MVP and Gold Glove considerations

[Southpaw Slim]

With only 5 to 10 games remaining in the season (dependent upon the number of double-headers), it's time to start thinking about who you want to be MVP of Season 2. So far, we've had an amazing year. Some particularly astounding accomplishments have occurred in the current season:

New Single Game RBI Record: 19 by Will Jackson

New Season HR Record: 12 by Will Jackson
New Season Web Gem Record: 5 by Scott Leathers

There were also some records tied this season, but it's impossible for me to decipher the PageBuilder format on the computer I'm using to find out which boxscores contain the info. I don't know if this happens to everyone, but the "word wrap" style makes it incomprehensible. Anyhow, the time is near for us to determine the Most Valuable Player of Season 2. Might I suggest that people keep in mind a person's value over the entire season. Some people have had particularly good single games, but have a low winning percentage.

Also, we've had an amazing number of Web Gems this season. While only playing half the number of games compared to last season, we still have 56% the number of Gems. In fact, here's the breakdown of all stats per game compared to last year:

AB: 91%
R: 103%
H: 97%
2B: 94%
3B: 132%
HR: 152%
RBI: 106%
TB: 105%
AVG: 106%
SLG: 115%
APS: 112%
K: 67%
WG: 113%

So there you have it.

[TheLegend]

I think we've been pretty liberal with the web gems. Most of the gems that were dished out last week were borderline routine plays... difficult, but at the same time routine... if that makes any sense.

If someone hits a ball and my first thought is "out", I'm usually not going to nominate anyone for a gem, regardless of how hard the play ends up looking. The inverse is of course also true. If someone hits a ball and my first instinct is "hit", and the batter ends up being out, it's very likely that the play was a gem.

I feel like both of the plays awarded web gems last week were a bit on the routine side.
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I do also think that we've all improved

[Pat K]

I only remember one of the gems, but I would have to agree with Ken. I would also say that it seems like(as far as I remember, and I usually don't) most of the nominations, and to a lesser degree the votes, come from the same handful of people.

[Baseball=Life]

It is possible not everyone knows they can nominate a play. Perhaps we should make that more well known at the beginning of games.

[retep]

I agree the gems have been very easy to get these days (the games I have been to). Whish those standards were around when I was playing more (and better!).

[Baseball=Life]

Well I can't believe you bastards are diminishing my gems. Especially since you weren't even present for most of them.

I have reviewed all of my Season 2 gems, and I made the following observations.

* The gems have gone down in quality a small bit, perhaps 85-90% the value of a Season 1 webgem, so, touche for noticing that

* The idea to track nominations is a good one---it's possible that favoritism is playing a role, ie someone always nominates a particular someone else. Easy to track.

* As for my Season 2 gems, they're all legit, with one possible exception. The webgem from SS where you range all the way out and make the sliding catch in short centerfield with your back to the infield. I've gotten 2 gems this way, one last week at Golden Gate, the other on 10/9. I personally think they are webgems. My other gems are ridiculous plays making throws from my knees in the hole at SS, or a rare sliding catch in front of home plate while playing offensive pitcher. Those types of gems are unassailable. I could see a discussion on the gem type I mentioned first though, the Mays style catch in CF by the SS.

*Another observation is we still aren't really capturing some of the best plays. I think we need to make special effort to keep throws, catches of thrown balls, and tags in mind. We seem to only think of catches from batted balls as webgem-eligible scenarios. For instance, I think when Ken made the perfect throw from Catcher to me at 3B to nail Shawn J. in the last live game (10/2), I think that was a webgem because it was such a perfect snap throw, right over the runner and right to the tagging area at 3B, for the pickoff. Or it's like that one game in Season one when I nailed Peter at home twice in one game from LF, but got not a single gem for it.