It’s the day after the American League Gold Glove Award winners were announced, and that of course can mean only one thing. Well, make that two things: The NL winners will be unveiled today, as will our somewhat-annual Stone Glove Award winners. To determine the most deserving of the wretched honor, we based our quasi-scientific findings on a few fielding metrics (with a small dose of our own subjective observations), which are Fielding Pct., Range Factor, Zone Rating and Rate2.

We ranked all qualified fielders at each position in these stats and came up with some winners — well, make that losers. So without further ado, our 2006 American League Stone Glove Award winners, so bad that they make the Detroit pitching staff’s World Series performance look like a Tom Emanski instructional video.

FPCT: Fielding Pct.((PO + A) divided by (PO + A + E))
RF: Range Factor ((PO + A) divided by innings)
ZR: Zone rating. The percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive “zone,” as measured by STATS, Inc.
Rate2: The fielder’s rate of production, equal to 100 plus the number of runs above or below average this fielder is per 100 games. Rate2 incorporates adjustments for league difficulty and normalizes defensive statistics over time.

Catcher: Victor Martinez
Victor Martinez could be considered a top catcher — on a fantasy-league team, that is. Among the future first baseman’s qualifications for the Stone Glove are being worst among his peers in Zone Rating and Rate2, as well as as bottom-of-the-barrel fielding percentage. He even broke the century mark this year — in stolen bases allowed — while throwing out only 22 for an MLB-low 18% CS rate. Mike Piazza would be proud.

First Baseman: Paul Konerko
Coming into the season, one would’ve tabbed converted Catcher Chris Shelton as the odds-on favorite to win a Stone Glove at first base, but Paul Konerko didn’t disappoint. Proving that offensive numbers aren’t the only stats to plummet after a player signs a fat long-term contract, Konerko was worst among all first baseman in Zone Rating and had among the fewest assists, which could be forgiven if he was dealing with noted waddler David Wells covering first. The White Sox may want to reconsider who plays first and who DHes, and swap Konerko for Jim Thome.

Second Baseman: Jose Lopez
The Stone Glove at 2B was a race to the bottom between laterally-challenged Adam Kennedy and the inept Jose Lopez, who turned out to be only a slightly better fielder than George Lopez. Lopez trailed all American leaguers at the keystone base with an utterly uncommendable 87 Rate2.

Third Baseman: Alex Rodriguez
Our winner at third may have a bat made of silver, but Alex Rodriguez’s glove is made of stone. We hesitate to give Yankee fans and ARod haters across the country factual and just reason to boo the guy, but the numbers speak for themselves: first in the AL in errors, worst in Range Factor and worst in Zone Rating.

Shortstop: Yuniesky Betancourt
Traditionally, shortstops could justify their unremarkable work with the lumber by their flashy work with the leather. But what happens when a shortstop can do neither? The Royals’ Angel Berroa (.592 OPS) and the Mariners’ Yuniesky Betancourt (.713) will soon find out. Though the two are interchangeable in the field — their stats are similarly awful — we’ll give the edge to Betancourt, since he played more horrible innings. Plus, hasn’t Berroa got enough troubles with a middle name of Maria?

Outfield: Manny Ramirez
They say that the double play is the pitcher’s best friend. Manny Ramirez is his worst enemy. The perennial Stone Glover, Manny was being Manny in the field again this year, easily taking worst-place in Zone Rating and Rate2. In fact, his Zone Rating of .694 was the worst in all of baseball this season. If ever there was a born DH, it’s Man-Ram. Then again, he’s such a bad fielder that he’d probably find a way to make an error as a DH.

Outfield: Vladimir Guerrero
You can’t spell “Guerrero” without a couple of E’s, and Vladimir led both leagues in them despite playing only 126 games, returning to his place of dishonor he last held in 2003, when he led the leagues in errors and played in only 112 games. He may have a strong arm, but that just makes his overthrows sail farther.

Outfield: Michael Cuddyer
Cuddyer is making his first appearance on the SG team after highly unimpressive fielding in right field. He atoned for his above-average number of assists by keeping stationary in right so that Torii Hunter could make more plays. To Cuddyer, Range Factor is a knob on his kitchen stove.

Pitcher: Joe Blanton
Weighing 240 pounds, Blanton is ham-handed in perhaps more ways than one. Worst in Zone Rating and Rate2, and second-worst in Fielding %, Blanton’s concept of Zone Rating refers to how far he can reach across the pregame buffet table to nab some sandwiches.

This entry was posted by Pip on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 3:48 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.