The American League Gold Glove winners were named yesterday and, as usual, there seems to have been little regard for, you know, fielding.  Rob Neyer acknowledges that the awards are a joke:

Shockingly, the voters selected MVP candidates Joe Mauer, Mark Teixeira, and Derek Jeter, all of whom were probably solid defensively but might not have been the best fielders in the league (my choices at those positions were Gerald Laird, Kevin Youkilis, and Elvis Andrus). At second base, the voters chose Placido Polanco because he made only two errors all season. Polanco is a pretty good second baseman, but nowhere near as good as Dustin Pedroia, who won the award last year (and, coincidentally enough, was also the American League’s MVP).

In the outfield, the voters had to choose both Torii Hunter and Ichiro Suzuki, because both had won eight straight Gold Gloves and everybody knows that if you’ve won eight you automatically deserve to win nine. Fortunately, the voters were wise enough to make room for an exciting young outfielder who burst upon the scene in 2009 with some of the most brilliant defense we’ve seen in center field since the heyday of Andruw Jones.

I am referring, of course, to the stupendously amazing Franklin Gutierrez, who … Wait, what? They didn’t vote for Franklin Gutierrez, who spent the entire season catching everything in sight and racking up phenomenal numbers?

Anyone who uses Gold Glove Awards as an argument for a player’s defense should be punched in the face.  There’s pretty much zero correlation between the winners and actual defensive prowess.  To see  my point, all you have to do is go back to 1999 when Rafael Palmeiro won the Gold Glove…after playing just 28 games at first base!  Amazing, right?  If you’re discussing a player’s credentials, a Gold Glove carries about as much weight as the World’s Best Grandpa Award.  It’s like arguing that a musician is good because they’ve won a Grammy.

[ESPN]