Of Bad Teams and Good Defense

Local sportswriter Bob Matthews has an interesting column today wherein he first ponders whether the 2007 Washington Nationals might end up being one of the worst baseball teams ever. They are currently 3-9, which is certainly a bad start. If they continue at that .250 pace, then yes, they would be one of the worst teams ever. He notes they don't have much in the way of talent, and I agree that 1B Nick Johnson (currently injured), 3B Ryan Zimmerman, and closer Chad Cordero the only three really interesting guys on the team at this point (the only three, at this time, that wouldn't be an embarassment as their rep for the all-star game).

Bob describes three other historically bad teams: 1904 Washington Senators 38-113 (.235) [he referred to them as "Nationals" rather than Senators], 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36-117, .235), and the 1962 New York Mets (40-120, .250). It would be tough to argue that there have been worse teams than these, at least in the modern (1901- era). Of course, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders take the all-time prize, as they posted a 20-134 (.130) record. Their top two pitchers posted records of 4-30 and 4-22, respectively. Ouch.

On a more positive subject, the next part of his column gives his take on the Rawlings 50th Anniversary Gold Glove Team. This is a fan vote to select the best fielder as each of the nine positions. He notes that the fans so far are doing a pretty good job too. He agrees with the fans on Keith Hernandez at 1B, Ozzie Smith at SS, Brooks Robinson at 3B, and Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Ken Griffey Jr. in the OF. At 2B I think Bob rightly prefers Bill Mazeroski defensively over Joe Morgan, the current top vote-getter. He likes Ivan Rodriguez over Johnny Bench at Catcher -- something I consider a tough call for sure! And he likes Bob Gibson over Greg Maddux at Pitcher.

I was interested to see how the guys on the ballot stack up in Gold Glove awards, and fortunately you can see a handy list of mutliple GG winners at Baseball-Reference.com (scroll down). At 1B George Scott has 8 gold gloves, but isn't on the ballot in favor of Vic Power (7), Bill White (7), Wes Parker (6), and J.T. Snow (6). All good fielders to be sure, but Scott seems to have gotten a snub here. At 2B the six on the ballot are all and only the guys who have 5 or more gold gloves at the position. At 3B it is nearly the same, with Ken Boyer (5) being on the ballot over Robin Ventura (6), and Doug Rader and Ron Santo also having 5 apiece. At SS the top 5 trophy winnters are on the ballot. Derek Jeter (3) is included over Tony Fernandez (4) and Alan Trammell (4), but he is still going strong and could easily get a few more GGs before he is done.

The cutoff for OF seems to be 6 gold gloves, as everyone who has 6+ is on the ballot with two exceptions. Barry Bonds has 8, and his absence is rather odd to me (perhaps Rawlings didn't want to include him because of the negativity swirling around Barry these days?). The other omission is more understandable, as Dwayne Murphy had 6 but two others who have 6 are still active (Ichiro, Torii Hunter), and the other Kirby Puckett had his career shortened by injury.

For Catchers, the top five winners are the five on the ballot, so I have no dispute there. And ditto for Pitchers, as the three on the ballot (Greg Maddux, Jim Kaat, and Bob Gibson) are the top three award winners as well.