurate arm as well as a high fielding percentage , where all defense is measured. (Maybe that's why it's called the Rawlings Gold Glove and not the Rawlings Gold(en) Arm Award?
For more info on the Rawlings Gold Glove Award go to: http://www.rawlingsgoldglove.com/This player had 20 outfield assists (never committing more than 3 errors) the last 3 years, so in my mind and those that have seen his play, maybe he was deserving of this very prestigious award last season.
Happy New Year All!