Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Orlando Hudson, “Golden” Glove?

Sometimes democracy just doesn’t work. In this case, it’s because postseason awards, voted on by humans, are almost always insanely wrong. It’s with this in mind that I direct you to this scoop of a Tweet by AOL’s Jeff Fletcher:

The Gold Gloves are coming out today and Orlando Hudson is winning for NL 2B. That’s the only scoop I’ve got. #Dodgers #goldglove

Sure, it’s nice to see Dodgers winning awards. The only problem with this is that now whomever replaces Hudson at second base for the Dodgers next year is going to have to deal with the stigma of replacing a Gold Glove winner, and while Hudson has the reputation of a fantastic defensive player, the stats just don’t back it up.

Eleven National League second basemen played enough this season to qualify for the batting title. Hudson finished 7th in UZR, with a -3.3 (no typo, that’s a negative). If you look at the players he beat out in that category, you’ve got someone with an arm that makes Juan Pierre’s look like Matt Kemp’s (David Eckstein), a converted outfielder in his first year at 2B (Skip Schumaker), a slugger whose value is entirely in his bat (Dan Uggla), and a 34-year-old with bad legs (Luis Castillo). Expanding that to MLB as a whole, Hudson finishes 13th out of 20.

No, this award really ought to be going to Chase Utley, who’s not only the best hitting second baseman in baseball, but blew away the competition in the NL field as well. His UZR of 10.8 smokes the 7.8 of his nearest competitor, Felipe Lopez. Yet somehow, Hudson, finishing in the negatives in that category, is going to win the award.

You have to love the baseball writers, don’t you?

(Eric Stephen points out that the Gold Glove is actually voted on by managers and coaches. My mistake. Still, I’ll find a way to blame the baseball writers yet.)